Let's put on a happy face, at least to start, for "Joker: Folie à Deux." If there's one undeniably compelling thing about both Todd Phillips' divisive 2019 original and his new follow-up, it's that these movies are best when they dance. The first movie might have been a muddled attempt to retrofit a "Taxi Driver"-styled '70s realism into a Joker origin story, but, man, when Joaquin Phoenix is on his toes, it's hard to look away.
Just the image of a gaunt Phoenix decked out in the red suit, with his green-streaked hair slicked back, was enough to give "Joker" a kick. The role gave Phoenix, a full-bodied actor, a day-glo canvas on which to unleash torrents of movement, cycling between wounded restraint and flamboyant release, in a comic-book genre that usually leaves performers paralyzed by spandex. He's nearly as captivating in "Joker: Folie à Deux," a musical that closely follows the events of the first film as an imprisoned Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) goes on trial for the murders that occurred at the culmination of "Joker.
" Even the way Phoenix theatrically smokes as Arthur — which he does quite a lot in "Folie à Deux" — shows you how much he's luxuriating in the limber physicality of the character. But any sense of forward momentum has gone out the window in "Joker: Folie à Deux," which opens in theaters Thursday. Phillips has followed his very anti-hero take on the Joker with an a very anti-sequel.
It combines prison drama, courthouse thriller and musical, and yet .
