The following article contains major spoilers for the ending of Joker: Folie à Deux . Is Joker really a Batman film? Well, yeah, sure: it's set in the Batman universe, Bruce Wayne appears as an adorably stoic kid, and it's framed as the origin story of the Caped Crusader's greatest nemesis, here reimagined as a failed comic called Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix). But much has already been made about how it has more in common with the Scorsese movies it borrows from — namely 1976's Taxi Driver , and especially 1982's The King of Comedy — with its Gotham that might as well be ‘70s New York, slathered in grime and grit.
More broadly, Joker 's approach to the Batman lore is half-in, half-out, only vaguely resembling its source material. The same can be said of Joker: Folie à Deux , which adds more characters from the Batman universe, but essentially in name only — not least Lady Gaga's Harleen “Lee” Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, the Joker's comic book beau. (She hasn't much in common with the Quinn that is most familiar in pop culture, aside from a deranged obsession with Fleck's Joker persona, and an off-hand comment that she has a degree in psychiatry.
) A fresh-faced version of Harvey Dent, played by Industry 's Harry Lawtey, also appears, here as Gotham's up-and-coming Assistant District Attorney who goes about prosecuting the case against Fleck to make a name for himself. Lawtey puts in a fine, fairly down tempo performance distinct from, say, Aaron Eckhart in The.
