Joker: Folie à deux shows the time after the prequel, Arthur being imprisoned. Arthur was imprisoned due to the charge of murdering 5 people, as he murdered in the prequel. In the prison, Arthur oddly lives a better life than before. Now Arthur gets a lot of attention in the prison, mostly in good ways. Arthur gets some special treatment to be shaved, cut the line, and smoke from the prison guards. Inside the prison, Arthur is living his life, and outside, Arthur’s lawyer and prosecutors are getting ready to judge Arthur in trial. While these days are going, Arthur finds Lee, who is one of the prisoners in different areas of prison and mad follower of Joker, then falls in love with her.
After a few meetings with Lee in the music program of prison, Lee arsons the prison to escape with Joker when they watch a movie in the music program, but they failed and Arthur has been locked in solitary confinement. But even though Arthur was locked in solitary confinement, Lee comes to Arthur and has sex. After that, Arthur is standed to court, where his lawyer persuades Arthur to be acquitted by saying that he has an identity disorder. But after the first trial, Lee comes to Arthur again and says that she is pregnant, and encourages him to be the Joker, the symbol of people’s rage and desire of chaos.
This provokes Arthur to be the Joker again, and Arthur starts to be the Joker publicly, in the trial. But when Arthur’s friend who is also socially disadvantaged, Gary Puddles testifies that Arthur was the one good friend, but now himself is in fear of death after Arthur’s murder before his eyes. This shock’s Arthur’s mind and he starts to think about himself, Lee, and their baby. This leads Arthur to stop being the Joker as he afraids the fact that he can ruin his baby and Lee’s life, and goes to Lee to talk about living a normal life. But Lee does not listen to Arthur anymore, and leaves, and Arthur is sent to prison again. After that, when Arthur’s lawyer came to meet Arthur, he was murdered by another prisoner, painfully. Through this masterpiece, the director suggests people to think again about cynical relationships in these modern days.
Joker: Folie à deux is a movie directed by Todd Phillips. Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga were the lead actors of the movie. Joaquin Phoenix was an actor of the same character of previous movie, “Joker” or “Arthur Fleck”, then casted as a Joker again. Lady Gaga, who is actually a famous musician, was casted as “Lee Quinzel”, who is the love interest of Arthur in the movie. Joker: Folie à deux was first revealed at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2024, then released on October 4, 2024. From the release of the movie, the critics were divided, and not well-received by more than half critics.
Major opinions about the movie are that a movie based on a DC Comics character, did not have a reasonable plot about a character, which is aspects of supervillain, and the trailer of the movie was made to look like Joker, as a supervillain, would cause a great chaos in the movie, which is never the plot of the actual movie to trick the people. Joker: Folie à deux barely made a profit of 200 million dollars, that reaches only half of break-even point, which is not surprising as the critics of the movie were overall not good. But even though the critics were bad and it failed to reach the break-even point, it is a great movie, worth watching.
Through the movie, an expression of Arther’s anger towards the world, “Joker” is both hated and supported by different kinds of people. Joker was criticized by Harvey Dent, and many poor citizens wore a Joker mask and showed their support of Joker. Even though many people were focused on the Joker, nobody was interested in the Arther. Even Harleen(Lee), a mad fan of Joker, only cared about the “Joker” inside the Arther. Harleen was disappointed and left the court when Arther identified himself as “human Arther,” and denied himself as a Joker. After all the lawyers, poor people, and Lee, viewers are one of those who do not care about Arther, but Joker. Many people predicted this movie to include the story of Joker and Lee creating great chaos in Gotham city, but in the movie, viewers found the Arther who is poor, weak, and confused, rather than a Joker in madness causing chaos. By the death of Arther in the last scene, Arther became the person who can not take the madness, just an incomplete human as others, with a tragic circumstance, died alone, never wanted.
By indicating Joker was also just one human, the movie suppose the viewers are the same as followers of Joker, and those followers are the same people as Arthur. People who just want to fulfill the desire to watch Joker destroy Gotham, and live a normal life where at least somebody cares for them as a human. This means anybody would be “Joker” if they had the desire that Arthur has, in the environment of where Arthur was. Beyond the movie, this perspective gives a message that the incident that Joker was made, is a comedy that is just an entertaining story, a tragedy that might happen to anybody, and a warning of the appearance of Joker. Arthur was not mad enough to fully become a Joker and died as a Arthur, but if somebody is mad enough to become a “Joker” in real life, that will not be a comedy but only a tragedy as Holocaust. By noticing that anybody, including ourselves, can be “Joker,” we can make a world a little better with a little bit of kindness, love, and respect, for our friend, family, and our own safety.
In conclusion, using a movie as a tool to give a message is not easy, and it is a masterpiece as it happens. Through the movie Joker: Folie à deux, the boundary of movie and reality is broken, the viewer becomes the same person as the crowd in the movie. This synchronization gives warning about the cynical madness of these modern days. Even though it did not receive well-critics, this movie is a work of art worth more than it evaluated.
By: Jimin Kim
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