Joker: Folie a Deux - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
Can I have a show of hands for everyone that not only wanted a sequel to Todd Phillip’s Joker, but one that’s part courtroom drama, part musical, and part Todd Phillips actively trying to destroy the character he created in the first movie because he wanted to play a joke on all of the people who idealized his character from the first movie. Yeah, that’s pretty much what I expected, crickets all the way around. But here we go, a box office film that was supposedly forced on Phillips after the success of the 2019 surprise hit by the powers that be, and magically turned into one of the year's biggest box office bombs, barely breaking even with the $200 million budget (which is technically a loss, as the $206 million it made was gross, not net).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I went into Joker: Folie a Deux with an open mind hoping that this was one of those films that subverted people’s expectations, and they were simply off because of it. I mean, I’m the guy who loves Alien 3, didn’t think Wonder Woman 1984 was that bad, and really REALLY liked the first movie. I know that sequels rarely live up to the hype of the original, but there’s usually enough fun left in them to enjoy despite the mild letdown. Needless to say, that’s not what we got here with Phillip’s taking everything he made fun of in the first movie, and simply lighting it on fire ala Lee Quinzel’s setting a piano on fire in the film.

The film starts a year or so after Joker’s (Joaquin Phoenix) infamous assassination of 5 people on live TV and setting Gotham City ablaze with the fires of anarchy as they found a new “hero” in the destructive force that was Arthur Fleck/Joker. He’s stuck in Arkham Asylum as a beaten man. Gone is the Joker persona. Gone are the laughs, and poor Arthur just seems listless as he waits until his inevitable trial when they consider him sane enough to stand on the bench for his crimes. That is until he meets Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), an institutionalized arsonist who creates some sparks within that husk of a man left inside the Asylum. Quinzel gives him the desire to fight for his life on the stand, and soon enough fight in the streets as they murder people in a crime spree worthy of his “Joke” moniker.

However, the film seems to literally give a middle finger to all that came before it. I was never one of those people that idolized the Joker’s character from the 2019 film. He was a mentally troubled character who was driven to do horrible things by his own anger at what society had done to him (in his mind). It was a perfect juxtaposition of contradictory ideas where you both sympathized with Arthur Fleck, but also understood that his pity party “look at what they did to me?!” was done to himself by himself and the abuse he suffered growing up. He was a pitiable character that you understood was a psychotic murderer, but one that was HUMANIZED nonetheless.

Todd now seems intent on tearing down the character, as he lets Lee Quinzel (wink wink, of course) manipulate Arthur, makes him believe he’s special, then betrays him in the end when she gets what she wants. Not only that, Arthur is once more the kick toy of everyone in the film, AND from the director himself. He’s toyed with, brutalized, laughed at by the characters in the film and the audience, then left to get murdered in prison as they hint at possibly another character being the actual Gotham City Joker that is the arch nemesis of Batman. Sure, I get that Arthur was never meant to be the REAL Joker, or else this was an Elseworlds film, but systematically destroying your titular character at the same time? It feels like either Todd Phillips really was trying to “show the chuds and incels the middle finger” as so many people have bandied about, or else he just didn’t care and did something to subvert expectations “just cuz”.

Honestly, this was the worst part of the entire film. I know a lot of people got up in arms about it being a musical, or the fact that it was mostly a courtroom drama, but that was a completely benign portion of the film. I didn’t expect there to be THAT MUCH courtroom drama, but it worked. And even the Musical bits weren’t too bad. Lady Gaga can sing and she played Harley Quinn’s (errrr, Lee Quinzel) nutzo type character to a T. It’s just that it really feels like Todd Phillips tore down the very character he built for no apparent reason, and simply threw it out there, which explains the press that it’s met with the last 6 months or so.




Rated R for some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity.




4K Video: Video:

Being that Joker and Joker: Folie a Deux shared the same director and the same cinematographer it’s pretty much a given that both films will look nearly identical aesthetics-wise. The film sports that same strong blue/green tinge with heavy blacks and dull desaturated colors all the way around. There are splashes of red (such as Arthur’s face paint), or other minor coloring but the majority of the film is HEAVILY muted and looks rather dulled. That being said, clarity is razor sharp and clean, with no signs of artifacts or the more dreaded color banding. I sadly don’t have the Blu-ray to compare this 4K disc against, but it’s a VERY solid looking disc that borders on perfection.







Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track, on the other hand, is frankly superb with no flaws that I can pinpoint. Which, like its predecessor, absolutely sucks you into the film with an immersive sound that comes at you from all angles. Whether it’s the cries of the inmates echoing off the walls of the asylum, or Arthur and Lee’s singing together as they rise to the top of their imagined game, the sound is just full three-dimensional with cues shifting around you at varying angles. Overheads get some great usage during the courtroom drama sequences, and the prison yard fight showcases more than a few overhead discrete sounds. Bass is punchy and accurate, never over the top, but seriously weighty when needed.





Extras:

• Everything Must Go (4 Part Longform Documentary)
-- Can I Have A Cigarette?
-- Finding Lee
-- A Hundred Films In One
-- King of Nothing
• The Character Of Music
• Live! With The Joker
• Colors Of Madness
• Crafted With Class







I really wanted to like Joker: Folie a Deux. I like bad films, and I usually find that the films that get lambasted the most on social media are way more worthy of praise than the internet tells us they are, but this was not one of those times. It’s a decent enough film in theory, but in practice, and compared to the previous film, this is a HUGE letdown. The 4K UHD disc is pretty solid though, with absolutely great audio/video, and solid middle-of-the-road extras. That being said, this is the type of film I would highly suggest renting before buying, but fans should be very pleased with Warner’s home video release.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Katherine Keener, Harry Lawtey
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Written by: Scott Silver, Todd Phillips, Bob Kane
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, French, Spanish DD 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 138 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 17th, 2024

Sonnie Parker said:

I will NOT be watching it, not ever! I refuse to waste my time.

I appreciate you confirming my suspicions.

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the entire time I was watching I kept repeating to myself "but why?".....and this is coming from the guy who gave the original film a 4.5/5