'Joker: Folie à Deux' Review: A Self-Loathing And Self-Sabotaging Sequel

Lady Gaga can't save a lethargic slog of a follow-up which defiantly withholds anything that might entertain comic book fans, Little Monsters or musical theater nerds.

Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
138 minutes
rated R (strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity)
Directed by Todd Phillips
Written by Scott Silver and Todd Phillips
Produced by Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Joseph Garner
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener
Cinematography by Lawrence Sher
Edited by Jeff Groth
Music by Hildur Guðnadóttir
A Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, Joint Effort film
Opening theatrically the week of October 4 from Warner Bros. Discovery

Todd Phillips and Scott Silver’s Joker: Folie à Deux is arguably the mother of all self-loathing tentpoles. It isn’t just a franchise follow-up laced with despair (Matrix Resurrections and/or disapproval (Jurassic World) that the IP in question has been resurrected. It’s not merely disdainful of the fanbase (Scream V) that would want another ride. The self-loathing tentpole has become a mini-trend as more once-successful brands have been dug out of storage primarily due to Hollywood’s IP for IP’s sake mentality and/or the rights changing hands. However, Joker 2 takes a slightly different route, offering up not more of the same but a willful refusal to give the audience what they want or anything resembling of-the-moment entertainment value. It is so violently offended by its predecessor’s success that it is a 138-minute running joke pranking the audience that would show up either because they wanted a Joker follow-up or because they wanted an R-rated comic book musical crime melodrama.