By Emirhan Aydinoglu
Hello, Joker: Folie à deux ( I really need to start learning French) came out last Friday and I wanted to talk about it. The first movie was directed by Todd Philips. It won 2 Oscars and was a major box office success. If you did not see the first movie please close your eyes and ears because I might spoil a few things. I saw the first movie back in 2019, when I was 14 and I had to convince the staff to get in because I was under 18 so shoutout to that guy! The theater was packed and it was a great experience. As you can tell, I really liked the first movie but found the ending a bit weak and off putting. I wanted to roll my eyes to the fact that they pulled out the ‘’did it happen or was the guy crazy?’’ card but maybe they did turn that around in the second movie so I will not dive deep into that. Phoenix was amazing, I don’t think I needed to say that. The soundtrack was really good and it had a good script that was filled with references from Taxi Driver and King Of The Comedy. Maybe Todd is a big Scorsese fan? As much as I appreciated the first movie, I was disappointed by the fact that a sequel was coming out and was afraid they were trying to milk the cash cow.
Lady Gaga is in a Joker sequel?
Last year, I learned that Lady Gaga would be the co-star of Phoenix and frankly I was skeptical as we saw many singers who got into acting and fell short in the past. But she was pretty good in ‘’A star is born’’ and my skeptics mostly disappeared. Nevertheless, a Joker musical that stars Gaga is definitely a bold move by the director Todd Philips but I kinda dig bold moves. From what I have seen from the trailers, it looks really good visually and Joaquin and Gaga seem to have a good chemistry overall.
Umm… Early Critics?
I know the first movie was not met well with critics either and it was quite divisive. So, maybe we should not be surprised that critics…. Well, not the biggest fan of Joker: Folie à Deux. IGN says, the worst thing about Joker: Folie à Deux is its unfulfilled potential. The film begins with the promise of a novel approach to the Joker and Harley Quinn, placing them in a world where the opposite of cruelty is musical romance. However, there are some critics that found the movie good overall as well. Empire magazine gives it 4 stars out of 5 and calls it as sweet and beguiling a musical romance as it’s possible to have between two murderous psychopaths. Hopefully, I will try to see the movie as soon as possible and will share my thoughts. But for now, we have to cling to words of critics which do differ… A lot. Nevertheless, one thing seems to be certain: This movie will bore some people and delight others. I hope to be a part of the latter.