Joker Sequel Unsurprisingly Bombs At Venice Film Festival
As the sequel to one of the worst movies of the century (perhaps only surpassed by Everything Everywhere All At Once), is anyone surprised that Joker: Folie a whatever sucks ass? An insufferable cast performing musical numbers at a murder trial in a comic book movie directed by the douchiest director of all time (Hangover 3, anyone?) was always going to bomb, but maybe there were some diehard dipshits out there who thought it would be as “good” as the original. Joke’s on them. Excerpts from reviews after the movie was screened tonight in Venice.
So how does Phillips reconcile Joker with Arthur Fleck? How does he wrestle his misunderstood character study away from the idea that it wasn’t first and foremost a work of mass entertainment? With an excruciatingly — perhaps even deliberately — boring sequel that does everything in its power not to amuse you.
But the blame also goes to Phillips, who shows little ingenuity in his staging. Neither euphoric nor edgy, sentimental or sarcastic, the musical sequences reside in an unsatisfying, indifferent middle ground, never zeroing in on the emotional undercurrents of these popular songs which are intended to sketch out Arthur and Lee’s mad romance. This lack of spark is just as apparent in Phoenix and Gaga’s non-singing scenes.
BBC:
Phillips and his co-writer, Scott Silver, have decided to carry on with yet more of Fleck’s backstory instead. It’s a fascinating decision which bravely subverts audience expectations, but it does result in a film that is a dreary, underwhelming, unnecessary slog.
The best summation, via Vanity Fair:
Those hoping that a Joker sequel would be about the newly minted villain wreaking havoc across his city will be mightily disappointed by Folie à Deux. Phillips has banished us to essentially two places: the asylum and the courthouse. Very little happens beyond those walls, reducing the film to cramped psychodrama. It’s startlingly dull, a pointless procedural that seems to disdain its audience.
