The “Joker” sequel announces from its very first frame that this is a different beast. One with brutality, insanity. And Joaquin Phoenix reprising his career-defining role as Arthur Fleck aka Joker.
As a look into madness and the madhouse, “Joker: Folie à Deux” opens with a Looney Tunes-inspired cartoon. What follows is a musical that boasts a sneering, brutal prison guard (Ireland’s Brendan Gleeson), riots, courtroom chaos and a variety show sequence with Phoenix and Lady Gaga’s insane handmaid Harley Quinn sending up Sonny & Cher.
Explained Todd Phillips, back again as co-writer and director, “Something Joaquin and I talked about was that Arthur has music in him, that music is a way of expressing what he’s feeling. Music has always been part of it.”
Phoenix, who turns 50 this month, wanted to clear a slight misunderstanding. “The dream I had didn’t inspire the movie. I had this dream where I was performing as Joker doing songs and I called Todd — I thought there might be something there. But there wasn’t.”
Why was “Joker” such a phenomenal success, Phoenix’s biggest hit and after four nominations, his Oscar winner?
“I honestly am not sure why it resonates with people,” Phoenix said. “Different people were attracted to different elements of the film.”
Added Phillips, “Some people saw it as a straight-up comic book adaptation and some saw it differently. Movies tend to hold a mirror up to society and that moment was ‘Joker.’
“I knew with this film, Joaquin is not going to do a sequel ever. We had joked about doing one while making the first. But if we did it, it had to scare him. It had to feel audacious and swinging for the fences with something different. Be as unexpected as the first one.”
“The first film deeply moved me. I loved it so much,” Gaga, 38, said. “Joaquin’s performance set the high bar. Sometimes in stories about people not understood by society the director lets you take a deeper look at that way. And that was something I’d never seen before.”
Working with Phoenix after Bradley Cooper for “A Star is Born” and Adam Driver for “House of Gucci” was, “A total breeze. I actually really enjoyed it. It was a completely different experience.
“He’s incredibly loose and free — and going on set with an idea was the wrong idea. This is such an interesting story if you imagine what this movie is. In order to make that happen, we had to find it every day.
“What is the truth? We want you, when you see the film, to decide what it means to you.”
“Joker: Folie a Deux” is in theaters
