Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga’s Joker 2 opens to polarising reviews, from ‘brilliant return to madness’ to ‘collective punishment’

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich came down heavily on the film, dubbing it an “excruciatingly — perhaps even deliberately — boring sequel that does everything in its power not to amuse you”. The review stated, “This is blockbuster filmmaking as a form of collective punishment…” and added that it displays a “criminal waste” of Lady Gaga.

Though rewarding it with three stars, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “claustrophobic and repetitive” sequel, noting that the musical “spirals out of tune.” The review reads, “Though it ends up as strident, laborious and often flat-out tedious as the first film, there’s an improvement. It’s a musical, of sorts, with Phoenix and others warbling show tune standards, often in fantasy set pieces… This gives it structure and flavour that the first film didn’t have.”

Calling the concept “audacious”, Variety’s Owen Gleiberman also noted that Lady Gaga was “drastically” underutilised. “The film may be ambitious and superficially outrageous, but at heart it’s an overly cautious sequel. Phillips has made a movie in which Arthur really is just poor Arthur; he does nothing wrong and isn’t going to threaten anyone’s moral sensibilities.”

Praise also came in for the film from other quarters, such as Deadline, which said Joker 2 was a “brilliant musical return to a world of madness.” In their review Pete Hammond praised Phoenix and said he knows the Joker character inside and out, “And in what others might say is a risky proposition, he tap dances, sings and sells this role like no other — if not topping his Oscar-winning turn in Joker, at least finding a way to take him in different, wholly surprising direction.”

Writing for Daily Telegraph, UK, Robbie Collin said Joker Folie à Deux “can’t quite match its predecessor for dizzying impact. But it matches it for horrible tinderbox tension: it’s a film you feel might burst into flames at any given moment.”

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called Lady Gaga “a compelling live-wire presence” and credited the musical numbers in the film for making the “frustrating sequel” most “electric”.

Joker: Folie à Deux will release globally on October 4. The first Joker had smashed box office records earning more than one billion at the box office in 2019 and had even earned Phoenix an Oscar for his role in the film.

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