Love is in the air for Joaquin Phoenix’s clown prince of chaos in this bold but indulgent comic book musical – lifted by Gaga’s weapons-grade charisma
’s “making of a murderer” narrative and the subsequent extravagantly violent crime spree is replaced by two hours and 20 minutes of a musical romance/courtroom drama mashup. Oh, and there’s also a Looney Tunes-style animated prologue created bydirector Sylvain Chomet. The influences of the first film – few movies have borrowed so obviously and profligately from Martin Scorsese’sIt’s a bold, if potentially uncommercial decision: the comic book musical is an underpopulated genre, for good reason.
The sequel takes place soon after the events of the first film. Arthur Fleck is incarcerated in the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Enough time has passed for Joker to have evolved from a counter-cultural anti-hero to a pop-cultural phenomenon, but the scars that his actions have left on Gotham are still fresh.
Arthur’s pain, a supporting character in the first film, now leaks from the screen in every frame. It’s present in the colour palette of the asylum’s interior, an unsavoury prison laundry combination of piss yellows and despairing greys. And it’s evident in Arthur’s tortured physicality. Phoenix, who once again slimmed down considerably for the role, plays the character like a figure from a Bruegel painting, his body contorted by the perpetual torment of his own personal hell.
Arthur’s world is rocked on its axis when he meets fellow inmate Lee in a music therapy session. The frame floods with colour – specifically the Joker wardrobe shades of saffron yellow, blood red and teal blue. And Arthur rediscovers the music that was in him all along. Music that, like most things in Arthur, takes on a grotesque, cartoonish quality once it is filtered through the Joker’s lens.
The musical sequences, inspired by everything from black and white 1940s spectaculars to tacky Vegas-style variety shows, are the moments that lift the film – particularly those with Gaga front and centre. Not only is she a fascinatingly treacherous and fundamentally untrustworthy character, she can belt out That’s Entertainment with the best of them.
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