‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ is here for you to hate (as intended?)

Say you’re a senior at UC Irvine (Go, Anteaters!), majoring in drama/theater arts and stagecraft and some well-intentioned “friend” sends you a link to the College Futures Foundation’s new report, “California College Programs That Pay: Measuring Return on Investment Across Majors and Credentials,” and you scroll down to find that it will, on average, take you 33.4 years to recoup your tuition.
Do you A) roll over and go back to sleep (you had been up late memorizing your monologue from “The Seagull”), B) see if it’s too late to change your major (you did take that one computer science survey class as a freshman) or C) shrug your shoulders, say que será, será and, you know, go bowling.
I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and someone surprised that there’s only eight concerns facing the Dodgers as they’re about to begin their series with the Padres.
Longtime readers may remember that I wasn’t into “Joker,” Todd Phillips’ exhausting pastiche of Martin Scorsese movies that earned a billion dollars at the box office, 11 Oscar nominations and a lead actor win for Joaquin Phoenix and his rib cage. (Meanwhile, the movie made that year by Scorsese, “The Irishman,” won nothing.)
Still … I was intrigued when Phillips announced that he was making a sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” and that it would be a musical co-starring Lady Gaga. How could you not be a little “Haaaaaa-ahhhh-ahhh-ohhhh-ahhaaaaaa-ahhhh-ahhh-ohhhh-ah” about the prospect of seeing that?
And see it I did on Wednesday with my dear friends, film critics Christy Lemire and Alonso Duralde, who posted their reaction to the film from the balcony of the AMC Grove 14 shortly after it ended. (If you look closely enough, you might see me at the lobby bar, where I may or may not have been having a drink to dull the pain of what I had just witnessed.)
“Joker: Folie à Deux,” now in theaters, premiered last month at the Venice Film Festival to generally negative reviews. As I’m writing this, it sits at a 47 on the review aggregator Metacritic, although it should be noted that the original movie was divisive too, scoring 59. Moviegoers, particularly the comic-book inclined, loved “Joker,” although I do wonder what they’ll make of the sequel, which seems to extend a middle finger to anyone who reveled in the title character’s anarchy the first time around.
I kind of liked that about it, even if I agree with my old friend Manohla Dargis, who called “Joker: Folie à Deux” a “dour, unpleasant slog,” a film that never coheres. And yet … Phillips is an interesting filmmaker. When the marketplace — or, who knows, maybe even his own artistic whims — dictates that he produce a sequel to a popular movie he has made (see “The Hangover,” Parts II and III), Phillips seems determined to make them dirtier and darker, as if to scold fans for celebrating what they enjoyed about the original.
I wish someone would ask him about this orneriness. He seems like the kind of person who enjoys angering people and then wondering why everyone is so mad at him. The best part of “Joker: Folie à Deux” is the way it dismantles the idea of the Joker being a figure to celebrate and examines how movements continue, even after the figurehead taps out. It’s perverse. It’s repellent. Most people are going to hate it, which, on some level, will probably make Phillips very, very happy.
AFI Fest opens in less than three weeks, and as my pal Mark Olsen notes, this year’s event will be giving local audiences a chance for the first time to catch up with many titles from this year’s international festival circuit. (The festival runs Oct. 23–27.)
You will have the opportunity, without breaking out your passport, to see Payal Kapadia’s extraordinary drama “All We Imagine as Light,” recipient of the Grand Prix award at Cannes, as well as Mike Leigh’s first contemporary-set drama in 14 years, “Hard Truths” and RaMell Ross’ striking adaptation of the acclaimed Colson Whitehead novel, “Nickel Boys.”
I’m most intrigued by a couple of AFI Fest world premieres. There’s “Juror #2,” a legal thriller starring Nicholas Hoult, the latest film from 94-year-old Clint Eastwood. (I have seen nothing announcing this is his farewell.) And there’s Robert Zemeckis’ “Here,” reuniting him with “Forrest Gump” stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Zemeckis will also be showcased in a Directors Spotlight, featuring clips and a career conversation between the filmmaker and frequent collaborator Hanks.
Zemeckis has been on a bit of a cold streak, but “Here,” centered on the events occurring in a single spot (mostly a living room) over the course of centuries, looks intriguing. Plus, remember Forrest’s mama always told him: “Miracles happen every day. Some people don’t think so, but they do.”
Passes for this year’s AFI Fest are available now at fest.afi.com and eight-ticket bundles go on sale today, with single tickets available beginning Oct. 7.