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Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the 2019 Joaquin Phoenix film, has scored an unwanted Rotten Tomatoes score as more critics release their reviews of the film.
Initial responses to the premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September were mixed, with some calling it “ingenious” or “beguiling” and others finding it “dull” and “laborious”.
Among the critics who praised the film was The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab, who delivered a four-star verdict and wrote: “The darkness at the core of the film is underlined by its very brutal ending, which rejects comic book conventions in favour of psychological depth.
“Phoenix’s performance remains powerful and stirring, too. The genius of it is that we can’t help but care for Arthur despite his neediness and derangement.”
The film, which is a musical, also stars Lady Gaga as the Joker’s sidekick and love interest, Harley Quinn, had a modest early score on Rotten Tomatoes on 61 per cent, as reported by Forbes, placing it as having the same score as the widely derided Black Adam.
That has now dropped down to just 39 per cent as the majority of critics lay the boot into the story, songs and the much talked-about ending.
The consensus review on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing is: “Joaquin Phoenix’s eponymous Joker takes the stand in a sequel that dances around while the story remains still, although Lady Gaga’s wildcard energy gives Folie á Deux some verve.”
New York Times critic Manohia Dargis writes: “The big non-news about Folie à Deux is that it’s a half-baked, half-hearted musical complete with one star who can sing, Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel aka Harley Quinn, and another (Phoenix) who can’t or won’t.”
Audrey Fox for Looper said: “Even fans of Joker are unlikely to find much to redeem this chaotic, profoundly stupid mess.”
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Richard Roeper of the Chicago-Sun Times said in his review: “There’s always a joker, there’s always a clown — but if he doesn’t morph into something bigger and bolder and more terrible, it starts to feel like we’ve seen this show before, only without the musical numbers.”
Kevin Maher for The Times called the film “messy, lifeless, derivative and exactly what you’d expect from a film that simply doesn’t want, or need, to exist”.
More favourable reviews saw Danny Leigh for The Financial Times call it less “dislikeable than its forebear” while Ireland’s RTE said: “The film is effortlessly claustrophobic, dreamily undramatic and all the better for it.”
The film is set to be the last for Phoenix’s Joker. After the premiere, one journalist asked Phoenix about his weight loss for the film, which he said was more “complicated” than it had been with the 2019 original.
For the first Joker, Phoenix lost 52 pounds to achieve the lead character’s gaunt look and achieved this by eating a diet mainly consisting of steamed vegetables and lettuce.
Phoenix was hesitant to reveal specific details about his diet this time around, telling reporters: “I’m not going to talk through specifics of the diet.”
However, he did say it “felt a bit more complicated” losing weight for the sequel “as there was so much dance rehearsal that we were doing, which I didn’t have last time”.
