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00:00This is Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Entertainment Editor, Gulf News.
00:09Joker is in love and he is back with a bang.
00:12But the problem is, with the second chapter called Joker, Folly the Do, directed by Todd
00:17Phillips, it's twice the madness, but it does not have twice the impact.
00:22The reason, just hear me out.
00:23What director Todd Phillips has done is that he is given a very dark and twisted musical
00:29kind of treatment to this film.
00:32It's genre-bending and it works to a large extent.
00:35There's one scene that really had my heart.
00:37There's Lady Gaga who plays Harley Quinn called Lee, who is in love with Arthur Fleck, who's
00:45become kind of like a folklore hero.
00:48There are many books written about him, reality TV shows are about him.
00:51He's become kind of like a star around the neighborhood and he's awaiting a death sentence,
00:56a death penalty.
00:58Now he's awaiting trial, but there is Lady Gaga's character who has fallen in love with
01:04the arch villain from Batman.
01:06We like the, you know, initially we love their chemistry.
01:10In fact, there's one scene where the asylum that they both are lodged in goes up in flames
01:15and what you have is them waltzing and breaking out into a song.
01:19At some point, I kid you not, I thought I was in a Bollywood musical, a very dark and
01:24twisted one at that, but it still worked.
01:27But the problem is that director Todd Phillips is not able to make this genre bending work
01:33really work for a long time because I feel he's never truly committed to it either.
01:37Somewhere along the way, it kind of diluted the emotional intensity that the first Joker
01:42had.
01:43One of the reasons why the 2019 Oscar, where Joaquin Phoenix got his Oscar, it worked is
01:52because it truly spoke to us.
01:54It was highly emotional.
01:55It was very gripping in terms of how the system failed Arthur Fleck.
01:59You sometimes wonder, did the system and our failure to address people with mental health,
02:04did we create that monster?
02:07Those very important questions, questions about privilege, class, child abuse are all
02:13addressed and plunge into it, they dig deep into it and therefore the audience is transported
02:18into that.
02:19But with this second chapter, I feel they're just skimming through the surface.
02:23None of these issues are really dug deep.
02:27It's set two years after Arthur Fleck committed five murders.
02:31He's awaiting death penalty.
02:33As he's in the asylum, he meets Lee, who's far more ambitious.
02:38Lady Gaga and both Joaquin Phoenix are brilliant in their roles, but I feel somewhere Lady
02:45Gaga's role was underwritten and she could have done a lot more.
02:48But what I loved about the movie is the gender dynamics.
02:52If you look at it, generally you expect the woman to be the one who's coy, perhaps who's
02:59not hungry for power.
03:00You expect Joker to be in command.
03:02But in this case, you find the sentimental part, the syrupy part of Arthur come alive.
03:08He's found love and he expresses himself through songs of hope and optimism, whereas Lady Gaga
03:14is all about domination and power.
03:16You can see the power imbalance right then and there.
03:20It's also interesting how he's reversed the genders, where you expect the woman to be
03:24the coy one.
03:25She's not.
03:26She wants power.
03:27She's fallen in love with Joker and not Arthur Fleck, the person, the softy.
03:31So it's quite interesting to see that duality, but then the novelty wears off a lot.
03:36Another thing that I loved about the movie is the reality, how Arthur's trial becomes
03:40almost like a reality television.
03:43It reminds you of the spectacle that you see when Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were on trial
03:48and their proceedings were caught on live television, almost like you sit it.
03:54It's a testament of today's time where voyeuristic television and salacious TV is kind of very
03:59interesting.
04:00So, that bit as well has been beautifully captured by Todd Phillips.
04:07As usual, Joaquin Phoenix is in top form and Lady Gaga as well, though her role is underwritten,
04:13she does a great job.
04:15The problem is that none of the musicals really work, unless you know the vintage jukebox
04:20musicals from the 80s and 70s, you are unlikely to be really invested in them.
04:25You wonder where this is going from time to time.
04:28Also, you're a bit disappointed because the first movie made you think it was so provocative,
04:35made you wonder whether Arthur Fleck or Joker was truly the villain.
04:39In this movie, you walk away not really understanding what really went there.
04:44Was there a need for a sequel?
04:45I mean some movies are just perfect not being perhaps stretched.
04:50This movie felt very bloated and also it was not as emotionally resonant as the first one,
04:56which is a shame because they had everything going for it.
04:59They had Joaquin Phoenix who is really emaciated, he has physically transformed himself, he
05:04is like one-third the size of what he is, the emotional trauma that he faces as a prisoner,
05:10he is lost, but none of it is really tapped into, we don't get into any of these characters'
05:15heads, which is a true shame.
05:17I've gone with 3 out of 5.
05:19For a full review, go to gulfnews.com.