Todd Phillips adds a dark musical twist to “Joker: Folie à Deux” (which premiered at the Venice Film Festival to mixed reviews), giving Joaquin Phoenix’s delusional Arthur/Joker a partner in crime with Lady Gaga’s equally disturbed Lee/Harley Quinn and an escape valve through song and dance.
The “Joker” sequel picks up several years later with the failed comedian and anarchist facing the death penalty for multiple murders and meeting soul mate Harley while incarcerated in Arkham State Hospital. The film plays as surreal musical noir, taking some visual inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart.” There are courtroom histrionics, rioting at Arkham, and bedlam in the streets, wrapped around Arthur’s musical romance with Harley. He croons “When You’re Smiling” and “For Once in My Life,” she encourages him with “Get Happy,” and they host a demented “Sonny & Cher”-inspired variety show together.
“Folie à Deux” explores more of Arthur’s inner life through the crafts team, which earned eight Oscar nominations for the billion-dollar “Joker”: cinematography, production design, costume design, makeup/hairstyling, editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and score, which scored the lone win for composer Hildur Gudnadottir.
“The score draws on the tonality of the first film,” Gudnadottir told IndieWire via email, “where Arthur’s inner anguish was established in a world of strings. This time, his inner landscape is drawn out with a custom-built ‘string prison’ — an electromagnetic large-scale string instrument functioning similar to a playable electric fence. The strings keep him confined in his inner darkness, and seep into the songs through which he tries to break free.”
Production designer Mark Friedberg returns to rotting Gotham to create a series of theatrical backdrops for Arthur and Harley (flipped-out MGM musicals). This is in collaboration with returning cinematographer Lawrence Sher, who conjures a dark intimacy between them through noirish lighting and camera movement.
Costume designer Arianne Phillips (“A Complete Unknown”) steps in for Mark Bridges, building on Arthur/Joker’s iconic appearances while establishing a wardrobe for Harley, who’s an inmate at Arkham rather than his psychiatrist. Likewise, returning makeup and hair designers Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou provide complementary looks for the clown-faced couple.
For returning editor Jeff Groth, courtroom drama and musical fantasy blend together as rhythmic choreography. This is in conjunction with a more complex soundscape from newcomers Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl (sound designers/supervising sound editors) and returning re-recording mixers Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic.
In sum, it’s about Arthur trying to break free from his inner darkness with a song in his heart. We will have to wait and see if Oscar craft voters appreciate “Folie à Deux’s” bold musical pivot.
