Todd Phillips’ film “Joker,” an origin story for the famous Batman villain, was a surprisingly huge hit when it was released in fall 2019. The tone of the film was gritty and severe, like a Martin Scorsese film. This approach to comic book material was novel enough to earn “Joker” more than $1 billion at the box office and 11 Academy Award nominations. Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck (the mentally unstable aspiring comedian who becomes a murderous clown), while Hildur Guðnadóttir also won for his funeral music.
Even before the release of “Joker”, there were fears that the film would incite terminally ill Internet users to commit acts of violence. After all, the film’s Joker is portrayed as an angry, ignored outsider, incapable of socializing with women and frustrated by a system designed to let him slip through the cracks. Arthur is then admitted to television, where his rejection of the social contract sparks riots, making him a revolutionary symbol. This is an unhealthy message to send to young men who feel the same way.
But the riots never happened. And indeed, it seems that Phillips made his 2024 sequel, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” as a pointed rebuke to the success of the first film, attacking all of the Joker’s admirers by repeating, in dialogue, that the character is weak and pathetic. “Folie à Deux” sees Arthur from Phoenix return and spark an unhealthy romance with his asylum inmate, Harley “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), while being tried for his crimes. Made for $200 million, the sequel to “Joker” completely failed at the box office. It is one of the most notable failures of the decade.
Lady Gaga, however, is not bothered. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she admitted that the film’s failure made her laugh.
Lady Gaga was vaguely amused by the failure of Joker: Folie à Deux
The first “Joker,” for the record, only cost about $70 million and contains a lot of violence, several murder scenes and a full-blown riot at the end. “Joker: Folie à Deux,” on the other hand, takes place primarily in an asylum or courtroom. In occasional fantasy sequences, Arthur and Harley imagine themselves in a period musical, singing and dancing about their feelings. However, the musical sequences usually only involve the two of them and were filmed on small physical sets. Where did all the money go? “Folie à Deux” certainly doesn’t look expensive.
Gaga, a professional singer, chooses to use a more natural voice, as she rarely gets the opportunity to turn on real barn burners. She plays the role of Lee quite well, and her character is an emotional, grounded version of the usually goofy Harley Quinn (who was first seen in “Batman: The Animated Series” and played by Margot Robbie in a trio of DC Extended Universe films). No one has a problem with Gaga, but the movie failed nonetheless.
Gaga felt the pain of the failure of “Folie à Deux,” but she was also amused by how widely the film was rejected. It wasn’t until the negative hype died down that she began to feel a little of the pain of defeat. As she said:
“I wasn’t unfazed. It’s funny, I’m almost nervous to share my reaction. But the truth is, when it started happening, I started laughing. Because it was so disturbing. When it takes time for something to go away, it can be a little more painful. Only because I put a lot of myself into it.”
His passion was obvious.
Re-litigating Folie à Deux
Indeed, Gaga noted that at first she enjoyed all the negative attention the first “Joker” received, which led her to accept a job on “Folie à Deux.” As she noted: “There was a ton of negativity around ‘Joker.’ […] And I think I felt artistically rebellious at the time.”
And, as mentioned, the entire film is an attack on the lovers of the first “Joker.” The sequel is dull, poorly paced and far too long (it lasts 138 minutes). “Folie à Deux” brings back the characters from the first film to announce, at the helm, that the Joker is neither intelligent, nor threatening, nor even special. The revolution he inspired was destructive but was not driven by philosophy or any purpose. Everything about The Joker is mediocre and mediocre. It’s no wonder the sequel wasn’t a success.
When things fell apart, Gaga at least had her music career to get through. As she explained to Rolling Stone, she responded to “Folie à Deux” by writing the song “Disease” and shooting a dark music video to accompany it. The video begins with Gaga dead on the hood of a car. Some of the action sees her torturing her own doppelganger in a “Saw”-like dungeon. To quote her directly on this subject:
“I put so much energy into this video. […] I was in this place, you know, I was like, ‘I’m going to show you who I am and I’m going to show you what this fight is like.'”
It looks like the “Joker” sequel was the result of a lot of angst and Gaga had some shit to work through. As far as her career goes, she hasn’t really been hurt. But his heart seemed to ache over this.
