Taken at face value, writer/director Todd Phillips either seems very sorry about making his 2019 Joker film… or in being convinced to make a sequel to it.

Earning notoriety by lighting the fuse on a dire and despondent Gotham City, former failed clown turned murderer Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) awaits his day in court at Arkham Asylum. His lawyer Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) feels Arthur’s best defense is casting “Joker” as a Dissociative Identity Disorder personality, a dark shadow that Arthur retreats into whenever threatened in his pitiful and pathetic life. This is supported by his generally well-behaved and semi-friendly demeanor with guards like Jackie (Brendan Gleeson). On the eve of his big trial, Arthur meets Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), a kindred spirit with a love of music and performance, sparking a relationship that threatens the predisposition of his trial defense. Lee gives Arthur permission to be Joker again, enabling his fantasies of being the center of attention via lavish musical numbers and variety show blabber. Between a relationship he’s never had, a desperate city willing to torch it all, and the death penalty on the line, who must Arthur become to get everything he feels he justly deserves?

The French subtitle folie à deux refers to the madness of two, a shared delusion, but the core story is focused upon Arthur seemingly purged of his earlier rage; after all, he already got what he essentially wanted in the first film. “The Killing Joke” may be the Joker’s most telling story, how the crown prince of crime becomes convinced anyone can become the Joker; all it takes is one bad day. While the 2019 film was clearly meant to be a standalone Batman-less tale, Warner Bros. wasn’t about to let a billion-dollar R-rated supervillain movie slip by without a follow-up, even securing the reportedly sequel-averse Joaquin Phoenix to reprise his role. When Lady Gaga was announced to join the new film as Harley Quinn and that it would be “musically inclined” — fans of the original scratched their heads — and the first trailers did little to make more sense of the idea. What more is there to tell about a bullied nobody who became a dancing chain-smoking antihero in the image of a homicidal maniac?

Undoing much of the goodwill from its predecessor, the sequel convolutes what could have been a unique character study into a bloated encore that goes out with a whimper. Following an opening sequence that can only be described as Looney Tunes, we’re reintroduced to Arthur two years after the events in the first film. No longer the Joker we knew but with a reputation keeping him from harm, his dark persona now appears to be a choice… and one that can be manipulated. Each revelation into Arthur’s myriad vulnerabilities is punished by overlong dream sequences that, while having some story relevance, continue on long after they’ve made their points — reveal, rinse, repeat. Other than another money grab, what’s the point of it? As an example, it’s pointless to make a Fight Club sequel about where Tyler Durden came from, undermining the original film’s impact. No, this feels more deliberate, like The Matrix Resurrections poking fun at itself as a curdling sequel the studio couldn’t resist milking decades after its expiration date.

This is arguably the better Phoenix performance, but it’s also more distracted by too much of everything else. Like Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight, Arthur plans nothing and exists in the moment, a pure opportunist. Harley Quinn is well known by DC fans as the love interest Joker manipulates into madness, but Folie à Deux flips that dynamic with Harley cast as the manipulator. There’s more than a little plot manipulation to allow for everything she’s accused of setting up, but the story element remains; if true, who is she lying for? Gaga does her best with the script, but the story can’t flesh her character out enough to see her inclusion as more than a plot device and another missed opportunity. By the time the ending rolls up and answers appear to be finally coming, the film never recovers from blowing up its last opportunity. The final scene looks tacked on, either a contract fulfillment or a sneaky way to beat this dead horse once more.

While the timeframe for this Gotham City isn’t specific, eagle-eyed movie goers will notice the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (since New York City is standing in) still under construction, painting our timeframe into fitting a late-1960s, early-1970s aesthetic. A modern four-lane highway bridge inexplicably connects the city solely to what looks like Alcatraz Island as the location for Arkham, presumably so the warden can drive to work instead of take a secure ferry to the island. In other words, Gotham City is pretty screwed up with or without Batman, and like this script, just can’t figure out exactly what it’s supposed to do or even be… perhaps a Folie à Don’t.

Joker: Folie à Deux is rated R for some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, brief full nudity, and still better than Beau Is Afraid.

Two skull recommendation out of four