The highly anticipated sequel to the Joker’s adventures was screened at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. The blockbuster, starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, was not unanimously acclaimed.
The highly anticipated Joker: Madness for Twoscreened as a preview on Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival, did not meet with unanimous approval from the press. The first Jokerwhich received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, had already divided many people in its time, sparking criticism over its violence, which was sometimes considered gratuitous.
Joker: Madness for Two follows in the footsteps of the first part. Interned in Arkham Asylum, Arthur Fleck aka the Joker is tried for the five murders committed in the first part. He decides to defend himself while he begins a relationship with psychiatrist Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga).
Joker: Madness for Two was able to surprise with its many sung passages. “I wouldn’t say it’s strictly speaking a musical,” Lady Gaga insisted at a press conference in Venice. “We use music to really give the characters a way to express what they have to say, because going through dialogue is not enough.”
“A bit cheesy and long-winded”
This explosive cocktail of musical comedy and superhero comics, however, did not convince. “The concept is audacious. The kind of concept that demands to be executed in an audacious way. And in its broad outlines, that is not the case in this film,” thus estimated Variety.
“Without much inventiveness” also for the criticism of the Monde Clarisse Fabre, Joker: Madness for Two is “an uneven show”, a “slightly cloying and long-winded spectacle” despite the “alchemy” of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga.
According to Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, the film loses its force and becomes “repetitive” after “a dazzling first half” which notably includes a parody of the Looney Tunes cartoons imagined by the French director Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville).
The critic also deplores the little space left for Lady Gaga to develop the new character of Harley Quinn, already played in the cinema by Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad“. “The story as it is constructed does not allow the character to develop much.”
“A boring movie”
Critic Richard Lawsonin the columns of Vanity Fairis more ruthless.”Joker: Madness for Two is a boring and uninteresting film that seems to have been designed to piss off everyone, especially die-hard fans of the first film. As if the Joker himself had designed the film.”
The most scathing review was posted on Indiewire: “It feels like they made a bad movie on purpose. It’s a meaningless movie designed to piss off its fans and bore everyone else. Its failure to use Lady Gaga to good effect is far worse than any of the Joker’s crimes,” wrote critic David Ehrlich.
Directed, like the first part, by Todd Phillips (Very Bad Trip), Joker: Madness for Two will be released on October 2 in France. A huge success in 2019, the first film grossed $1 billion before winning two Oscars. Todd Phillips has already announced that there will be no third installment.
