“Joker: Folie à Deux” opens with a cartoon featuring the Joker with a full face of makeup, entering the premiere of his own talk show. While in the dressing room, his shadow comes to life, stealing the Joker’s host moment from him.

The cartoon showcases a divide between the Arthur Fleck and Joker personas, which is the main argument used in his defense in the courtroom drama.

Starring Joaquin Phoenix as the title character and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, “Joker: Folie à Deux” is a musical drama that takes place after the events of “Joker” (2019). The film follows Fleck as he navigates his murder trials for killing five people in the first feature, while also finding love in Quinn.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

When it was first announced that the film would be a musical, the reception was mixed about the new approach to telling the DC Comics character’s story. However, the change in tone between the dark, dramatic scenes and the vibrant musical scenes was not captured well, oftentimes feeling jarring.

When Phoenix or Gaga would break out into song, it felt like the filmmakers decided to add musical performances to the film because they thought it was cool, but they had no experience making a musical.

In one of the scenes, Fleck gets assaulted by police, but the scene quickly cuts to Quinn putting on clown makeup while singing. The film brushes aside this pivotal moment, never using it to move the story. This is a constant theme throughout “Joker: Folie à Deux”: scenes just happen because they can, not because they are necessary.

As a character, Fleck is a very passive and boring protagonist because all of the characters around him make the decisions for him. Between being bullied by Jackie Sullivan (Brendan Gleeson) and being told what to say by his lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener), he just reacts to the actions people take, but he does not have a clear goal.

The introduction of Quinn to the franchise added nothing to the plotline. She lies about being mentally ill to check herself into the hospital, but there is no conflict built by this situation. Every time there is a little bit of friction, there is a deus ex machina randomly coming out of the woodwork and saving the day.

This is very obvious when the jury calls the verdict for the trial and an explosion blows up the courtroom, allowing Fleck to escape. The entire hour spent watching the courtroom sequences felt like a waste of time because there was no resolution to the trial.

At the end, a major conflict happens to Fleck with an inmate in prison. Within the context of the film, this did not make sense because we saw the inmate once or twice in the two hours, but he also had no lines until that moment. While the movie is a tragedy, the moment leaves the audience with zero emotions in this devastating moment because it’s so random.

From start to finish, the story focuses on Fleck’s disconnect from the Joker personality, yet the discussions around the topic are shallow and unimaginative. They offer little contribution to conversations about mental illness and begin to be repetitive after every witness on the stand gets asked the same question about Fleck’s split identities.

One redeemable quality of “Joker: Folie à Deux” is Gaga’s performance as Quinn. The script presented her with a limited amount of dialogue, but she played an obsessive Joker fanatic well through her physical and vocal performance.

Technically speaking, the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir elevated the film in ways the musical numbers could not. It showcased the dark and twisted tone of the film, and it felt refreshing to hear those strings again in the city of Gotham.

Compared to “Joker,” “Joker: Folie à Deux” accentuates the problem with sequels, often feeling rushed and offering zero valuable topics of conversation to the cultural zeitgeist. The sequel had the potential to be great if it was in the hands of the right people. “Joker” had a clear vision, but its sequel is all over the place with no clear path to where it wants to go.