Shocking Truth Behind ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’s’ Epic Fail! Creative Disaster and Box-Office Bomb Explained!

The first point to emphasize about “Joker: Folie à Deux” is that it is not a musical film.

Yes, the introduction displays posters of “Modern Times,” “Pal Joey,” and “Shall We Dance.” In one scene, Arkham Asylum inmates watch the 1953 film “The Band Wagon,” with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) lip-syncing to Fred Astaire and getting annoyed when Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) refuses to join. Another scene features the two imprisoned characters singing the “Sweet Charity” hit “If My Friends Could See Me Now.” Even the Joker breaks into a tap dance at one point.

However, a few melodic moments and dance steps don’t constitute a musical. This discrepancy between what the film appears to be and what it successfully accomplishes is the primary reason for its failure. In contrast to Warner Bros.’ original 2019 film, which garnered two Academy Awards and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, director Todd Phillips’ sequel lacks the audacity of its own, or any great musical’s, principles. With an opening weekend domestic box office of $40 million and a Cinemascore of D, it seems like audiences detected this discrepancy themselves.

Let’s be clear, though: It’s not that the musical genre, often mistakenly simplified to cheerful song-and-dance routines and happy endings, can’t be as gritty and dark as “Joker” demands (see “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Assassins,” “Cabaret”). Nor is it incapable of addressing sensitive issues like mental illness (“The Light in the Piazza,” “Anyone Can Whistle”), societal rejection (“Be More Chill,” “Oklahoma!”), drug addiction (“Next to Normal,” “Jagged Little Pill”), sexual assault (“Spring Awakening,” “The Color Purple”), or suicidal thoughts (“Fun Home,” “Dear Evan Hansen”).

Musicals are equally adaptable in format, contrary to what critics might argue. In a musical, characters can sing their emotions because ordinary conversation falls short of adequately expressing themselves, or they can burst into song as a completely normal mode of communication in their world. Even staunch realists can operate within the musical genre, with a wholly diegetic score and a narrative structured around a concert or performance.

In any of these arrangements, one fact remains: a musical propels its story by taking the disciplines it’s built on — songwriting, vocal performance, orchestrations, dance, and so forth — seriously, showcasing, celebrating, and even innovating these crafts. “Folie à Deux,” despite occasionally resembling and sounding like a musical, appears to take nothing seriously — except maybe itself.

Notably, “Folie à Deux” significantly underestimates the narrative power of the jukebox musical, which organizes existing music into a new story. While leveraging viewers’ familiarity with the tunes, jukebox musicals also have a unique opportunity to subvert a popular song, either to unveil something new in the story or simply to be witty, like when “& Juliet” reinterprets Britney Spears’ “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” to describe a non-binary character’s identity journey, or “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” uses the seductive 1984 hit “Private Dancer” to accompany the singer’s desperate turn to performing in Las Vegas bars.

In contrast, most songs in “Folie à Deux” seem purposeless, providing little new information or insight into its characters. Apart from Lee alluding to “(They Long to Be) Close to You” to cheekily illustrate her obsession with Arthur’s alter ego, it feels as if the film is merely naming songs rather than telling stories through them; it’s like claiming you’ve finished a course by merely reading the syllabus.

The film also includes perplexing vocal performances from both Phoenix and Gaga. To communicate Arthur’s romantic interest in Lee, Phoenix sings “For Once in My Life” and “Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered)” — songs often performed with the enthusiasm of a love-struck Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s couch. Yet, Phoenix — who previously demonstrated his impressive singing talents in his Oscar-nominated role as Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line” — does so with an exasperating weakness, which is particularly dull against the backdrop of the rich orchestra accompanying him.

Perhaps it’s because the weakened Arthur isn’t in his fortified Joker state that he can’t deliver the strongest vocal line, or because the actors were required to sing live on set. Even so, many standout stage performances — “Flowers” from “Hadestown,” “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables” — start relatively softly, as the damaged characters are at their lowest points, and are conveyed with a fragility that’s both emotionally tangible and pleasing to the ear.

Phoenix only performs one solo as the Joker: fittingly, “The Joker,” from the 1964 musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.” And it’s quite disappointing, appearing 90 minutes into the courtroom drama and still restrained vocally. For what purpose? As decades of animated Disney movies have shown us, villains often get the best musical numbers, with the freedom to be as self-centered and over-the-top as, well, the Joker from the 2019 film.

But the villain who delightfully danced down the Bronx’s Guason Stairs, smoking, high-kicking, and pelvic thrusting without regret — a now-iconic minute-long sequence that arguably hinted at what a “Joker” musical could look like — is absent in this sequel. All its musical numbers are dream sequences. Arthur/Joker could be as skilled a performer as he imagines himself to be — if not for his benefit, then for the viewer’s!

Similarly, Lady Gaga’s vocal talent is severely underused — a poor decision, considering she’s one of the world’s biggest pop stars and won two Grammy Awards for her Great American Songbook collaborations with Tony Bennett. (Strategically, Gaga just released “Harlequin,” a comparatively theatrical companion album where she covers some of the film’s songs herself, regardless of who performed them onscreen. I’m still debating whether the release of her jazzy version of “Get Happy,” her guitar-driven rendition of “The Joker,” and her original songs “Folie à Deux” and “Happy Mistake” are a comfort after watching the film or a rub in the wound.)

The most glaring evidence of “Folie à Deux’s” misunderstanding of the musical is the bizarre decision to abruptly cut most of these sequences, undercutting age-old compositions before their emotional and musical climaxes. The reason for consistently doing so is never explained and feels as jarring as suddenly cutting from a fight scene or a monologue. If these numbers were actually filmed in their entirety, trimming their final bars might’ve reduced the total runtime, but at the expense of further annoying audiences.

Worsening the musical misjudgment of “Folie à Deux” is the creative team’s apparent embarrassment of their association with the genre. “I think the way we approached music in this film was very special and incredibly nuanced,” Gaga stated at a Venice Film Festival press conference. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is actually a musical; in many ways, it’s very different. The way music is used is to provide the characters a way to express what they need to say because the scene and just the dialogue isn’t enough.”

“I just don’t want people to think it’s like ‘In the Heights,’ where the lady in the bodega starts singing, and they take it out onto the street, and the police are dancing,” Phillips told a Variety cover story, referring to Warner Bros.’ joyful 2021 release. “No disrespect, because I loved ‘In the Heights.’ “

Regarding all the off-key notes, “Neither Arthur nor Lee are professional singers, and they shouldn’t sound like they are,” Gaga told Vogue. Phoenix added, “I encouraged [Gaga] to sing poorly.”

If Phillips had actually made a full-blown “Joker” musical and celebrated it in the press, it would have been a creative risk worth admiring, even if it missed the mark. Instead, when Arthur pleads with Lee in a scene to “stop singing” and “just talk to me,” I couldn’t help but concur.

Luckily, it’s not a musical.