Why So Blu?

Joker: Folie À Deux (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

OK, so let’s just get it out of the way now – We know that Joker: Folie À Deux was a monumental failure this year.  The enticing mixture of Phoenix and Gaga and some musical sequences seemed like a heady continuation of the original Joker, a film I still think about to this day as an incredible meditation of a man’s downfall in succumbing to the destruction of his own mental health.  The 2020’s answer to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, Joker was rife for an explosive continuation.  Now, you ask me… is the sequel as awful as we’ve read about and been made to believe? Don your clown makeup and read on and see for yourself. You may want to tap dance after you’ve read my thoughts…

Film:

Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.

Joker: Folie À Deux begins much like the original film began.  At Arkham Asylum, Arthur Fleck is living his days in confinement, being shuffled around the dingy halls for lawyer meetings and exercise time.  He smokes, he’s quiet. It’s clear Arthur is beaten down.  He isn’t laughing anymore and his interviews with his lawyer are quiet.  One day passing a choir practice in the minimum-security ward, Arthur hears and sees Lee singing.  He immediately falls for her without even speaking to her.

When Arthur and Lee finally do meet, their lunatic sparks fly and it’s love at first encounter.  The pair fall in love over little snippets of fantasy musical sequences. Arthur hallucinates singing Stevie Wonder tunes and Lee joins him for duets and dance numbers as he awaits his trial. Just as Arthur is at the cusp of the trial date, Lee lets him know she is leaving the asylum and will be by Arthur’s side during the trial.  As this happens, Arthur learns that Lee is actually a student and had checked herself into Arkham to be closer to Arthur. Lee also says that from their one moment of sexual activity, that she is pregnant by Arthur.  This shocks Arthur, as does the news that Lee is living in the apartment building Arthur was living in at the time of his murders and arrest. This is when Arthur really begins to unravel.

The trial is the main focus of the film.  Musical sequences and fantasy love-story moments aside, Joker: Folie À Deux is really a courtroom drama.  Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga deliver excellent performances with the material given, but ultimately the story is just not as interesting as it may have seemed in the brainstorming process.  Arthur is presented as a shell of himself.  He doesn’t dance the same and he isn’t nearly as unhinged.  Arthur being grounded only turns the events of the first film into something more trivial than it was.  Gaga’s Harley Quinn origin story paints Lee as a manipulative narcissist that would turn on Arthur the moment he shows any shred of sanity.  That itself is a sad note seeing as Arthur wants nothing more than to be loved and accepted despite his illnesses and proclivities.

Thinking about the first film, I saw Arthur and Joker as separate entities.  Arthur never had a chance, so of course adopting Joker as his dominant personality, it’s heartbreaking to see him driven into insanity and murder by the medical system and his hateful mother who turned a blind eye to his traumas and then made him her caregiver in her later days.  We don’t see that Arthur here.  We see a shell.

Now, the musical aspect of the film was one of the bigger complaints of Joker: Folie À Deux, and for me, those sequences work despite the songs feeling incomplete.  They are performed well and the score by Hildur Gudnadottir blends with those musical moments, and is as commanding as the first film.  The production design and direction follow the first film too.  There are many through lines tying the two films together at the end of the day also.

Stepping back and looking at Joker: Folie À Deux on its own, I am missing narrative threads.  I am missing motivations to move the story further.  At 138 minutes, I was hoping for more than some lavish music sequences and vintage set design, and more of the psychology and love story of the two characters.  A part of me expected more carnage and chaos, and not so much quiet courtroom melodrama.  I wanted more Lady Gaga.  I wanted more movement.  I wanted more.

As it stands, Joker: Folie À Deux is fine.  I think Todd Phillips and Scott Silver tried to go for something admirably different, but in the end the film is nothing more than a fractured musical with drama elements.  Performances and great production design just cannot save a mediocre script that feels disjointed.  I appreciate the turns the film wants to take, but I don’t believe that anything has been executed in such a way as to make these turns believable and worse still palatable to the majority of fans of the first film.  Jokerremains a masterpiece in my humble opinion, while Joker: Folie À Deux will sit as a strange footnote to it. Do I dislike Joker: Folie À Deux? At this point, I don’t know, but I do know it has failed to stand up next to the original film.  Perhaps more viewings may change my point of view, and if so, I will post an update here. Until then, Joker: Folie À Deux is at best… fine.

Read Aaron Neuwirth’s review of Joker: Folie À Deux HERE

Read Peter Paras’ Review of Joker HERE

Video

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1, 1.90:1 (Variable Aspect Ratios); 1.37:1 (Opening animated sequence)

Layers: BD-100

HDR: Dolby Vision

Clarity/Detail: Joker: Folie À Deux takes the same aesthetics of the original Joker and brings the Arkham Asylum to life.  Colors are drab and drained, but details are exceptional.  Aged hallways and cells and fantasy talk, and variety show sets look authentic to their late 70’s/early 80’s vintage and it works so well for the style of the film.  Details in clothing, facial features and set design come through clear and sharp. You also get the shifting aspect ratio that shows up during the musical numbers and other “larger” moments of the film.

Depth: There is an insane amount of detail within the sets and the exteriors in the film, with much to take in over the 2 hours and 18 minutes of the film.  Sets are lovingly dressed, and you see everything with a near 3D image coming from the screen.

Black Levels: Black levels are excellent and as things get dark, you lose no detail.

Color Reproduction: Colors reflect the time period with oranges, reds, greens, browns and whites looking bright and yet still appropriately drab.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are excellently rendered with Arthur’s aged face showing crags and blemishes.  Makeup work looks excellent too.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English, Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descrpitive Audio

Subtitles:  English SDH, Spanish, French

Dynamics: Joker: Folie À Deux uses Dolby Atmos in subtle ways.  Music is the biggest benefactor of the added channels.  Dialogue and singing sounds excellent with music score and a big explosion stressing the subwoofer just a bit too.

Height: Height channels carry courtroom echo and musical notes down to the listener with subtle channel movement

Low-Frequency Extension: The score has many moments of deep bass from the string arrangements and drums.  An explosion later in the film goes BOOM big time too.  Other than that, the LFE reproduction can be more subtle, but that’s fine for a film that isn’t big on action.

Surround Sound Presentation: Surrounds do their thing with city, crowd, and courtroom noise.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue and singing is prioritized In the mix, but I will note that some of Arthur’s singing is drowned out by the music and I wonder if that’s a mistake or if that’s a choice that was made on purpose as part of something deeper…

Extras:

I was surprised by the mix of extras for Joker: Folie À Deux. There is a little bit of everything, chronicling the making of the film from script to screen.  You can tell the cast and crew all felt they were making something special when you hear their thoughts.  The longform documentary is the most informative and in-depth of them all, but the other bonuses are close to Everything Must Go’s weight class. One does wonder how they feel now, but I digress. Joker: Folie À Deux comes to 4K UHD Blu-ray with a standard slipcover edition and a steelbook variant.  No Blu-ray is included, but a digital code comes in the case!

Special Features:

• Everything Must Go (4 Part Longform Documentary)
  • Can I Have A Cigarette?
  • Finding Lee
  • A Hundred Films In One
  • King of Nothing
• The Character Of Music
• Live! With The Joker
• Colors Of Madness
• Crafted With Class

Summary:

I was hoping for more emotional heft with Joker: Folie À Deux. Style and performance can’t save drab writing and not much of a story. Visually the film is on point with the original, but it’s missing the grounded reality of that first film and the crazy that was promised in 2019 does not deliver here in 2024.  A missed opportunity, the film will no doubt be reassessed for years to come and may gain a cult following at home.  For me, at least at the time of this writing, Joker: Folie À Deux is fine, but I expected and wanted more from the film than that.  The technical merits of this disc are first rate, and the special features are interesting and informative.  For fans of the film, there is plenty to justify a purchase of the film, but I recommend seeing the film first if you haven’t already.

Get your copy of Joker: Folie À Deux HERE

Get the Joker: Folie À Deux Steelbook HERE