Joker: Folie a Deux may have been receiving some poor reviews before it officially came out, but over the weekend, more analyses of the film have been going out online actually defending the movie and the themes that it was going for.
One observation was that Harley Quinn/Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) was actually the true villain of the movie who loved Joker but not Arthur, and while that message was clear in the film, it apparently wasn’t what Gaga agreed with when it came to the character.
Joker: Folie à Deux: Lady Gaga Says Lee Loves Arthur Too
Talking to ABC10, Gaga talks about how she came up with the character of Lee by studying Manson girls and trying to blend that performance with what she thought was ‘true love’. When it comes to Lee having feelings for Arthur, Gaga said:
“We argued a lot on set about this. There was a lot of discussion around how [Lee] loved Joker, and bringing the perspective of a woman, I always was saying that she loves Arthur too. And I think her empathy and love for Arthur was real, but I think also her love and obsession with Joker was dangerous because she was willing to provoke Arthur to be Joker. I always thought that that was kind of more dangerous than Lee lighting a match, was the fact that she was willing to do that."
Throughout the course of the film, Lee is constantly egging Arthur on about being Joker, going so far as to put makeup on him and influence him to drop the case and fully embrace the Joker persona—being unapologetic for all the people he killed.
By the end though, Arthur owns up to the murders and wipes the make-up off, leaving Lee to dump him and become a clown herself. Some even say that the film implies that Lee actually kills herself, and the Harley that Joker meets on the staircase is another one of his delusions.
Another Misunderstood Movie?
Early reactions to this film have been nothing but ruthless, but after the weekend, more fans have been coming out to say that the vitriol is unjustified, and a lot of fans just didn’t ‘get’ the movie.
Besides it being a musical—which a lot of the negative reviews seem to hate—the movie was also considered a deconstruction of the first Joker. Whereas the original celebrated Arthur’s transformation into the Joker, the sequel has Arthur tormented by his ‘shadow’ and has him realizing he’s become the very thing he hated—a bully.
Arthur quits the Joker persona, and he’s dumped by Harley—who some think is a representation of the audience who loves the violent, maniacal criminal that was the Joker; making the film a sort of meta-narrative that tells audiences that Joker is not a character to worship/emulate.
Already many are posting their think pieces in support of Folie a Deux:
It’s not clear yet on where Joker: Folie a Deux will land in the comic book zeitgeist, but some are hoping that others give the movie an actual shot instead of just listening to the vitriol online.
Catch Joker: Folie a Deux now in cinemas.