The sound of manic laughter will fill the air again next month as Joker: Folie à Deux shuffles menacingly onto the big screen at Cineworld (from 4 October – tickets are on sale now). Coming five years after the original Joker movie, Todd Phillips’ long-awaited sequel sees Joaquin Phoenix reprise his role as the failed comedian turned villain, with pop sensation Lady Gaga joining him on screen as Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel – aka Harley Quinn.
But what else is there to know about this latest release from the DC Comics universe? Join us as we round up the most interesting facts, from what it’s about to what the critics have been saying about it…
By the way, if you're a fan of the Batman films, don't miss our special screenings, which we're putting on over the next few weeks to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the Caped Crusader. Still to come, we have Batman & Robin (11 September), Batman Begins (17 September), The Dark Knight (21 September), The Dark Knight Rises (26 September) and The Batman (30 September).
It’s set two years after the first film
You may recall that the first Joker film ended with Arthur Fleck – aka Joker – being committed to Arkham State Hospital after he murdered TV host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) live on air, inciting riots across Gotham City. Well, Joker: Folie à Deux picks up the story two years on. Fleck – still an inmate at Arkham – falls for music therapist Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel (played by Lady Gaga), igniting a twisted romance that sees the pair bonded by their love of music and mayhem. The French term ‘folie à deux’ actually translates as a delusion or mental illness shared by two people.
Lady Gaga had to learn how to sing differently
Though you’ve probably heard Lady Gaga sing a thousand times, you won’t ever have heard her croon like she does when playing Lee Quinzel. She and Fleck can be seen performing several duets together in the movie, and Gaga told Empire: "It was unlike anything I've ever done before. For me, there's plenty of bum notes, actually, from Lee. I'm a trained singer, right? So even my breathing was different when I sang as Lee. When I breathe to sing on stage, I have this very controlled way to make sure that I'm on pitch and it’s sustained at the right rhythm and amount of time, but Lee would never know how to do any of that. So, it’s like removing the technicality of the whole thing, removing my perceived artform from it all and completely being inside of who she is."
Much of the original script was rewritten
As with the first Joker movie, this film was penned by Scott Silver (8 Mile, The Fighter), with help from Todd Phillips. But according to Lady Gaga, members of the cast were involved in the edits. “We’d very often meet in Joaquin’s trailer and sometimes we would just tear the script up and start all over,” she told Vogue. “It was a really cool, liberating process.”
Steve Coogan is in it
From Alan Partridge to Saxondale, Philomena to Night At The Museum – Steve Coogan seems to pop up everywhere. So, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that he makes an appearance in the new Joker film. What can we expect? We’re not entirely sure – and neither is he! “I have a very interesting scene with Joaquin Phoenix," he told Deadline. "I play a CNN-type reporter who interviews him in his cell. Beyond that, I don't know. I've not seen it, so I'm as in the dark as anyone else.”
The early reviews have been good
Joker: Folie à Deux has already been showing to movie critics, and, for the most part, it’s gone down very well. Tori Brazier of metro.co.uk wrote: “Folie à Deux achieves two remarkable things. It updates the movie musical, using the genre in an inspired way that shouldn’t frighten fans who don’t like them. It’s also that rare sequel that meets – if not surpasses – the quality of its predecessor.”
Loud and Clear’s Serena Seghedoni also gave the film a positive review, writing: “Joker: Folie à Deux is absolutely not what you expect it to be, but that’s not a bad thing. Todd Phillips’ film is the story of a man who refuses to be anything but himself right till the very end, and that’s what makes this Joker sequel so deliciously subversive.”
And James Mottram of the Radio Times singled out the lead actor for particular praise, gushing: “Phoenix is seamless, picking up this maudlin character again as if it were only yesterday. It's a truly versatile, malleable performance.”
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