The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Arthur Fleck

I got this sneaking suspicion we’re not giving the people what they want.

This line really encapsulates this film. Tarantino is right about this film being a giant "fuck you" to comic book movie fandom, but it is also a "fuck you" to the media industry as a whole.

Throughout the film Arthur Fleck vacillates between barely restraining his alter ego and desperately trying to bring the it out to entertain the audience while the media feeds on the whole spectacle. Fleck is a loser. He's neurodivergent, socially awkward, had to rely on social services and lived with his mother, who didn't even like him. This is a person who has been utterly rejected by society. Yet when he adopted the Joker persona and killed a celebrity live on TV he gained something he could never manage as Arthur Fleck, pathetic clown. He gained an audience.

Joker: Folie à Deux explores the consequences of heaping attention onto a mentally unstable clown, something the media can't seem to stop itself from doing. Fleck starts the film out as a model prisoner. On the advice of his legal counsel he has distanced himself from the Joker. His most severe idiosyncrasy, the uncontrollable fits of laughter at inappropriate moments, has been medicated away. The prison guards even have a certain condescending affection for him.

Then he meets his psychotic fan girl Harley Quinn, who loves Fleck for his alter ego. He soon embraces the Joker personality and turns his trial into the circus the media desires.

I can't be who you want me to be. It was all just a fantasy.

Eventually Arthur Fleck admits the truth, that he isn't the brilliant performer he wants so badly to be. The Joker isn't real, he's just Arthur Fleck wearing a costume. The moment he makes this confession the spell is broken and Fleck goes back to being just another loser.

This all echos how this movie was treated by critics and fans alike. Todd Phillips never intended Joker to have a sequel. But Hollywood being what it is, a sequel was inevitable. Fans wanted Joaquin Phoenix's Joker to become the criminal mastermind of the comics. The film even nods to this in a scene where two Joker fans attempt to break him free only to have him reject their help.

For me, the choice to make Folie à Deux a musical works for me despite outraging many fans. Todd Phillips seems to be saying, "I'm going to make the film I want to make, and I don't care what you think." As to all the comments you're likely to find on social media complaining about this movie for doing the clown prince of crime dirty just remember: that's entertainment.