It’s Sooo Important That We Revisit Martin Scorsese Talking About 'Joker'

"I saw clips of it."

While we’re here: I returned to “Las Culturistas,” this time with Peyton. My LOVE/HATE list for Dreambaby Press that I labored over an embarrassing amount. And: If you happen to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma this Saturday, I’m assisting my friend Stephen Brower with his wonderful one man show. Get tickets here. Spoilers for Joker: Folie à Deux to follow.

Martin Scorsese attends a press conference at Museo Del Cinema on October 7, 2024. (Photo: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)

Joker: Folie à Deux, directed by Todd Phillips, is at its best when it concerns itself with the way a good beauty blender can bring two people together. Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as Arthur Fleck, a dissafected stand up comedian turned domestic terrorist; Lady Gaga is Harley Quinn, his moody lover. They meet in a Arkham State Hospital and love jazz standards and a high-coverage foundation. Arthur wants Harley Quinn, but she’s only interested in his Joker alter-ego, getting herself admitted to Arkham to cozy up to him.¹

If Todd Phillips had an original thought, he used them all up in The Hangover movies. Joker, Phillips’s falsely provocative DC origin story, was a stupidly tame examination of isolation that retreats into fantasy and how civil bureaucracy can strangle. It was Taxi Driver written in Crayon, The King of Comedy fashioned out of Play-Doh. In that first movie, Arthur Fleck resisted his Joker alter-ego but eventually succumbed to it; in the second movie, it’s a Mack Daddy personality he can wear to impress his crush.

It would be better if Joker was rank and offensive. I even wish it were contrarian! Instead, it’s a lot of nothing images executed half-heartedly: a love story without any attention, let alone attraction … a descent into madness that’s a foregone conclusion …  a dull courtroom drama. Its director has been found in contempt of its audience: Joker despises his followers as much as this movie resents the people watching it. How about it’s a musical with one of the greatest pop stars alive, but she’s sentenced to a lot of scenes where she has to pretend she can’t actually sing.

I could go on, but should I? Folie à Deux is not designed for movie lovers or even comic book lovers. It is designed for a day with awkwardly spaced out errands, a weird amount of time where the only thing for you to do is hand over $20 for a seat in an air conditioned room to take a nap in.