Peter James Mann
The highly anticipated trailer for Todd Phillips next Joker film, Joker: Folie à Deux, has arrived and we’re here to break it down like one of this movie’s musical sequences.
In a starstruck lovers moment early in the trailer’s run time, we see Harley singing with a choir in what appears to be a music therapy class during treatment. He is pushed away quickly, but she is clearly interested in Arthur.
Here, this shot might seem innocuous. However, right before, keen viewers might spot the umbrellas are a standard black color. When he looks to the sky, looking into the rain with a smile, he’s imagining or hallucinating more colorful sequences.
Here, we see Harley Quinn entering but still in the darkness. She is still mysterious to Arthur and it is still clearly his show.
We see their names in lights, with a background in the same exact colors as the umbrellas earlier in the trailer. These could become a bit of a motif in the art direction, cluing audiences in that not all is as it seems.
Given that they met as patients in a mental institution earlier in the trailer, it’s a given that elements of their relationship are, well, toxic. Arthur, clearly, has met his match. And what a match they are.
Here we get to see Lady Gaga fully turn into Todd Phillip’s take on Harley Quinn. She still has her Harlequin Joker Card theming from Batman: The Animated Series and subsequent comics, but like Arthur, this is set purly in the early 1980s. Whatever is happening here, the circus these two are causing can only mean trouble for Gotham.
The musical sequences peppered throughout prepare audiences for some pretty jarring cuts from reality as the show in Arthur’s head grows and grows. Each one shows him more and more enveloped in the Joker persona we saw take shape at the end of Joker.
Arthur smiles against a lipstick smile Harley draws for him from the other side of the glass so she can see him in makeup and “see the real him.” It’s a brilliant, haunting shot that’s perfect to end this trailer.
Now, let’s talk about some references I noticed that might clue us in on the films Phillips used as his keystones for this journey deeper into his Joker Universe. As has been discussed to death, the original 2019 Joker takes heavily from both Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy.
The two I think we’ll be seeing the most from in this film are cult classics about similarly troubled protagonists: Bronson and Sid and Nancy.
Bronson (2008)
Made by Nicolas Winding Refn right before his seminal work, Drive, it is also responsible for introducing more of the world to Tom Hardy, who would later star in Inception and of course The Dark Knight Rises. So, this film is a pretty big deal in terms of modern Film History.
The film has some pretty jarring sequences that include musical numbers and stage asides, where Charles Bronson addresses the crowd directly as if they are the audience in the theater he is performing in.
And what a performance. Tom Hardy shows, especially in the One Man Show sequences, what we would later see in films like Venom. He will have two characters, one on each side of his face, and he’ll switch back and forth faster than Robin Williams doing a stand-up routine.
In one moment, Bronson will be singing in his cell. The next, he’s taking on multiple guards for the fun of it. There’s no rhyme or reason for his madness other than wanting to be the best fighter, or the king of the hill, or the scariest man. But outside of that, all he has is madness and loneliness.
If you haven’t seen it, watch it. You’ll be glad you did.
Sid and Nancy (1986)
If there were ever two doomed lovers hellbent on their own destruction in real life, it was Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols and Nancy Spungen, played brilliantly in the nightmarishly-dreamlike biopic by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb. Their romance ended in an incredibly tragic murder suicide fueled by drugs and emotional toxicity between each other and, seemingly, the band and management according to the film.
Another film that showcases everything an actor can do, Gary Oldman simply is Sid Vicious in a way that Val Kilmer would become Van Morrison in The Doors, and is the epitome of perfect casting. And the chemistry between Chloe Webb and himself is incredible.
It’s also worth noting that with Gary Oldman being the lead here, we have yet another connection to the Dark Knight Universe Christopher Nolan created. Clearly, Phillips has good taste.
This film, like Bronson (which may be referencing this film as it does with A Clockwork Orange,) has large musical sequences. However, Joker: Folie à Deux will be pulling heavier from this film for those dreamlike sequences of performance. It’s also a big clue the dynamic between Joker and Harley Quinn will be in the film.
The films that Phillips is borrowing from for Joker: Folie à Deux might be jarring for some fans of the first film, who identified with the themes of loneliness or Fleck’s troubles relating to society. It also will disappoint those who might have hoped for a more Scorsese-scentric film once more.
But with Todd Phillips’ 1st film constantly being compared to Taxi Driver, it’s understandable that he’d go in a different, deeper cult classic direction. But referencing these films also shows the evolution of Arthur Fleck. Both Charles Bronson and Sid Vicious are just as insane as the previous comparisons of Travis Bickle or Robert Pupkin from The King of Comedy. It shows a grandioseness to the delusions and insanity in Arthur’s head and how, forgive the pun, crazy in love he becomes with Harley.
We can’t wait to see more of Joker: Folie à Deux, but what about you? Let us know in the comment below or over on our Facebook page.
See you soon.
