Critics have different opinions about the musical featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga.
Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the 2019 movie with Joaquin Phoenix, got a low score on Rotten Tomatoes as more critics shared their reviews.
At its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, reactions were mixed. Some people called it “brilliant” and “interesting,” while others thought it was “boring” and “hard to sit through.” One critic who liked the film was Geoffrey Macnab from The Independent. He gave it four stars and said,
“The dark themes in the movie stand out because of its very harsh ending, which goes against comic book rules and focuses more on the characters’ minds.”
“Phoenix’s performance is still strong and moving. The amazing thing is that we can’t help but feel for Arthur, even with his problems and craziness.”
The film is a musical and features Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, the Joker’s sidekick and love interest. According to Forbes, it got a low early score of 61 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the same score as the poorly received Black Adam.
That score has now fallen to just 39 percent as most critics criticize the story, songs, and the much-discussed ending.

The current review on Rotten Tomatoes says:
“Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker takes center stage in a sequel that moves around while the story stays the same, but Lady Gaga’s lively energy adds some excitement to Folie á Deux.”
New York Times critic Manohia Dargis wrote:
“The main problem with Folie à Deux is that it’s a half-finished, half-hearted musical. It has one star who can sing, Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel, or Harley Quinn, and another star (Phoenix) who either can’t or doesn’t want to sing.”
Audrey Fox from Looper said:
“Even fans of Joker probably won’t find much to like in this messy and really silly film.”
Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times said in his review:
“There’s always a joker and a clown, but if he doesn’t change into something bigger, bolder, and scarier, it starts to feel like we’ve seen this before, just without the musical numbers.”
Kevin Maher from The Times called the film “messy, lifeless, unoriginal, and exactly what you’d expect from a movie that doesn’t need to exist.”
Some more positive reviews came from Danny Leigh at The Financial Times, who said it is “less dislikeable than the first film.” Meanwhile, Ireland’s RTE mentioned, “The movie creates a tight atmosphere, feels calm and unexciting, and that makes it better.”

This film will be the last time Phoenix plays the Joker. After the premiere, a journalist asked him about his weight loss for the movie, and he said it was more “complicated” than it was for the first Joker in 2019.
See More: Joaquin Leaves Joker: Folie A Deux Minutes Before the Standing Ovation Ends
For the first movie, Phoenix lost 52 pounds to get the character’s thin appearance by eating mostly steamed vegetables and lettuce. Phoenix was unsure about sharing specific details about his diet this time, telling reporters,
“I’m not going to get into the specifics of the diet.”
However, he mentioned that losing weight for the sequel “felt a bit more complicated” because he had to do a lot of dance rehearsals, which he didn’t have to do last time.
Source: Independent