OTC50 #110

DC COMICS MEETS INSTITUTIONAL REALISM

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The opening scenes take place in a forensic psychiatric hospital set in the decade when DC Comics fictionalized the Arkham Asylum.

Director Todd Phillips holds that institutional aesthetic with the creative framing of scenes and the casting of long shadows in dimly lit cold empty concrete rooms of the hospital setting, in Joker: Folie a Deux (2024).

Cinematographer Lawrence Sher creates an interesting tone and atmosphere for the narrative that winds back and forth through the asylum where Joaquin Phoenix reprises his Oscar winner role as the title character in the Joker (2019) also directed by Todd Phillips.

Initially, Arthur Fleck, also known as the Joker, participates in a forensic psychiatric examination to convince the court he was not criminally responsible at the time he committed multiple murders.

The Joker finds love at first sight during one of these appointments with the forensic psychiatrist.

But Lee, played by Lady Gaga, has been in love for a long time already, ever since watching the television dramatization of the murders.

The forensic interview and a later news television interview are in part shown in that flat tone television screen format to create a bit of context and intertextuality. This intertextuality provides the foundation for several psychotropic flashes.

Todd incrementally builds up the fantasy elements of the film until begrudgingly suspending disbelief during some of the more comic book scenes. What complicates matters is that the film weaves in the musical genre, thereby explaining the casting of Lady Gaga.

The psychotropic scenes get muddled together with the musical scenes, and everything gets more complicated and more interesting ever thereafter.

Brendan Gleeson plays an interesting character as the hospital guard taking a personal interest in The Joker. Catherine Keener plays the Joker’s trial lawyer, Maryanne Stewart.

Once the baseline theories of the film are established, the criminal trial gets underway. Thankfully though the entire rest of the film still oscillates back and forth between the courtroom and the forensic hospital and the shared psychotropic experiences between the Joker and Lee.

The scenes flow seamlessly together often compelled forward by the sophisticated acting performances, far better from the expectation of comic book caricature.

Phoenix has a part in gradually building suspense. Arthur moves from the sedated homicidal sociopath to the more sinister character with a dual personality.

The dangerous criminal has a narcissistic side that wants to be publicly known if not for his jokes, then for his crimes.