The obvious faults and sneaky virtues of 'Joker 2'

God help me, I think you should watch this movie.

Joker 2 is on Max today. It is the flop of the year, maybe of the decade. People who loved the first Joker ignored it, people who hated Joker still somehow felt disappointed. It has a chunky French subtitle, Folié a Deux, which I refuse to mention again. It grossed $800 million less than its 2019 predecessor. It does not seem like an essential movie to watch this holiday season. Yet I am urging you to do that.

Yes, the first hour feels like an endless Netflix drama, characters in shadow explaining things intensely. The last act, though: Jesus! Can’t stop thinking about it. There’s a twist, a real all-time fuck-you, but also a swell of turbulent emotion.

Some necessary table-setting. I’m neutral-negative on 2019’s Joker. Caught it late, was bored, didn’t get the controversy. It came out right after I became a dad, so I no longer felt called to burn-it-down anarchy. I prefer my Bat-stuff with flourish and zhuzh: Tim Burton, Fox’s Gotham, anything with colors. If we’re talking recent megahits with Trumpian aesthetics, though, Top Gun: Maverick still seems way more insidious. Incels are terrible, but Joker resonated beyond any single straw-man demographic. It grossed a billion dollars and won Oscars. Last time I was in Mexico, Joker had the most bootleg T-shirts.

This year, the thing you read most often in Joker 2 reviews was: What a waste of Lady Gaga. Her talents were squandered, allegedly, on lame music, miniscule narrative, a bad romance. This is the most crucial point I disagree with. Gaga plays a poser in Joker 2, a fake so devoted to bullshit she creates The New Truth. It’s my favorite of her movie roles. She is “Lee,” alias “Harleen Quinzel,” alias “Harley Quinn.” Margot Robbie did a very Very version of Harley Quinn last decade: supermodel chaingun burlesque, newsies sell papes! accent. “Lee” just looks and sounds like Gaga.

The movie’s best purposes depend on her. Joker 2 is about a very particular mania: How a person becomes a cause, how followers invent their leaders, how idol worship dehumanizes idols and worshippers. A studio made a $200 million calamity about the disease of fandom? Don’t let some snotty kid reappraise this in 15 years! Hope on the reclamation train, toot tooot!