‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ trailer: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are what the world needs now [Watch]
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Debuting at Las Vegas’s CinemaCon – and online soon thereafter – the trailer for Todd Phillips’s follow-up to ‘Joker,’ the Best Picture nominee that won Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor Oscar, blew up the internet late Tuesday night. The two-and-a-half-minute promo answered many lingering questions about the film.
As the title suggests, it’s very much about the mad love shared between Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck/Joker and Lady Gaga’s Harlene Quinzel/Harley Quinn. (A “folie à deux” is a French term for a shared delusion. Incidentally, if you want to make the accent over the a known as a “grave” it is option+`, then you press an a—at least on a Mac.) In DC Comics lore, Quinn starts as a psychiatrist who is then lured into Joker’s orbit; here it appears that she’s already one of his fellow inmates at Arkham Asylum when they meet.
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Recent news leaks and some photos suggested that the film, which won the top prize at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, would be a “jukebox musical.” It’s still a little unclear just how much singing-and-hoofin’ Phoenix and Gaga will do, but some images (like colorful umbrellas in a gray rain, a rooftop dance) confirm that this will have some big production numbers. At CinemaCon, Phillips hedged a bit, saying that “music is an essential element” of the production, but hesitated to call it a full-on musical. The teaser is set to a new version of “What the World Needs Now,” a Burt Bachrach and Hal David popularized by Jackie DeShannon (offering us a quick shot of Gaga in a full mod ‘60s get-up doing the Monkey).
Other exciting moments include seeing Gaga’s Harley on “the Joker Staircase,” an actual spot in the Bronx that has annoyed residents with Instagrammers looking to make little videos, and Gaga putting a lipstick smile on a glass barrier, then Phoenix leaning into it.
The biggest surprise, at least for me, is Gaga’s decision not to make Harley Quinn sound like Cyndi Lauper, but tone the voice down to something less comical. The three-time Grammy-winner and four-time Emmy nominee won an Academy Award for her song “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” and has two other Best Song nominations, but only has one nomination for acting—for “A Star is Born.” Despite winning Best Actress from the righteous New York Film Critics Circle for her legendary role in “House of Gucci,” the academy gave her the big diss on that one. All signs point to them not making the same mistake here.
2019’s “Joker” remains the top-grossing R-rated movie in history.
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