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Joker: Folie À Deux (15, 138 mins)
Verdict: Bold, brilliant sequel
Rating:
A Different Man (15, 112 mins)
Verdict: A touching satire
Rating:
Venice, a city long associated with masks and masquerades, was the perfect place to unveil Joker five years ago; and last month, at the venerable film festival there, it was followed by the sequel, Joker: Folie À Deux.
The director is again Todd Phillips, with Joaquin Phoenix once more in the title role, this time joined by Lady Gaga as what I suppose we must call the love interest, although that would undervalue her wonderful performance.
We've known since A Star Is Born in 2018 that she can act, but she really is terrific in a bad-girl role. They'd have loved her at St Trinian's.
This film is audaciously different in style from the original, not as electrifying, but bold and brilliant all the same.
Arthur is now behind bars, waiting to see whether he will be judged sane enough to stand trial for murder, and in the meantime enjoying his celebrity status with fellow prisoners and even the warders, one of whom, a sadistic Irishman played by Brendan Gleeson, feeds him cigarettes in return for jokes.
Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in sequel Joker: Folie À Deux
Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie a Deux - an American musical psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips
Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as the Joker, with Lady Gaga joining the cast as his love interest, Harley Quinn
Lady Gaga plays Lee, a fellow inmate on her way, we suppose, to becoming Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn. The pair hit it off at a music therapy class, and are soon mutually smitten, but Lee makes it clear that she loves the dangerously charismatic Joker, 'clown prince of crime', not the gloomily introspective Arthur.
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Which is more real: the psychopath wearing the mask or the vulnerable fellow behind it? Either way, identity confusion is the theme of this film, which keeps being billed as a musical.
It's not, really, although music looms large as an expression of Arthur and Lee's burgeoning love for one another. And there are a couple of swooning dance routines that make them look like psychotic versions of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in La La Land (2016).
Moreover, it is while watching Vincente Minnelli's 1953 classic The Band Wagon that Lee, who claims to have been imprisoned for arson, sets fire to their prison wing.
The ensuing chaos provides an excellent opportunity to escape, yet Phillips and his co-writer Scott Silver skilfully toy with our expectations throughout; each time we anticipate which way the narrative is going to go, it confounds us by wheeling off in another direction.
Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie a Deux - an American musical psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips
For me, Joker was a near-masterpiece, and บาคาร่า while this sequel doesn't scale those heady heights, it is still a gripping film about mental illness, writes Brian Viner
Eventually, after Arthur's high-profile TV appearance with a smug interviewer played by Steve Coogan, it is time for the trial, with all of Gotham gripped by the subject of multiple personality disorder. Is the defendant accused of five murders Arthur, or is it Joker? His kindly lawyer (Catherine Keener) strives to show it is the former; Lee just as urgently wants him to identify as his demonic alter ego.
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For me, Joker was a near-masterpiece, and while this sequel doesn't scale those heady heights, it is still a gripping film about mental illness; not quite comparable with all-time greats such as Psycho (1960) and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), but not too far off.
- Joker's Gotham, of course, is a lightly fictionalised version of New York City. The real thing is the backdrop to A Different Man, another absorbing story, splendidly written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, about an urban loner struggling with life.
In the case of the troubled, self-conscious Edward (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring actor, that's apparently because he has a disfiguring craniofacial condition. Instructional corporate videos seem to be about as far as he can get in the acting world.
There are obvious echoes of The Elephant Man (1980), and for that matter of recent release The Substance, p2vvip in which Demi Moore's character, a former movie star 'disfigured' by a few wrinkles, finds a way of transforming into her own younger self.
A still from the film A Different Man directed by Aaron Schimberg
Here, Edward is told by a doctor that 'an alternative path has presented itself'. In other words, บาคาร่า medical science has found a way to reverse his condition, turning him into a perfectly attractive middle-aged man.
But Schimberg's point, made with great satirical swagger, is that Edward, despite his radical change in appearance, is still the same person underneath that he always was.
In his former condition he was befriended by his pretty, charismatic neighbour, Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), a playwright. Now he is able to fall into bed with her, and to star in a play she has written about their relationship, little though she knows of his real identity.
I was even reminded of Tootsie (1982) and Mrs Doubtfire (1993) as Edward's new persona fundamentally fails to alter who he actually is. This is illuminated by the arrival of Oswald, an Englishman with the same condition Edward once had, but popular, witty, confident, and gloriously played by Adam Pearson (who really does suffer from a disfiguring condition called neurofibromatosis).
Pearson is probably best-known for his debut film, Jonathan Glazer's brilliant Under The Skin (2013). Which is apt, because this picture, too, is about what's under the skin.
-A longer review of Joker: Folie À Deux ran a month ago. Both films are in cinemas now.
Paul Weller's film debut? That's entertainment!
The 68th London Film Festival opens next week with the world premiere of Blitz, director Steve McQueen's drama set in London as the Luftwaffe's bombs rain down night after night.
Saoirse Ronan, บาคาร่า for my money one of the most talented actresses of her generation, plays Rita, an East End mum whose son George (Elliott Heffernan) goes missing. It sounds intriguing even without the casting of The Jam's former front man Paul Weller — in his feature film debut — as Rita's father.
I'm also very much looking forward to another world premiere, Joy, the story of the three brilliant British medical pioneers whose work on IVF led to the world's first 'test-tube' baby, Louise Brown, in 1978.
Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan and Paul Weller in the film 'Blitz'
It is directed by Ben Taylor, best-known for his TV work on shows such as Sex Education and Catastrophe, and stars Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie.
I have heard great things about Conclave, the adaptation of Robert Harris's novel starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci. A couple of new documentaries catch the eye, too. One of them is made by actress Sadie Frost, whose directing debut was a film about Mary Quant. This time she turns to another fashion icon of the 1960s, with a feature called Twiggy.
And Elton John: Never Too Late promises a 'uniquely intimate' look at the star's life and career. It's been made by his long-time partner David Furnish, so… we'll see.
For more details, visit bfi.org.uk/lff.
Lady Gaga
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