JOKER INTERMISSION - AMC Lincoln Square - IMAX

Not a part of NYFF but it was seen between these two films and I have to include it. This is a dark day in Cinema. A group of friends and I wanted to make an event out of seeing Joker Folie A Deux, as it seemed like it’d be a crazy ‘so bad it’s good’ experience featuring Lady Gaga. How could it have gone this wrong? The only available screening was at 11PM and i was in and out of sleep the entire time, but I still got the gist. When director Todd Philips said this wasn’t a musical but a drama where sometimes the characters are moved to express themselves through song, it sounded ridiculous, that’s just the description of a musical. But he was right, it was just that sometimes the characters sing in dream sequences on a fake stage or they whisper sing because they're just so crazy and damaged. The Joker himself is completely humiliated, debased, and abused in prison and in the courtroom which is the only two settings for almost the entire film, which would be fine, but it wasn’t a compelling courtroom drama in the slightest. It’s true, Philips is the Joker himself, anyone wanted to see something of any value in any way? A plot, a work of art, good music? It’s all torturous. It felt like it was meant to release a curse into this world. What do you get when you make a successful film that is a gritty reimagining of a character from a superhero franchise, and are given a lot of money to make a sequel? You get what you fucking deserve!