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Joker 2 Review by Paul Schrader Bashes Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga

Published

1 month ago

October 17, 2024

Christoph Rediske

joker 2 review by paul schrader bashes joaquin phoenix and lady gaga

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Joker 2 receives harsh criticism from fans and filmmaker Paul Schrader, who calls it a bad musical.
Joker 2’s box office performance is a flop compared to its successful predecessor.
DC sequels like Aquaman 2 and Shazam 2 also failed to replicate previous success.

Joker 2 reviews have harshly criticized director Todd Phillips’ DC sequel. Now, an acclaimed filmmaker’s assessment of Joker: Folie à Deux seemingly took a personal dig at Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga.

Joker: Folie à Deux opened to mixed reviews (at best). While several critics found fault with the first Joker movie, it earned legions of fans and won several accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actor for Phoenix. Conversely, Joker 2 has found no such love from fans, earning a 33% audience rating compared to the first film’s 89% score. Now, acclaimed filmmaker Paul Schrader has shared his assessment of Joker 2, and he shares the negative views of most moviegoers.

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During an interview with Interview Magazine, Schrader–the writer of acclaimed films such as Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and director of equally praised features like Blue Collar and First Reformed–said he couldn’t finish watching Joker 2 when he saw it in theaters. “I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough,” Schrader said. He later characterized Joker 2 as “a really bad musical.” When asked why he thinks Joker 2 is bad, Schrader critiqued Phoenix and Gaga, seemingly both for the characters they portray and as actors:

I don’t like either of those people. I don’t like them as actors. I don’t like them as characters. I don’t like the whole thing. I mean, those are people who, if they came to your house, you’d slip out the back door.

Schrader’s criticism of Joker 2 is not the film’s only misfortune. The first Joker movie defied the critics by earning over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. While Joker is far from the only film to reach this box office milestone, its relatively modest $55–70 million budget meant it was the most profitable comic book movie ever, a title it retains today. However, Joker 2 is a box office bomb, opening well below its predecessor and suffering a historic 81% second-weekend drop, the worst ever for a comic book movie and one of the worst for any big-budget production.

Joker 2 will be released on digital platforms on October 29, 2024, less than a month after its theatrical debut. While it may recoup or mitigate its financial losses when it’s digitally released, Joker 2‘s box office failure could cost Warner Bros. millions. Joker 2 isn’t the only DC sequel to disappoint. Aquaman 2 and Shazam 2 failed to reach the box office success of their predecessors. However, Joker 2‘s critical and financial woes surprised many people, even though projections were gradually lowered as its release date approached.

There could be many reasons for Joker 2‘s crash and burn with critics and moviegoers. Joker was initially designed as a standalone film, but its record-breaking box office success guaranteed Warner Bros. would pursue a sequel regardless of whether it was merited. Perhaps trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice was always a fool’s errand.

Joker: Folie à Deux is now playing in theaters.

Joker: Folie a Deux

Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Todd Phillips’ critically acclaimed comic book thriller Joker. Reprising his Academy Award-winning performance as the failed comedian Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix revisits the iconic DC character alongside Lady Gaga, who makes her debut as Joker’s lover Harley Quinn in this standalone continuity of the DC Universe.