Director Todd Phillips’ 2019 film “Joker” was an unexpected massive success, with its gritty reimagining of the Batman villain as a mentally disturbed outcast played by Joaquin Phoenix. The dull, tedious sequel “Joker: Folie à Deux,” however, has been a failure with both critics (scoring just 33 percent at Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (receiving a rare D grade from polling service CinemaScore).
After his murder spree, Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is now in a mental institution while awaiting trial, and he forms a connection with a fellow patient played by Lady Gaga, as a version of Batman villain Harley Quinn. Phillips offers half-hearted musical numbers that squander Lady Gaga’s talent, but “Folie à Deux” is as much a courtroom drama as a musical, without the conviction to commit to any particular approach.
If you’re one of the many moviegoers disappointed with “Joker: Folie à Deux,” here are five better movies with similar themes and ideas to check out instead.
‘A Star Is Born’
Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut is also a music-filled drama about a doomed romance starring Lady Gaga, but it’s much more emotionally engaging, with better musical performances. This is the fourth version of the story about an older male star mentoring and falling in love with a young woman on the rise, and Cooper makes a strong case for his take on the material. He plays grizzled singer-songwriter Jackson Maine, who spots Gaga’s Ally performing in a bar and is smitten with her talent, beauty and charm.
As Jackson descends into depression and alcoholism, Ally becomes a superstar, and their romance is tainted by their opposite personal and professional trajectories. There’s real weight to the tragedy as it unfolds, and the original songs sound like genuine hits, giving the movie a sense of authenticity as it explores the pitfalls of showbiz.
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‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’
Director Milos Forman’s Oscar-winning drama offers a starker, more realistic (but also funnier) take on life in a mental institution, based on the novel by Ken Kesey. Kesey spent time working in an actual mental health facility, and he drew on his real-life experience for the story of a rebellious patient initiating an uprising against a tyrannical nurse.
Jack Nicholson (who would later go on to play a very different version of the Joker) stars as Randle McMurphy, a convict who manipulates the system so he can serve his sentence in a less restrictive location. Surrounded by residents who are actually mentally ill, McMurphy immediately starts causing trouble, especially with the stern Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). The movie explores the dehumanization of institutionalization, mixing anguish and despair with small moments of triumph.
‘Dancer in the Dark’
The faux-edginess of the “Joker” movies is nothing compared to the bracingly bleak outlook of Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, who is known for the relentless misery he brings to his often hapless protagonists. That’s certainly the case for naïve 1960s factory worker Selma (Björk), who’s going progressively blind thanks to a hereditary condition that she’s hoping to spare her son from experiencing.
She escapes the slow torture of her everyday life via her love of musicals, and the contrast becomes more pronounced as Selma’s circumstances get worse and worse. The sadism of the story is mitigated by the musical numbers, which may be their own kind of sadism but at least allow Selma some level of agency, if only internally. Even as the world seems to be conspiring to destroy her and everyone she loves, Selma keeps singing.
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‘Chicago’
The occasional bits of singing do little to liven up the plodding courtroom drama in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” but Rob Marshall’s film version of this hit Broadway musical knows exactly how to mix crime with musical numbers. Like Arthur Fleck, accused murderer Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) is a media sensation whose trial attracts tons of attention, which she uses to further her ambitions for stardom.
She’s aided by flashy attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), whose fellow client Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) gets jealous when Roxie starts receiving all the press. Set in the 1920s, “Chicago” is a stylish spectacle with exuberant performances and classic songs from Broadway legends John Kander and Fred Ebb. It’s a reminder that musicals about murder and deceit don’t have to be mumbly and dour.
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‘Ingrid Goes West’
Lady Gaga’s Lee Quinzel doesn’t just meet Arthur Fleck by chance — she’s a Joker superfan who makes sure she’s in the right place at the right time to catch his eye. “Joker: Folie à Deux” takes place in a pre- social media era, but the idea of stalking someone in order to insinuate yourself into their life is essentially the same as what the title character of “Ingrid Goes West” does with various online influencers.
Aubrey Plaza is one of the few actors who could easily play both Joker and Harley Quinn, and her Ingrid is deranged but strangely sympathetic as she goes to extraordinary and unhealthy lengths to befriend Instagram star Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen). “Ingrid Goes West” is funnier and more incisive about celebrity than “Joker: Folie à Deux,” and much less self-important about its smart social commentary.
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