Todd Phillips’Jokersequel is finally coming together. The director recently posted the cover of the screenplay on social media, confirming the title to beJoker: Folie à Deux. The eponymous mental disorder, “folly of two” in English, refers to a delusion or madness shared by two people. After fans spent a couple of days speculating about who might share Arthur Fleck’s folly – other Jokers? Bruce Wayne? – theHollywood Reporterannounced that Warner Bros. was in talks with Lady Gaga for the role of Harley Quinn (and that the sequel is apparently a musical).
While the firstJokermovie was a huge critical and commercial success, its derivative script received some complaints. Phillips borrowed heavily from the works of Martin Scorsese,particularlyTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy.Jokeris essentially a mashup of those two movies. Just likeTaxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, Arthur Fleck is a disturbed loner who takes up arms to exact his own brand of vigilante justice. And just likeThe King of Comedy’s Rupert Pupkin, he’s a wannabe comedian who lives with his overbearing mother and shares a delusional relationship with a late-night talk show host. LikeTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy,Jokerends on a hauntingly ambiguous note after its antihero turns to a life of crime.
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With the latest announcement aboutFolie à Deux, it seems that Phillips is continuing to lift ideas and visuals from Scorsese’s filmography. The musical romance aspect of theJokersequel’sHarley Quinn storylinesuggests that it’ll be borrowing a lot fromNew York, New York. ButNew York, New Yorkis the wrong Scorsese movie to borrow from. After the ambiguous ending of the first movie, there’s a different Scorsese film that would make a much better jumping-off point for the sequel.
New York, New York Is One Of Scorsese’s Weakest Movies
With Arthur beingincarcerated in Arkham Asylumat the end of the firstJokermovie, it seemed likely that the next ‘70s classic that Phillips borrowed from would beOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But if the sequel is a musical starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, then it’ll play more like a remake ofNew York, New Yorkset in a mental institution. If that’s Phillips’ stylistic waypoint, then theJokersequel could be in big trouble. At least withTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy, Phillips was ripping off solid movies that have stood the test of time.New York, New Yorkis one of Scorsese’s weakest movies.
Released in 1977,New York, New Yorkwas the first major box office bomb of Scorsese’s career. He had to break new cinematic ground and influence a generation of filmmakers withRaging Bulljust to salvage that career and keep working. It starsScorsese’s go-to leading man Robert De Niroas a jazz saxophonist and Liza Minnelli as a pop singer. They fall in love, get married, and quickly grow to resent each other. Minnelli’s turn was widely praised, but the harrowing tragedy ofNew York, New York’s doomed romance storyline doesn’t gel with its glitzy, nostalgic tone harking back to classical Hollywood musicals. A great performance by a popstar-turned-actor let down by a muddled tone sounds eerily similar to the mixed reviews met byGaga’s most recent starring vehicle,House of Gucci.
Shutter Island Would Make A Better Stylistic Model
Based on the final scene of the firstJokermovie,the best Scorsese filmfor a sequel to borrow from would beShutter Island. Musical romance is a bizarre genre choice for theJokersequel. After Arthur was locked in Arkham at the end of the first movie, the sequel should be a twisty, ambiguous, asylum-set psychological thriller. A pitch-perfect blend of neo-noir and psycho-horror,Shutter Islandstars Leonardo DiCaprio as a U.S. Marshal who travels to a mental institution in the middle of nowhere to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Along the way, he stumbles uponhaunting truths about the institution– and about himself.
The firstJokermovie worked best when the audience couldn’t tell if what they were watching was real or imaginary.Shutter Islandtakes that kind of cinematic misdirection to the nth degree. It’s a mind-bending trip through a disturbed mind putting up defenses to obscure a horrifying reality. Whatever Phillips has in store for the sequel, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga will undoubtedly make a captivating on-screen pairing. And if cinematographer Lawrence Sher is back behind the camera, it’ll be visually stunning. But a Scorsese-inspired movie set in Arkham Asylum will feel like a wasted opportunity if it draws everything fromNew York, New Yorkand nothing fromShutter Island.Jokerfans don’t want to seeLa La Landin clown makeup; they want to dive into the mind of a sadistic, murderous psychopath and see what makes them tick.
