The Best And Worst Reviews After Venice Film Festival Debut

Critics are split after Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga’s Joker: Folie à Deux premiered at the Venice International Film Festival Wednesday.

Phoenix, Gaga and director Todd Phillips attended the film’s red carpet world premiere in Venice, where Joker: Folie à Deux is screening in competition. A sequel to 2019’s Joker—which earned Phoenix a Best Actor Oscar—Joker: Folie à Deux is a crime drama like its predecessor but also a jukebox musical that brings Gaga’s Harley Quinn into the fold.

Although the film doesn’t open in North American theaters until October 4, reviews out of Venice have been pouring into the critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. As of publication, Joker: Folie à Deux has an RT rating of 60% “fresh” based on 43 reviews.

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Among the most positive reviews by top critics on RT, John Nugent of Empire Magazine writes, “As sweet and beguiling a musical romance as it’s possible to have between two murderous psychopaths. Its kooky approach won’t suit all stripes of comic-book fan, but it finds a strange, tragic hopefulness all of its own.”

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also praises the Joker sequel, writing, “Gaga is a compelling live-wire presence, splitting the difference between affinity and obsession, while endearingly giving Arthur a shot … Their musical numbers, both duets and solos, have a vitality that the more often dour film desperately needs.”

Deadline’s Pete Hammond also keys in on the film’s showbiz sensibilities, writing, “With song, dance, comedy, darkness, animation, drama, violence and more, this is a musical, if it even is a musical, like no other.”

Criticisms Of ‘Joker’ Sequel Include ‘Startlingly Dull’ and ‘Not Much Fun’

The logline for the Joker sequel reads, “Joker: Folie à Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.”

But while there’s music in the film, not all of RT’s top critics are harmonious in their praise of “Joker: Folie à Deux.”

Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson writes of the film, “It’s startlingly dull, a pointless procedural that seems to disdain its audience,” while the BBC’s Nicholas Barber pens, “Depending on how you look at it, this demythologizing exercise is either daring or it’s irritatingly smug, but it’s definitely not much fun.”

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Among the most damning reviews of the movie comes from IndieWire critic David Ehrlich, whose headline reads, “Joker: Folie à Deux Review: Todd Phillips’ Musical Sequel Feels Like It’s Bad on Purpose.”

Ehrlich doesn’t let up on his criticism in the sub-head of his review, adding, “Boring, flat, and such a criminal waste of Lady Gaga that we should demand a public hearing, Folie à Deux tries and fails to make a point of our own frustrations with it.”

Audience members, of course, will get a chance to form their own opinions when Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4.

The Venice International Film Festival—which kicked off August 27 with the world premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice—runs through Saturday.

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