Madness For Two? Don't mind if I do! If there ever was a word to concisely sum up this movie it would be, ballsy. I mean a comic book musical movie, that is polarizing enough as is! But me being a bit of a theater kid and fan of musicals, my reaction when that tidbit of information was, far out. This movie is one part court drama, one part romance, with a splash of musical and is that everyone's beverage of choice? Of course not, but I'll recommend it anyway. So we pick up not long after the ending of the last movie with Arthur in Arkham getting ready for his court case when he meets musically inclined Lee and a mad romance blooms, with Arthur almost having an identity crisis during the trial that could lead to his death. How on earth do you make a sequel to Joker? The answer is, you go off the rails and do your own shit unapologetically making an already unique movie all the more a beast of it's own. We kick off the movie with a Looney Tunes style short, which is a splendid gauge cause if you don't like that the musical madness ain't gonna do much for you either. Well while we are on that topic how was the music? I didn't expect original composition per sé but the selection of songs they picked were good ones, and there is indeed many a musical moment, and the vocal performances from Joaquin and Lady Gaga worked well. Even the romance while kind of a switcheroo in the Joker/Harley dynamic I found to be interesting and just fine, not super deep but functional. I felt the movie did a very good job proposing the question of is it Arthur or is it Joker? Is there indeed a split personality or is the man also the legend? It's not super involved or has monologues of flowery dialogue, because Joaquin can do so much with his face and before he even meets Lee he's kind of in a rut very much like comatose Joker in The Dark Knight Returns. How the Joker got his groove back would be a fun subtitle. The pacing is good, it gets artsy from time to time which of course my cinema snob heart sings to see, the direction taking in terms of plot is in short bold, and I am almost waiting with baited breath how this movie will be recieved now or a year from now or even a decade from now. 3 stars from me, 8/10, and we cap off the week with the forging of the Seven.
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