Early reactions to Joker: Folie à Deux tease a chaotic and surreal musical with Lady Gaga delivering a transformative performance

Cake up on some makeup, be ready to dance atop the Highbridge stairs, and smile because early reactions for Joker: Folie à Deux are soft-shoeing their way onto social media. Following a blind screening of Todd Phillips’ hotly-anticipated sequel to 2019’s Joker, entertainment site GoldDerby is spilling the tea about Joker: Folie à Deux!

In a social media post, GoldDerby reveals what it can about Joker: Folie à Deux, including Lady Gaga’s “transformative” performance as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, the film’s musical elements, and how Phillips’ forthcoming film toys with DC lore, taking advantage of the Elseworlds aspect of the setup.

I have not modified the original transcription:

“Parts are chaotic for a reason,” GoldDerby posted online. “Parts are surrealistic also for a reason (and at least in part shot in B&W), parts are bloody (the chaotic part). Can’t spoil how exactly. It’s also very political as you would expect from Joker franchise. The person I spoke with was mighty impressed but caution it’s just on opinion.”

The post continues, “Gaga is indeed equal to Phoenix or even more cnetral. No way to fraud her in supporting. from what I understood, he doesn’t call her Harley buyt a nickname derived from it. I guess that has created a confusion whether she plays Harley or not (she does). They both perform sonds as a duel and some are just her singing. Songs are mix of old songs and new ones. Old one are sand in one part of movie, new/original ones in another. It isn’t all a singing movie. Famous characters appear in it. Some changes to lore since these movies are standalones from certain other DC franchise.”

Gold Derby adds, “Surrealism would be some scenes (can’t specify which) but not the whole movie (it isn’t all a dream/hallucination type of thing). Gaga’s performance is said to be transformative and sensational.”

Joker: Folie À Deux screening blinds are dropping and indeed are very interesting to read

(Source: GoldDerby) pic.twitter.com/ZQnniUoskD

— L (fan account) (@live4ga) March 18, 2024

The part that stands out to me the most is when the individual says, “famous characters appear.” Do they mean characters from the first film, like Zazie Beetz’s Sophie Dumond, or flashbacks to Robert De Niro’s Murray Franklin? Does Joker: Folie à Deux include more known DC characters than Joker and Harley? Could we be in for some surprises when Joker: Folie à Deux waltzes into theaters on October 4, 2024?

Other reactions to the film are making the rounds, with audience members praising Lady Gaga’s electrifying performance and mentioning the film’s altering of classic song lyrics to fit the movie. Reactions to the film could be monumentally unhinged between the project’s musical roots, political leanings, and prioritizing Harley over Arthur. I say, bring it on!