Even those involved with making Joker: Folie a Deux think it’s a bad film. Case in point: Tim Dillon played a guard at Arkham Asylum in Joker 2; the actor, comedian, and podcaster has been speaking openly about his disdain for the sequel film, which has crashed and burned at the box office ($204 million worldwide on a budget of $200 million), and has been dumped onto digital streaming platforms less than a month after being released in theaters.
“It’s the worst film that has ever been made. It’s actually not ‘so bad.’ It’s the worst film ever made,” Dillon emphasized while on the Joe Rogen Podcast. “I think what happened, after the first Joker, there was a lot of talk like, ‘Oh, this was loved by incels. This was loved by the wrong kinds of people. This sent the wrong kind of message. Male rage! Nihilism!’ All these think pieces. And then I think, ‘What if we went the other way,’ and now they have Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga tap dancing, to a point where it’s insane… It has no plot… It’s not even hate watchable. That’s how terrible it is.”
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Dillon went on to describe how the larger crew of background actors and extras were baffled through production on Folie á Deux, trying to discern what director Todd Phillips intended:
“We would sit there, me and these other guys were all dressed in these security outfits because we’re working at the Arkham Asylum, and I would turn to one of them, and we’d hear this crap, and I’d go, ‘What the f*ck is this?’ And they’d go, ‘This is going to bomb, man.’ I go, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever…’” Dillon described. “We were talking about it at lunch, and we’d go, ‘What is the plot? Is there a plot? I don’t know, I think he falls in love with her in the prison?’”
Was Joker 2 Just A Bad Joke?
In my review of Joker: Folie á Deux breaking down how the sequel clearly signals to the viewer that Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix were not pleased with the original film’s success. The underlying point of Joker (2018) – that no one cares about an “Arthur Fleck” but will idolize a madman in clown paint – was almost hilariously validated by a billion-dollar box office and multiple Oscar wins, marking career heights for Phillips and Phoenix, all on the strength of Batman lore that had been oh-so-loosely draped over the film. Joker 2 made it unabashedly, awkwardly, even painfully clear that Phillips and Phoenix view “Oscar-bait movies” and comic book movies with equal levels of cynicism. It’s hard to look at Joker: Folie á Deux (its scolding damnation of the first film and violent, decisive ending for Arthur Fleck) and see any kind of earnest attempt to expand or improve upon the first film. It’s easier to see a punchline in which Phillips and Phoenix took public pressure from the studio and a misguided fanbase, and used the money to make a mockery of everything they’d done before.
Based on Tim Dillon’s report from the set, the crew felt the same way too.
Joker: Folie á Deux is now streaming on digital.
