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Audacious, different, bold and brilliant! Joker: Folie a Deux is a punchline five years in the making, and boy is it worth the wait, writes BRIAN VINER


The film is audaciously different in style from the original, not quite as electrifying, but bold and brilliant all the same.

Last night, here in Venice, came the world premiere of the sequel, Joker: Folie a Deux The director is again Todd Phillips, with Joaquin Phoenix once more in the title role, this time joined by Lady Gaga as what I suppose we must call the love interest, although that would undervalue her wonderful performance. It begins with a kind of sinister jauntiness with a Joker animation in the style of a Tom & Jerry cartoon, to show that since the events of the first movie, Arthur Fleck along with his murderous alter ego has become a cultural phenomenon in Gotham City. But Arthur is behind bars, waiting to see whether he will be judged sane enough to stand trial for murder, and in the meantime enjoying his celebrity status both with fellow prisoners and even the warders, one of whom, a sadistic Irishman played by Brendan Gleeson, feeds him cigarettes in return for jokes.

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