Joker: Folie à Deux is going to be the biggest bounce in years. Discuss

People are going to HATE this movie. The target audience for a comic book musical full of 1970s references with zero action or stakes does not exist.

Joaquin Phoenix cannot sing a note and it’s a musical. Again and again, his thin, reedy voice is autotuned within an inch of his life while the movie comes to a dead stop for a musical sequence with no purpose or direction.

In addition to a musical, it’s also a glacially paced courtroom drama. Nothing that happens in the court makes any sense or has any bearing on the plot. This accounts for 80% of the screen time.

The songs are all from the mid-1970s (with an early 80s anachronism thrown in at the end for no reason) and nobody who knows “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” is going to be buying a ticket for Joker 2. The 25-year-olds next to me asked if the songs were original to the film because they didn’t know any of them.

It betrays its entire premise in the final act and ends with a reference that’s genuinely insulting. I was at a fan first screening surrounded by influencers who were basically paid to like it and they were openly derisive at the end. A guy in a purple suit and makeup said “at least Lady Gaga was good.”