Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan Foreman  |
Writing in
The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave it 3/5 stars, saying:
"I found [Joker] bizarrely overpraised and overrated by saucer-eyed pundits, but it became a prize-winning sensation - and perpetuated the awards-season tradition of rewarding the idea of comedy on the strict understanding that it's not supposed to be funny.
Now the sequel is here, and though it ends up as strident, laborious and often flat-out tedious as the first film, there's an improvement. It's a musical, of sorts, with Phoenix and others warbling show tune standards, often in fantasy set pieces, a little in the way of Dennis Potter's Pennies from Heaven. This gives it structure and flavour that the first film didn't have."
For
Deadline, Pete Hammond was much more positive, saying:
"Production values across the board are excellent, particularly returning Lawrence Sher's cinematography, the production design of Mark Friedberg, and costumes from Arianna Phillips. Hildur Gudnadottir's score for the first Joker was so integral to the story it won an Oscar. Here she hits just the right notes again. Musically we should point out contributions of executive music producer Jason Ruder and supervisors Randall Poster and George Drakoulias. The mix of songs is artful.
Phillips likely could not have foretold the explosion of the musical form in unexpected ways this season, but with The End, Better Man, Emelia Perez and Piece by Piece all exciting Telluride audiences over the weekend, it is clear that the genre is igniting a new era of innovation. Phillips, with today's world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where the 2019 Joker took the Golden Lion, has added his own voice to its evolution. With song, dance, comedy, darkness, animation, drama, violence and more, this is a musical - if it even is a musical - like no other.
That's entertainment, too."