FFive years ago, Todd Phillips released his acclaimed take on the DC Comics supervillain Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix donning clown makeup as the bananas Pagliacci Arthur Fleck in a strange Scorsese-pastiche thriller starring Joker as both Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin — and getting the undeserved honor of killing off a character played by Robert De Niro.

I found the film bizarrely overrated and praised by critical commentators, but it went on to become an awards-season sensation – continuing the awards season tradition of rewarding the idea of ​​comedy under the strict condition that it cannot be funny.

Now the sequel is here, and while it ends just as stridently, laboriously, and often downright boringly as the first film, there is an improvement. It is a kind of musical, with Phoenix and others singing show-tune standards, often in fantasy set pieces, not unlike Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven. This gives it a texture and flavor that the first film lacked.

And that sensational acting and musical talent Lady Gaga is now in the mix – though with nothing like the humanity and depth she had in Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born – as Harleen Quinzel (that is, Harley Quinn), a deeply disturbed psychiatric patient who meets Joker at the music therapy class he’s allowed to attend as a reward for good behavior while in custody awaiting trial for his five murders. They fall madly in love – with each other, that is, which adds to the existing self-aggrandizement of each of them, though it’s never clear whether the leads’ narcissism is intentional.

There’s no doubt about it, the opening is sensational. A parody of the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon recaps the story so far, raising the curtain on a stormy first half that chronicles Arthur’s existence in prison. There’s a terrific supporting cast, with Brendan Gleeson as the prison guard (oddly, it’s only Gleeson whose character tells a joke while giving an indication of what a joke sounds like), Catherine Keener as Arthur’s lawyer, Steve Coogan as a tabloid TV interviewer, and Zazie Beetz briefly reprising her role as Arthur’s former neighbor.

There’s a real spark when Joker and Harley meet in prison. But the whole film ends up being oppressive, claustrophobic and repeatedly calm in that strangely surreal Gotham prison, where Phoenix and Gaga are kept apart for so long – and Phoenix’s own performance is as monotonous as ever, but just as powerful, and his screen presence is potent.

Attorney Maryanne Stewart’s (Keener) plan is to convince the judge that her client is mentally disturbed by his abusive upbringing and deserves hospital treatment on the grounds of diminished responsibility. District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) says Arthur is not crazy and deserves the electric chair.

As for Arthur, he’s conflicted. He understands that the insanity plea is his only chance. But he also yearns to embrace his Joker destiny again—to embrace the crazy, scary clown persona his lawyer tells him to reject: it’s given him fame, it’s given him a heroic destiny, and it’s given him love with Harley.

Lady Gaga brings a cunning and manipulative evil to the role: Harley is mysterious, clever and genuinely disturbed in a way that Arthur/Joker might not be. Will she be the Lady Macbeth of DC supervillains?

A little. The story as it is constructed doesn’t give her character much chance to develop – in this direction or any other. And it’s possible to feel very uneasy during the final stretch, wondering if anything plausible, sad, funny or unexpected will be revealed about Arthur, given how the film’s body language insists on his mythic importance.

This insane self-control propels the film upwards on its plodding narrative slope. And Lady Gaga delivers a diva attack. Could her Harley Quinn be returning for an adventure of her own?