<strong><u>Joker: Folie À Deux (15, 138 mins)</u></strong><br>
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Verdict: Bold, brilliant sequel <br>
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<u>A Different Man (15, 112 mins)</u><br>
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Verdict: A touching satire <br>
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Venice, a city long associated with masks and masquerades, was the <br>
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perfect place to unveil Joker five years ago; and last month, at the venerable film festival there, it was followed by the sequel, Joker:<br>
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Folie À Deux.<br>
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The director is again Todd Phillips, with Joaquin Phoenix once more in the title role, this time joined <br>
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by Lady Gaga as what I suppose we must call the love interest,<br>
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although that would undervalue her wonderful performance.<br>
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We've known since A Star Is Born in 2018 that she can act, but she really is terrific in a bad-girl role.<br>
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They'd have loved her at St Trinian's.<br>
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This film is audaciously different in style from the original,<br>
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not as electrifying, but bold and brilliant all the same.<br>
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Arthur is now behind bars, waiting to see whether he <br>
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will be judged sane enough to stand trial for murder,<br>
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and in the meantime enjoying his celebrity status with fellow prisoners and even the warders, <br>
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one of whom, a sadistic Irishman played by Brendan Gleeson, feeds him cigarettes in return for jokes.<br>
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<strong><u>Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in sequel <br>
<br>
Joker: Folie À Deux</u></strong><br>
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Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie a Deux - an American musical <br>
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psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips<br>
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Joaquin Phoenix reprises his role as the Joker, with Lady Gaga joining the cast as his love interest, <br>
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Harley Quinn<br>
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Lady Gaga plays Lee, a fellow inmate on her way, we suppose, to becoming Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn.<br>
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The pair hit it off at a music therapy class, <br>
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and are soon mutually smitten, but Lee makes it clear that she loves <br>
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the dangerously charismatic Joker, 'clown prince of crime', not the <br>
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gloomily introspective Arthur.<br>
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Read More<br>
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<i><u>Megalopolis review: Coppola's self-indulgent <br>
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comeback may be a MEGAFLOPOLIS</u></i><br>
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Which is more real: the psychopath wearing the mask or the vulnerable fellow <br>
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behind it? Either way, identity confusion is the theme of this film,<br>
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which keeps being billed as a musical. <br>
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It's not, really, although music looms large as an expression of Arthur and Lee's burgeoning <br>
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love for <a href="https://rentry.co/upn52gtb">iqos one iluma</a> another.<br>
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And there are a couple of swooning dance routines that make them look like psychotic <br>
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versions of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in La La Land (2016).<br>
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Moreover, it is while watching Vincente Minnelli's 1953 classic The Band Wagon that Lee, who claims to have been imprisoned <br>
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for arson, sets fire to their prison wing.<br>
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The ensuing chaos provides an excellent opportunity to <br>
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escape, yet Phillips and his co-writer Scott Silver skilfully toy with our expectations throughout;<br>
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each time we anticipate which way the narrative is going to go, it confounds us by wheeling off in another direction.<br>
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Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie a Deux - an American musical psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips<br>
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For me, Joker was a near-masterpiece, and while this sequel doesn't scale those heady heights, it is still a gripping film about mental illness, writes <br>
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Brian Viner <br>
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Eventually, after Arthur's high-profile TV appearance with a smug interviewer played <br>
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by Steve Coogan, it is time for the trial, with all of Gotham gripped by the subject of multiple personality disorder.<br>
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Is the defendant accused of five murders Arthur,<br>
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or is it Joker? His kindly lawyer (Catherine Keener) strives to show it <br>
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is the former; Lee just as urgently wants him to identify as <br>
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his demonic alter ego.<br>
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Read More<br>
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<b><u>His Three Daughters review: Savour this exquisite <br>
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elegy to death and sisterhood, writes BRIAN VINER</u></b><br>
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For me, Joker was a near-masterpiece, and while this sequel doesn't scale those heady <br>
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heights, it is still a gripping film about mental illness; not <br>
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quite comparable with all-time greats such as Psycho (1960) and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest <br>
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(1975), but not too far off.<br>
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- Joker's Gotham, of course, is a lightly fictionalised version of New York <br>
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City. The real thing is the backdrop to A Different Man, another absorbing story, splendidly written and directed by Aaron Schimberg,<br>
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about an urban loner struggling with life.<br>
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In the case of the troubled, self-conscious Edward (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring actor, that's apparently <br>
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because he has a disfiguring craniofacial condition. <br>
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Instructional corporate videos seem to be about as far <br>
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as he can get in the acting world.<br>
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There are obvious echoes of The Elephant Man (1980), and for that matter of recent release The Substance,<br>
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in which Demi Moore's character, a former movie star 'disfigured' <br>
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by a few wrinkles, finds a way of transforming into her own younger self.<br>
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<b>A still from the film A Different Man directed by <br>
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Aaron Schimberg</b><br>
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Here, Edward is told by a doctor that 'an alternative path has presented itself'.<br>
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In other words, medical science has found a way to reverse his <br>
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condition, turning him into a perfectly attractive middle-aged man.<br>
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But Schimberg's point, made with great satirical swagger, is that Edward, despite his radical change in appearance,<br>
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is still the same person underneath that he always was.<br>
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In his former condition he was befriended by his pretty, charismatic neighbour, Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), a playwright.<br>
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Now he is able to fall into bed with her, and to star in a play <br>
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she has written about their relationship, little though she knows of his real identity.<br>
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I was even reminded of Tootsie (1982) and Mrs Doubtfire (1993) <br>
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as Edward's new persona fundamentally fails to alter who he actually is.<br>
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This is illuminated by the arrival of Oswald, an Englishman with the same condition Edward once had,<br>
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but popular, witty, confident, and gloriously played by Adam Pearson (who really does suffer from a disfiguring condition called neurofibromatosis).<br>
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Pearson is probably best-known for his debut film, Jonathan Glazer's brilliant Under The Skin (2013).<br>
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Which is apt, because this picture, too, is about what's under the skin.<br>
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<u>-A longer review of Joker: Folie À Deux ran a month <br>
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ago. Both films are in cinemas now.</u><br>
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<b>Paul Weller's film debut? That's entertainment!</b><br>
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The 68th London Film Festival opens next week with the <br>
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world premiere of Blitz, director Steve McQueen's drama set in London as the Luftwaffe's bombs rain down night after night.<br>
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Saoirse Ronan, for my money one of the most talented actresses of her generation, plays Rita, an East <br>
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End mum whose son George (Elliott Heffernan) goes missing.<br>
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It sounds intriguing even without the casting of The Jam's former front man Paul Weller — in his feature film debut — as <br>
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Rita's father.<br>
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I'm also very much looking forward to another world premiere, Joy, the story of the three brilliant British medical pioneers whose work on IVF <br>
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led to the world's first 'test-tube' baby, Louise Brown, in 1978.<br>
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<u><i>Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan and Paul Weller in the film 'Blitz'</i></u><br>
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It is directed by Ben Taylor, best-known for his TV work on shows such as Sex <br>
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Education and Catastrophe, and stars Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie.<br>
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I have heard great things about Conclave, the adaptation of <br>
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Robert Harris's novel starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci.<br>
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A couple of new documentaries catch the eye, too.<br>
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One of them is made by actress Sadie Frost, whose directing <br>
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debut was a film about Mary Quant. This time she turns to another fashion icon of the 1960s, with <br>
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a feature called Twiggy.<br>
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And Elton John: Never Too Late promises a 'uniquely intimate' look at the star's life and career.<br>
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It's been made by his long-time partner David Furnish, so… we'll see.<br>
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<u><strong>For more details, visit bfi.org.uk/lff.</strong></u><br>
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Lady Gaga
<strong><u>Joker: Folie À