All of which might be on model for Phillips, who not so subtly remade in all however identify basic noirs and psychological dramas from Martin Scorsese’s early profession, specifically Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982) when he co-wrote the primary Joker screenplay.
So Arthur and Harley turning into Mickey and Mallory appears very on model for Phillips’ recontextualization of infamous late twentieth century cinema in early twenty first century IP garb. Nevertheless, each that reality and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being’s definition for “folie à deux” makes us marvel if there may be one other course the movie could possibly be getting in solely.
Based on the NIH (by way of NCBI), “Folie à deux is outlined as an an identical or comparable psychological dysfunction affecting two or extra people, normally the members of an in depth household.”
It could possibly confer with people who find themselves household. Or not less than assume they’re. And in the event you recall within the authentic Joker film, earlier than calling himself Joker, Arthur Fleck offered himself to a younger Bruce Wayne as his lengthy misplaced brother. That is an concept (or delusion) that needed to turn into fairly horrible for Bruce after Arthur’s later anarchic rage in opposition to the machine prompted a mob to homicide his mother and father.
One of many final issues we see in Joker is Arthur, now devoid of his make-up, in a psychiatric ward laughing to himself on the considered wealthy boy Bruce Wayne being orphaned by the have-nots of Gotham Metropolis. That is clearly a thread of nice significance not solely to this model of Batman and Joker mythos, however to the themes Phillips needed to discover concerning the cruelties of a society the place the rich virtually get away with homicide… till the Joker and his forces homicide them.
So whereas pivoting to a Joker and Harley story has enchantment, significantly for followers left wanting by the primary Suicide Squad film, I personally suspect Phillips’ pursuits lie elsewhere. Additional Scorsese has left just a few blueprints on this course as nicely.
