call of the unseen movie review

24 Awards at international film festivals

Including Best Feature Film, Director, Screenplay, Lead Actress, LEAD ACTOR, Art Direction, Editing, Original Score, Sound Design, CGI & VISUAL EFFECTS, Costume Design, Regional award, Creative prize.

Five Continents International Film Festival Sept 2022, Venezuela

Montreal Independent Film Festival Fall 2022, Canada

Cosmic Film Festival 2022, USA

Västerås Film Festival 2022, Sweden

Hollywood Verge Film Awards 2023, USA

 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards Spring 2023, USA

Sensei Tokyo Filmfest 2023, Japan

Nordic Star Festival 2023, Sweden

Official selection:

TORONTO INTL. SPRING OF HORROR AND FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL 2023, CANADA MAVERICK MOVIE AWARDS 2023, UK XI FANTASTIC AND TERROR FILM FESTIVAL IN TÀRREGA – GALACTICAT 2023, SPAIN KANAZAWA FILM FESTIVAL 2023, JAPAN INTL. HORROR, FANTASTIC AND ACTION FILM FESTIVAL AND AWARDS “DROP” 2023, RUSSIA INTERNATIONAL SCIFI & FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL 2023, USA SHOCKFEST FILM FESTIVAL 2023, USA BLOW-UP ARTHOUSE FILMFEST 2023, USA LUSCA Fantastic Film Fest 2023, Puerto Rico BOSTON SCIFI FILM FEST 2024, USA

  Detailed list available in the electronic press kit

Watch it now!

North America, Latin America & UK

A young art student suffers from a lack of confidence and her troubled lecturer struggles with dark visions.

Unexpectedly, their fates begin to intertwine on a strange and hazardous journey into the unknown.

Written and directed by

Henrik Pilerud

Nathalie Merchant, Alan Adler, Marika Lagercrantz, Anki Larsson

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WhichFilm | Film Reviews | Audience Film Reviews

Call of the Unseen (2022)

Director: Henrik Pilerud 100 minutes

Release Date: 2nd November 2022

A young art student and her lecturer begin to have their lives intertwined as they embark on a strange, adventurous journey.

Create your own review

Call of the Unseen is a quirky, surreal, and adventurous movie . The young actress Nathalie Merchant plays an art student who shines as someone shy of confidence and it's centered around her and her art lecturer who is trying to get more out of his students. He becomes a bit of a mentor to her, but then suddenly doesn't turn up to lectures with no one seemingly caring where he is, and his peers not even interested in locating him so Mya takes it upon herself to try and find him. This is where Call of the Unseen takes a total turn from reality into a vast fantasy where she heads to a mysterious island with a lighthouse. I don't want to spoil this for you but you can assume she meets weird and friendly creatures as well as the not so friendly. Kids may want a parent with them for this one as there certain parts that might give them a little shock or two. Call of the Unseen is a very good blend of the mystical with odd happenings and an upside down world. If your brain can cope with things like that then you should enjoy what has turned out to be a very watchable and entertaining Swedish film with excellent special effects and a good story to take you from start to finish.

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CALL FOR ENTRIES

• Jan 25, 2023

Best First Time Filmmaker, Henrik Pilerud, discusses imaginative feature 'Call of the Unseen'

Call of the Unseen

Written and Directed by Henrik Pilerud

A young art student suffers from a lack of confidence and her tormented lecturer struggles with dark visions.

Unexpectedly, their fates begin to intertwine on a strange and hazardous journey into the unknown.

Q&A with Henrik Pilerud

Q1: Tell us a little about Call of the Unseen, Winner of Best First Time Filmmaker, Best Feature, and Best International Film in the festival.

Call of the Unseen is a story about confronting your fears and getting out of your comfort zone. Travelling into the unknown and and growing as a person and creator in the process. We follow art student Mya; how she loses confidence in her artistic creativity, and reaches out to her art teacher, Mr. Arkwright, to tutor her. He is making art inspired by the visions that are haunting him, resulting in creepy motifs. But just as they are about to begin, the art teacher mysteriously disappears. Now, Mya will have to find him, so he can finish helping her like he promised.

Q2: Where did the idea for this film come from?

The ideas for the film are inspired by a mix of my own life situation, and people around me, mixed with other authors works like H. P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror, Tove Jansson's Moomin stories, and films like Neverending Story and Spirited Away. The type of stories I as a director and writer are very fond of.

Q3: What were some key challenges when making this film? How did you overcome them?

Financing is always a big challenge. This film ended up being almost completely self financed. COVID was a challenge. Keeping a project going for 5 years, while at the same time working to support yourself, is quite demanding.

Q4: Tell us a funny anecdote or a memorable moment from making this film.

The only time it rained, and made us have to halt the shooting and move indoors, was when we were filming the crossing of the sea in the bathtub, when (in the scene) it is supposed to rain. But, since we were filming against a fabric green screen, it could not rain because it makes spots on the green screen. Ironic.

Q5: How did you get into the film industry?

I have always wanted to tell stories by making films. So I have done that. Year after year, learning by doing it. No formal film education.

Q6: What films or filmmakers have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?

Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg, J. M. Jeunet. They all make stories that are something else than normal everyday life, and have personal styles to their storytelling. Imaginative, playful, exciting.

Q7: Do you have a favorite film project that you have done? Why?

Call of the Unseen is my latest, largest and best film to date. It is a very personal story for me, mirroring my own life, as well as being imaginative in a way I like stories to be.

Q8: What advice would you share with a new filmmaker about filmmaking or the industry?

Work with what you have. Use you cell phone and a free editing app, if that is what you can afford. And keep making stories. Never let anyone else decide for you if you are "allowed" to make films. The better you get, the more resources you can gather the better films you can create. But start small. Just do it!

Q9: Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects?

There are many seeds on the ground, I need to start watering them and see what grows.

Q10: Where can people find out more about your work?

P ilerud.com

CallOfTheUnseen.com (links to the streaming platforms which host Call of the Unseen)

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Call of the Unseen Reviews

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Call of the Unseen

• Credits 
• Trailers  [1]
• Image gallery  [1]

All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders and/or producers/distributors.

• Nathalie Merchant

• Ingemar Jansson
• Ingvar Örner

• Casper Andreas
• Richard Desiatnik
• Marga Pettersson
• Magne Osnes
• Saga-Maria Lundquist
• Christian Bitar
• Sedra Bäcklin
• Anna Vikmanis
• See all credits

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User history

Call of the Unseen (2022)

Directed by henrik pilerud.

• AllMovie Rating 1
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Alternate Titles

Call of the Unseen

A young art student suffers from a lack of confidence and her troubled lecturer struggles with dark visions. Unexpectedly, their fates begin to intertwine on a strange and hazardous journey into the unknown. Call of the Unseen featuring Nathalie Merchant and Alan Adler is streaming with subscription on Hoopla, free on Tubi, available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, and 1 other. It's an action & adventure and drama movie with a less than average IMDb audience rating of 4.8 (502 votes).

Where to Watch

Available to rent or buy

Currently you are able to watch Call of the Unseen streaming on Tubi, and Hoopla. It is also possible to buy Call of the Unseen on Prime Video, and VUDU or rent it on Prime Video, and VUDU.

'Call of the Unseen' Streaming: How to Watch Anywhere

Currently, Call of the Unseen is available in Canada, and the US

If Call of the Unseen is not available in your country or you're traveling, use ExpressVPN to access it anywhere. Plus, Reelgood users get 3 months free , making it easier to enjoy your favorite content without interruptions.

Streaming availability last updated: 03:01:36 AM, 09/04/2024 PST

More Information onCall of the Unseen

Action & Adventure

Henrik Pilerud

Mya Westbrook

Nathalie Merchant

Thomas Arkwright

Marika Lagercrantz

Lighthouse Keeper Tora

Anki Larsson

Stone Troll

Ingemar Jansson

Ingvar örner.

Principal Philippa

Police Operator / Goblin / Black Beak

Yohanna Idha

Police Operator / Acolyte

Casper Andreas

Richard desiatnik.

Female Fisher

Marga Pettersson

Male Fisher

Magne Osnes

Female Art Student

Saga Maria Lundquist

Male Art Student

Christian Bitar

Stone Troll / Acolyte (voice)

Frank Sanderson

Mya's Mother (voice)

Letitia Ward

Acolyte (voice)

Karin Bertling

Camilla bard, sedra bäcklin.

Amphibian / Black Beak

Anna Vikmanis

Executive Producer

Simon Kölle

Ratings & Reviews

The Reelgood Score is a comprehensive weighted index designed to evaluate movie & TV quality, deriving its value from a blend of Reelgood user engagement, external ratings metrics expressed through content popularity, and user feedback, including ratings such as "loved," "liked," and "disliked." The score is presented on a scale from 1 to 100, where 100 signifies content that is highly esteemed and positively rated within the community.

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Cast & Crew for Call of the Unseen

Call of the Unseen

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Where to watch

The resourceful girl, call of the unseen.

Directed by Henrik Pilerud

A young artist loses her confidence. An old artist struggles with dark visions. Their fates intertwine through an adventurous journey into the unknown.

Nathalie Merchant Alan Adler Marika Lagercrantz Anki Larsson Ingemar Jansson Ingvar Örner Sara Hagnö Yohanna Idha Casper Andreas Richard Desiatnik Marga Pettersson Magne Osnes Saga Maria Lundquist Christian Bitar Frank Sanderson Letitia Ward Karin Bertling Camilla Bard Sedra Bäcklin Anna Vikmanis

Director Director

Henrik Pilerud

Producer Producer

Writer writer, editor editor, cinematography cinematography.

Janne Jansson Henrik Pilerud

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Simon Kölle

Composer Composer

Sound sound.

Stefan Almryd Elizabeth Carlyon Danijel Djuric Kent Eriksson Stellan Särlefalk

Costume Design Costume Design

Emma Hedström Linnéa Karlsson Erik Pettersson Helen Pilerud

Makeup Makeup

Linda Nilsson

Baldur film

Alternative Titles

看不见的呼唤, לראות את הבלתי נראה

Fantasy Adventure Drama

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 02 nov 2022, releases by country.

• Theatrical limited 11

100 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Snailor Moon ★★½

It feels like the kind of film you'd see as a child on a sick day at 9am, and then spend the next 20 years wondering what the hell that fever dream was about, then you find it and say "well, that's kind of disappointing". I have to applaud the inventiveness though!

Review by Clitical Thinking ★★★

This film has a lot of good qualities: It's a very ambitious attempt and the aesthetic was creative, unique and interesting, particularly considering the budget. The locations were gorgeous, the fashion was neat (minus the lead's terrible wig) and the retro-futuristic interiors were really cool. Unfortunately, it's brought down by a poorly constructed script, mediocre acting and unnatural dialogue clearly written by a non-native English speaker. There were pacing issues, but I feel like a bit of editing might actually fix a lot of them.

For instance, just going back and forth between the teacher and the student instead of having all the teacher scenes at the end would have done a lot to add tension and a sense of…

Review by DungeonSkramz ★★

Not exactly adventurous to use the most predictable "going on a journey to find yourself" adventure film formula that only barely deviated to make some "haha technology bad" gags and pseudophilosophical jargon. As stock as the music they're using, but making a low budget film on this scale is certainly commendable, even if they're punching way above their weight.

Review by Obscure Owl ★★★

It started off a little dull and felt like a movie version of that "ordinary people vs creative people" meme. The tone jumped between somewhat whimsical children's story and taking itself too seriously as a young adult drama. It didn't want to fully commit to its own quirks.

Things picked up once she got to the island. I always enjoy stories about random encounters with fantastical characters, while the protagonist fumbles around trying to learn about life and stuff. It made the first act feel mostly unnecessary, or at least too long and poorly paced.

Review by Jonathan Katzeff ★★★

Perfect mix of fantasy and philosophy. A really ambitious project that I highly recommend!

Review by PauliJC ★★★★

A touching little tale with themes of artistry and a morale to fight for the expression of your unique voice. The diegesis, or the rules of the world the film is set in were delightfully creative. You can definitely see Stockholm as a location, but through the veil of Henrik Pilerud's eyes. As a director he adds a flare of surrealism. And I love those abstract, fantastical ideas. Why not have a Sweden where Trolls and magical beings exist? I for sure did the DiCaprio pointing thing to the screen many times throughout the watch. So happy to see many performers and places I know get their spotlight. Especially proud for my friend Nathalie portraying the character Mya. After a…

Review by Bad Boy HJ ★★★½

On a technical and business level this is of course endlessly inspiring. A Swedish director doing a mostly self-financed feature outside of the system. But as someone who watches a lot of films on this budget level, especially Swedish, I know that having "they never do real genre films in Sweden, only pretentious dramas" as a creative driving force isn't a guarantee for a good film. Often the result is something "good enough". A film that comes technically close to a high-budget studio version of itself, but not more than that. Mostly I am split to films like this. As a low budget filmmaker myself, I appreciate the effort highly, but I am unable to see it as something more…

Review by Nik Caesar ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

An artist finds out how to make art through stalking her art teacher in an indie Lovecraft Labyrinth. 3.5 donuts out of 5.

Review by alvinwedstedt

på arboga bio!

Review by Aaron ★★★½

First hour of the movie is a little draggy but i guess thats a given for most swedish films. Concept and cinematography are all really good. The final part is somewhat inspiring as it tugs at my soul.

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• TV Listings
• Cast & Crew

Call of the Unseen Reviews

• 1 hr 39 mins
• Watchlist Where to Watch

A young art student goes on an incredible adventure to save her art teacher. Starring Nathalie Merchant and Alan Adler.

Watch Call of the Unseen

• 1 hr 40 min
• 4.9   (497)

A young art student suffers from a lack of confidence and her troubled lecturer struggles with dark visions. Unexpectedly, their fates begin to intertwine on a strange and hazardous journey into the unknown.

• Genres Adventure Family Fantasy
• Cast Nathalie Merchant Alan Adler Marika Lagercrantz
• Director Henrik Pilerud
• Release Date 2022
• MPAA Rating TVPG
• Runtime 1 hr 40 min
• Language English
• IMDB Rating 4.9   (497)

Call of the Unseen (2022)

Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

Call of the Unseen Movie (2022)

Fantasy | Latest English Movies

English | 1 hr 40 min | Release Date Nov 01, 2022

Call of the Unseen : Release Date, Trailer, Cast & Songs

Where to Watch / Stream Call of the Unseen Online

Theatrical release - Not available on any OTT Platform right now.

Call of the Unseen - Star Cast And Crew

Henrik pilerud director, marika lagercrantz actor, yohanna idha actor, casper andreas actor, karin bertling actor.

Call of the Unseen All Songs List

Simon Kölle

Dreamers Avenue

Gajendra Varma, Gandhaar

Anmol Malik, Domestik Dew

Jonah Hill, Sam Jay

Bekon, Pete G

Bekon, Chakra

Sam Jay, Jonah Hill

Bekon, Stuart Johnson

Bekon, Sergiu Gherman, Marius Feder

Call of the Unseen Trailer

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Call Me Bae FIRST Review Out: Ananya Panday Starrer Is the 'Most Binge-Worthy Show' | Exclusive

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Ananya Panday starrer Call Me Bae is set to release this weekend.

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Call Me Bae is all set to release this weekend. The series stars Ananya Panday in the lead and has all the tropes of a fun chick-flick. While audiences’ verdict will be out once the series releases on Amazon Prime Video, Ananya, in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, revealed that one of the first reviews she got was from Karan Johar. Ananya said Karan Johar dubbed Call Me Bae ‘most binge-worthy show.’

“Karan, I had heard that they were going to him, watched all eight episodes in one go. I feel that the thing with the show is that people set out to watch the first episode but it really has that very binge quality and you just end up watching everything together. It is awesome and I hope people do that. Karan called it the most binge-worthy show, which is a great compliment. And he had a lot of fun. He was very proud and happy with everyone,” Ananya told us.

Director Collin D’Cunha also shared Karan’s reaction to the series. He told News18 Showsha exclusively, “He loved it, at least that’s what he told me. He binged it at one go. I uploaded the episodes on his iPad and he watched it on a flight. He met me and gave me a big hug. He’s been so supportive throughout.”

“He has been so involved, especially with the casting. He gets involved right in the beginning and he’s such a giving producer – he lets you free because he trusts your vision and he trusts you. His validation means a lot to us in the company. So, when he said he loves it, it made me really happy. He has gone publicly and spoken about how much he enjoyed the show. He’s really championing it, it makes me feel very happy and proud,” the filmmaker added.

Call Me Bae is created by Ishita Moitra and the story was penned by her, Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair. The eight-episode series stars Ananya Pandey, Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra and Mini Mathur. The series will stream on September 6.

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‘Queer’ Review: Daniel Craig Shows a Whole New Side in Luca Guadagnino’s Bold and Trippy Adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Ahead-of-Its-Time Novel

It's an edgy tale of addiction and also a love story, as Craig, pursuing Drew Starkey's object of desire, infuses Burroughs with a winning vulnerability.

By Owen Gleiberman

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In “ Queer ,” Luca Guadagnino ’s ebulliently scuzzy and adventurous adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ early confessional novel, William Lee ( Daniel Craig ), a dissipated refugee from America, is having dinner with Eugene (Drew Starkey), the beautiful young man he met in the underbelly of Mexico City, when he starts to explain how he came to grips with his sexual desires.

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“Queer” tells the story of Burroughs’ love affair — his attempt to forge a relationship with Eugene, who as played by Drew Starkey, behind owlish glasses, is like the world’s most intellectual Calvin Klein model. Lee first spies him in the evening street, in the middle of a crowd gawking at a cockfight. The scene is shot in slow motion, with Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” on the soundtrack, making the whole thing an underground vision of rapture. From Lee’s point-of-view, it’s one of those love-at-first-sight moments. He’s so smitten he’s dazed , as if he’d seen a god.

Daniel Craig, shifting about a dozen gears from James Bond, doesn’t make the mistake of impersonating the older William Burroughs who became a punk icon in the ’80s: the dry voice, the beady-eyed stare of hostility. Craig gives us a pinch of that glowering Burroughs DNA, but the trick of his performance, which is bold and funny and alive, is that he’s playing the younger Burroughs (at the time, the author was around 40), before he’d passed through the looking glass of cultivated insanity to write his visionary novel of American chaos, “Naked Lunch.” This is Burroughs before he got famous, when he was just…a man, pursuing what his instincts told him to. Craig makes him a nasty, witty literary dog laced with vulnerability. Pounding back shots of tequila, spitting out winding assertions like “Your generation has never learned the pleasures that a tutored palate confers on a magnificent few,” he’s a troublemaker, an abrasive soul. But he is also, deep in that bitter heart of his, a romantic. He tries to maintain power in every situation, but as soon as he meets Eugene, we see that the desire for love has supreme power over him.

Adapting Burroughs’ slender unfinished novel, which was written as a sequel to “Junkie” (1953) but not published until 1985 (it was Burroughs who kept it out of circulation, maybe because after defining his brand with “Naked Lunch” he was no longer willing to be seen as that vulnerable), Guadagnino, the brilliant director of “Challengers” and “Call Me by Your Name,” working from a screenplay by “Challengers'” Justin Kuritzkes, has a splendid time immersing us in the seamy corners of Mexico City, which in this movie recalls the sleepy ’50s border town of Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil.” He colors in a community: Lee and the other queers who hang out at the Ship Ahoy, a tastefully lit bar/restaurant, like Joe, a roly-poly nerd libertine (played by Jason Schwartzman, unrecognizable under ruddy padding, a bushy beard, and tortoise-shell glasses), or Dumé (Drew Droege), a vicious queen who also holds court at the Green Lantern, the district’s more seriously queer bar.

Why is Eugene at the Ship Ahoy? He goes there with a woman friend (Andra Ursuta), though it’s clear he’s got curiosities in other directions. But he has never acted on them. Burroughs based the character on Adelbert Lewis Marker, an American Navy serviceman he met in Mexico City, and Starkey, in his clear-eyed way, makes him a mystery dreamboat. Eugene clicks with Lee and becomes his drinking buddy, learning soon enough that Lee has designs on him. The seduction that happens is spiky and believable, as Lee, who’s both a white knight and a bit of a predator, woos Eugene from his comfort zone and into the queer zone. The first sex scene between them is tender and exciting, suffused with quivering heat. The second one, when Eugene allows himself to be fully taken for the first time, is cathartic.

Lee and Eugene sleep together, but they’re not quite a couple. Eugene wants his “independence,” which for him means independence from defining himself as queer. (He’s one of those men who thinks: Maybe I’m just dabbling.) And that’s the central reason that Lee begins to pursue his other obsession: setting out to South America to look for Yage (pronounced yah -hey), a plant found in the jungles of Ecuador that’s said to have telepathic qualities. Lee is obsessed with this for a reason that’s scurrilous but also kind of tragic. When he starts babbling about how the Russians, and maybe the CIA, are using Yage for thought-control experiments, he sounds, for the first time, like Burroughs the grandiose paranoiac of “Naked Lunch” (which was published in 1959). But the truth is that Lee is obsessed with telepathy because he thinks it will allow him to control others — like, for instance, Eugene. That’s why he asks Eugene to come to the jungle with him.

“Queer,” in its second half, turns into a very different movie, a trippy road comedy about the search for mind-altering transcendence. The film loses some of its pulse; it meanders. The novel did indeed take Lee into the jungle, but he never found Yage. Guadagnino, though, doing his own variation on the Burroughs mystique, decides to let Lee find what he’s looking for. Lee and Eugene traipse through the jungle and make their way to Dr. Cotter (played by an unrecognizable Lesley Manville, with greasy black hair and dirty teeth), an American botanist who’s been living there forever, amid the snakes and the foliage, doing “research.” She takes them in, and they cook up some Yage, which results in a hallucinatory sequence that’s pure high-wire loony-tunes filmmaking. The movie we thought we were watching comes close to stopping dead in its tracks.

Yet even as “Queer” sinks into a kind of torpor, this daring and indulgent sequence is also a fulfillment of the film’s vision of William Burroughs, and of queer love. The telepathy works. And what Lee learns is that Eugene will never think of himself as queer, even as their bodies are literally merging (an indelible image). The last third of “Queer” may prove to be a challenge for audiences — much more so than the film’s explicit eroticism. Yet Luca Guadagino is telling a version of the same compelling story that he told in “Call Me by Your Name”: that of a queer love that, instead of delivering the salvation it promises, withers under the gaze of the real world. The film’s final shot is stunning. It shows that you after all the drugs, the warped crusades, the queerness he owned, the one thing William Burroughs could never figure out was how to heal his broken heart.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (In competition), Sept. 3, 2024. Running time: 135 MIN.

• Production: An A24 release of a Fremantle Film, The Apartment, Fremantle Company, Fremantle North America, Frenesy Film Company production, in collaboration with Cinecittà Spa and Frame by Frame. Producers: Lorenzo Mieli, Luca Guadagnino. Executive producers: James Grauerholz, Justin Kuritzkes, Emanuela Matranga, Elena Recchia, Peter Spears, Christian Vesper.
• Crew: Director: Luca Guadagnino. Screenplay: Justin Kuritzkes. Camera: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. Editor: Marco Costa. Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross.
• With: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Henrique Zaga, Omar Apollo, Andra Ursuta, Andres Duprat, Ariel Shulman, Drew Droege, Michael Borremans, David Lowery, Lisandro Alonso, Colin Bates.

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‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ review: Lady Gaga shines in a provocative prison musical

**Minor spoilers for 'Joker: Folie à Deux' below**

P remiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, Todd Phillips’ eagerly anticipated sequel to 2019’s Joker takes a decidedly unexpected swing. Rather than do the obvious and give audiences The Further Adventures Of The Clown Prince Of Crime , doubling down on Bat-references, Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver have instead delivered a surprisingly moving, psychologically complex tale that is part prison movie, part courtroom drama and all musical.

The film opens in bravura style with a terrific five-minutes-long Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon by Belleville Rendez-vous ‘ Sylvain Chomet, stylised to look like 1940s animation. Entitled Me And My Shadow , it presents a cartoon version of comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) battling against his Joker persona, represented as a dark shadow figure who dons the familiar clown make-up and takes over. The sequence raises clear expectations for what we’re about to watch, but Phillips and Silver have something very different in mind.

Immediately after the cartoon, the film switches to live-action, where Arthur is imprisoned in Gotham Jail, awaiting trial. His lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) attempts to help Arthur mount his defence case, but events take a turn when he meets fellow prisoner Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel ( Lady Gaga ), in a prison singing program and the pair strike an immediate connection, bursting into song on numerous occasions.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the sheer quantity of musical numbers, the film chooses to downplay the choreography, instead focusing on the songs themselves (mostly standards from the 1940s and ’50s), and their comments on the emotional and mental states of the characters. For example, Arthur’s first track is Motown hit ‘For Once In My Life’, which sets up his search for connection and a kindred spirit.

However, Folie à Deux ‘s boldest move is the way it confronts and challenges key elements of the first film, specifically the way Joker became a figurehead for disillusioned malcontents, who delighted in his anarchic, murderous activities. Here, despite repeating the line “give the audience what they want” several times, the film does the exact opposite, at least as far as certain Bat-obsessed members of the fanbase who just want to see more of the same will be concerned – at certain points this feels like blatant teasing, and it’s bound to provoke a reaction.

Phoenix is fantastic once again as Arthur, delivering a compelling and remarkably physical performance that teeters on the edge of insanity throughout – it’s simultaneously chilling and unexpectedly moving. Lady Gaga is equally good as Harleen, sparking palpably insane chemistry with Phoenix, and there’s strong support from both Keener and Brendan Gleeson as Jackie, a prison guard with a fondness for musicals.

Recommended

As with the original movie, the film looks gorgeous throughout, with cinematographer Lawrence Sher making strong use of colour and conjuring up some beautiful images – highlights include an overhead shot of some umbrellas (referencing Jacques Demy’s 1964  musical The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg ) and a stunningly lit frame of Arthur lighting a cigarette in his prison cell that resembles a lovingly illustrated comic book panel.

In short, Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though – Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.

• Director: Todd Phillips
• Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Catherine Keener
• Release date: October 4 (in cinemas)
• Related Topics
• Joker: Folie à Deux

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