Lady Gaga has received rave reviews for her performance in Joker: Folie à Deux.
The performer wowed audiences with her turn as the villainous Harleen “Lee” Quinzel in the Joker sequel, garnering accolades from a majority of reviewers.
“Gaga is smartly low-key,” Pete Hammond wrote for Deadline. “Believably showing affection and connection with Joker and, more important, the man behind the makeup.”
Gaga, 38, appears opposite Joaquin Phoenix, 49, who reprised his role as the unhinged titular character.
“Gaga is a compelling live-wire presence, splitting the difference between affinity and obsession,” David Rooney declared in The Hollywood Reporter.
Several critics suggested Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, was “underused” by the movie’s director, Todd Phillips.
“The casting of Lady Gaga certainly sounded promising, because she’s a great actor, and was put on earth (among other things) to make musicals,” Owen Gleiberman wrote for Variety. “But Gaga, who has a lovely unforced presence in Folie à Deux, is drastically underused.”
And David Erlich echoed those sentiments in his review for IndieWire, writing, “Phillips’ decision to cast a generational superstar in a role that seems designed to maximize both her supreme talents as a singer and her all-consuming screen presence as an actress just so he can sit her in the background of a courtroom whenever he’s not cutting her musical numbers off at the knees… well, it’s a lot more criminal than anything Arthur Fleck ever does in this movie.”
