Folie à Dull: When Chaos Meets Boredom
The Dull Descent of Harley Quinn
From Critically Yours: Critiques & Commentary by The A List.
Last evening, I had the great misfortune of seeing Joker: Folie à Deux.
There are many instances during this painfully long movie that made my toes curl, yet tragically, wardrobe let me down the most. Harley Quinn, a femme fatale of psychologically disastrous proportions, lacked all of the chaos and eccentricity that makes her who she is.
Her style is a pivotal part of her character: she is the violent, manic pixie dream girl for budding psychopaths, a molotov cocktail of eager playfulness and sadism.
Originally introduced in 1977 in the animated Batman series and including her portrayal in the Suicide Squad films, Quinns’s outfits were shocking and rebellious. Mirrors of her inner chaos.
A shocking palette that combined red, black, blue and pink. Playful and dangerous, showcasing the extreme highs and lows that we feel her experience.
The harlequin outfit, the jester — representative of the comedy and tragedy that is her life. Her turbulent and abusive childhood spiraling into her chaotic and intense love for the Joker.
Absurdist weapons! The baseball bat and mallet are so ridiculous it almost makes you second guess her dedication; a manically childlike symbol of her unpredictable nature. She’s funny, she’s flirty, she will take your
fuckinghead off.The abused Barbie Doll aesthetic is brilliant. Her makeup is smeared, cheap, put on with the frenzie of a child left alone to play in mommy’s purse. Her pigtails whirling around in happiness or despair is a disturbing and striking thing to witness.
In contrast, Folie à Deux presents us with a different point of view.
We see the power dynamic between Harley and the Joker change, placing her in the position of manipulator instead of the brainwashed victim. I assumed that such a paradigm shift would make a loud entrance, but alas, crickets.
The walk up the court steps…how to begin? Her hair slicked back, with a red lip to match the velvet embroidered blazer, neatly manicured nails loosely carrying a black leather bag, it’s painfully contrived. It’s the trust fund version of Harley, her rich step-sister with the doting, non-shitty family.
When we finally see her familiar harlequin motif, it falls flat. The overuse of the diamonds (seen in the red blazer, top and tights) has a lack of personality and chaotic purpose that Harley Quinn most certainly does not.
One of the worst offenders is the courthouse outfit in which she is wearing a FLORAL DRESS with a Peter Pan collar - making her absolutely invisible in a courtroom catered to chaos. The striking normalcy of her courtroom appearances took away her unpredictable shock value, the comedy and the tragedy.
The oversized and tattered cardigans that seemed to be a quintessential part of this new Harley’s wardrobe continue to allude me. The only way I could see this new choice in stylization work is if the recycled indie sleaze Urban Outfitters has repeated since 2008 was stacked in layers, tattered from wear, and visually distorted. Like Harley is.
Harley Quinn does not just wear an outfit, Harley Quinn wears her chaotic heart directly on her sleeves. She does it better than anyone else; no matter if you love her, hate her, or just love to hate her.
Rest In Mayhem to Gotham’s most frenzied, feminine fashion figures.
Maybe it’s not a tragedy, but a twisted kind of comedy.
Critically yours,
Alexandra Diana, The A List
This post was brought to you by Wölffer Dry Rose Cider, of which I had several to numb my viewing displeasure.