Joker: Folie à Deux | 2024 | R | – 7.7.10

Why is “Joker: Folie à Deux” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some strong violence, language throughout, some sexuality, and brief full nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene, a few kissing scenes, some non-sexual full male nudity, a stabbing that leads to death, a couple of people being shot and killed, a few beatings, violence against inmates including beatings with clubs and isolation, discussions of murders, discussions of child abuse, discussions of mental illness, and over 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Arthur Fleck, aka Joker (Joaquin Phoenix), meets a fellow inmate (Lady Gaga) that ignites in him a newfound self-confidence, as his trial for murder approaches. Also with Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, Harry Lawtey, Leigh Gill, Ken Leung, Jacob Lofland and Bill Smitrovich. Directed by Todd Phillips. [Running Time: 2:18]

Joker: Folie à Deux SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A man and a woman kiss passionately, they disrobe partially (we do not see nudity) and they have sex (the man thrusts and they both moan until climax).
► A man and woman kiss through cell bars and they are told not to touch each other by a guard. A man kisses a woman on the lips and she pulls away and seems alarmed (she is his lawyer). A man and a woman kiss tenderly, and run through a building holding hands and dance outside the building. A young man in a prison yard tells another inmate that some guards told him that he wanted to show him how to kiss and that he had never been kissed before; the older man kisses him and walks away. A woman sits close to a man in a room filled with people; she reaches to touch his leg, but she pulls away.
► Prison cell doors are unlocked and inmates carry waste buckets to empty them in a trough; we see some men fully nude and bare buttocks, genitals, chests and abdomens are visible. People dance in a club and women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage. A woman applies makeup in a bathroom mirror and we see her wearing a bar (her cleavage, bare shoulders and abdomen are visible). A woman wears a low-cut evening gown that reveals cleavage and her bare back while dancing with a man. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.
► A woman tells a man that she is pregnant.

Joker: Folie à Deux VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A man is stabbed multiple times in the abdomen (we see blood on his shirt), he collapses, hits his head on a wall, falls to the floor and seizes briefly before lying still as his attacker seems to be cutting himself in the background (we hear flesh being cut and the person makes an unnatural sound). A man uses a judge’s gavel to beat another man over the head repeatedly (we see the man slumped onto a table with blood on his head), and then shoots himself in the head (blood splatters on the screen). A woman points a gun at a man and shoots him in the abdomen (we see blood on his clothing). A man with a gun shoots randomly around a crowded room (we see people fall without blood visible).
► A man hits another man with a stool (we see the man slumped on a table with some blood on his head). A woman lights a book of matches in a crowded room, sets some papers on fire and puts them inside a piano causing a large fire to start and people rush out of the room yelling. A man lunges at another man in a courtroom and they scuffle briefly. The wall of a courtroom explodes throwing people and rubble around the room.
► A man is put in the back of a car and it speeds away, and he gets out of the car and runs away with two other men chasing him; one of the other men is struck by a police car as they speed through an intersection. A man is dragged by three guards through hallways and slammed into walls and floors, his clothing is pulled off and he is slammed to the floor in a shower room (the view is blocked by a wall), and then back to his cell. We hear an inmate being beaten after being pulled out of his cell, a guard tells another guard to stop and says, “He can’t breathe.” A man and woman run to the locked gates of a prison compound and start to climb up until guards grab them and drag them back inside; the man is dragged through halls, thrown down a flight of stairs and thrown into a cell that the guard calls “the hole.” A flashback shows a man being bullied and taunted by several men on a train. Prison cell doors are unlocked and inmates carry waste buckets to empty them in a trough (we see liquid pouring and hear splashing); one inmate is beaten and dragged out of his cell when he refuses to do what he is told. A man’s face is shaved by a guard in a bathroom and he nicks his face (blood runs down his chin); we see several urinals in the room. A guard hits an inmate in the back of the head hard while walking next to him. Several inmates stand on tables in a dining hall; guards yell at them, and one is struck and falls onto the table before being dragged out of the room and others are struck with clubs as they throw food around the room.
► A woman breaks a store window by throwing a garbage can and steals a TV. A man points his fingers in the shape of a gun at people and pretends to pull the trigger in a few scenes. A woman puts a gun to her own head and the scene ends. A woman makes the shape of a gun with her hand, holds it to her head and pretends to shoot herself.
► A man interviews another man and asks, “Do you deserve to die?” People talk about the death penalty and a guard tells an inmate, “They’re gonna fry you.” Two guards yell at two inmates for sitting on their seats in the yard bleachers. A man tells a woman that he killed five people including one on national television. A man says that he smothered his mother with a pillowcase. A woman tells a man that she set her parents’ apartment building on fire and her mother had her committed. A woman describes a man and how his mother made fun of him and how he laughed. A woman says that her father used to beat her and glibly says that he died in a car accident. A woman tells a man that she wished he would shoot someone and he did. A woman tries to convince a man to leave a room with her and he says that he can’t because, “They’ll shoot me.” A man fires his lawyer and asks to represent himself.
► Many people crowd around police transport vehicles trying to see the man inside. An inmate is escorted through a facility and stops at a counter where he is handed a cup containing medications that he swallows and then opens his mouth wide for a guard to confirm that the pills have been swallowed (he does this several times). Guards escort inmates to their cells, lock the doors and the lights are turned off. A man stands in the rain laughing (or crying) uncontrollably. An inmate autographs a book for a guard and we see that he has written, “I hope you get cancer.” A man is prepared for a competency hearing before going to trial; a woman questions him about people that he murdered and about having been triggered by being bullied, and she asks him if he hears his mother’s voice in his head. We hear descriptions of a young boy being physically and sexually abused by his mother and bullied by others. A man tells a joke about a man’s dog dying.

Joker: Folie à Deux LANGUAGE 10

 – About 51 F-words and its derivatives, 3 obscene hand gestures, 7 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (hopeless romantic, martyr, monster, crazy, bad influence, sick, delusional, psychopath, pathetic, pal, defective, low IQ, miserable life, fat, stupid, trash, ridiculous laughing fool, dumb laugh, whack job, a little too much, fool, idiot, playing you for a fool), exclamations (flare for the dramatic, shut the [F-word deleted] up), 3 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus Christ, hallelujah, a man takes an oath while placing his hand on a Bible, so help you God, God given name). | profanity glossary |

Joker: Folie à Deux SUBSTANCE USE

 – Inmates are shown lining up to receive their medications in several scenes. People smoke cigarettes in many scenes throughout the movie, and a man smokes in a cell and blows smoke into the mouth of a woman outside the cell.

Joker: Folie à Deux DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Murder, mental illness, multiple personality disorder, death penalty, loneliness, love, heartbreak, child abuse, physical and sexual abuse, fantasy vs. reality, bullying, narcissism, psychopathy, obsession.

Joker: Folie à Deux MESSAGE

 – Some people can’t be helped.

Note: An animated short precedes the feature and includes a man’s bare buttocks when his pants fall down and his bare chest when his tank T-shirt is torn; a man forcibly kisses a woman (we see her with smudged lipstick and trembling later), police officers beat a man with clubs until his head is bloodied and he is missing teeth, and a man punches several other characters leaving them unconscious and bruised.