When Todd Phillips — previously best known for the "Hangover" trilogy — helmed the first "Joker" movie in 2019, the comic book-adjacent film became one of the year's biggest critical darlings against plenty of odds. Phillips picked up an Academy Award nomination for his directing and the movie ended up in the race for Best Picture; though it lost to "Parasite," star Joaquin Phoenix won his first Oscar for playing everyman turned supervillain Arthur Fleck, and Hildur Guðnadóttir became the third woman in cinematic history to win for her astounding score. Still, at the time, a sequel seemed unlikely, thanks in part to the pandemic that shut down the world and in larger part to the fact that everyone largely assumed Arthur's story was finished.

They were wrong, and "Joker: Folie á Deux" just premiered at the Venice Film Festival. So what do critics think of the ambitious sequel, which brings Oscar winner...