Filmmaker Joker: Folie à Deux to the mix, because the Pulp Fiction director is a self-confessed fan.
As quickly as Joker: Folie à Deux danced into theaters, it waltzed its way right past the audience and headed straight to digital. For a film that cost $200 million to create, it barely scratched over $200 million worldwide. It didn’t exactly debut to stellar reviews either, as it holds 32% in both critical approval and the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. By all the metrics, this is nothing short of a bona fide flop and another major L for Warner Bros. Discovery to swallow as it continues to fumble the bag with DC properties.
Despite 2019’s Joker cracking over a billion dollars and securing an Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix, the sequel failed to land – even with the superstar casting of Lady Gaga as this universe’s version of Harley Quinn. The film also established itself as the laughingstock of 2024, and people can’t help but poke fun at it. Except for Quentin Tarantino.
Appearing on The Bret Easton Ellis podcast (via World of Reel), Tarantino raved about the movie and his experience watching it, claiming: “I really, really liked it, really. A lot.” The filmmaker gushed about the musical scenes, the humor, and drew positive parallels between the story of Arthur Fleck and Lee Quinzel and his own script for 1994’s Natural Born Killers. In fact, Tarantino suggested Joker: Folie à Deux could have been a movie from the perspective of Woody Harrelson’s Mickey Knox.
Phillips’ handling of the film impressed Tarantino, who provided an interesting perspective of how he sees it. He said:
“Todd Phillips is the Joker. The Joker directed the movie. The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money – he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right? And then his big surprise gift – haha! –the jack in the box, when he offers you his hand for a handshake and you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts shooting you – is the comic book geeks. He’s saying f**k you to all of them. He’s saying f**k you to the movie audience. He’s saying f**k you to Hollywood. He’s saying f**k you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Bros.”
Unsurprisingly, a lot of X s didn’t share Tarantino’s enthusiasm about the film, thinking that a director deliberately releasing a movie that antagonizes the audience isn’t the way to go. Others thought this sounded like a cheap copout from simply itting that Joker: Folie à Deux didn’t work and deserves the trashing it’s taking from everyone.
One filmmaker who doesn’t share Tarantino’s opinion of Joker: Folie à Deux is Paul Schrader. The Taxi Driver screenwriter told slipped out to go shopping, then came back in to watch another 10 minutes. In the end, it proved to be all too much for him and he left, calling the movie “a really bad musical.”
Different strokes for different folks, right? Hopefully, someone asks Tarantino for his opinion and thoughts on Venom: The Last Dance and if he felt the same fuzzy feeling while watching the dance numbers in that superhero spectacle.
Published: Oct 29, 2024 02:51 pm