Quentin Tarantino stands proudly as one of the few people praising “Joker: Folie à Deux” after it bombed with both critics and at the and box office.
The acclaimed director couldn’t say enough good things about the Joaquin Phoenix-led sequel as he appeared on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.” Tarantino proclaimed his love for a film that he thought going in might not “quite work as a movie,” while explaining that he’s “nihilistic enough” to still enjoy a feature like that.
“I really, really liked it, really. A lot. Like, tremendously, and I went to see it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking,” Tarantino said. “But I thought it was going to be an arms-length, intellectual exercise that ultimately I wouldn’t think worked like a movie, but that I would appreciate it for what it is. And I’m just nihilistic enough to kind of enjoy a movie that doesn’t quite work as a movie or that’s like a big, giant mess to some degree. And I didn’t find it an intellectual exercise. I really got caught up into it. I really liked the musical sequences. I got really caught up. I thought the more banal the songs were, the better they were. I find myself listening to the lyrics of ‘For Once in My Life’ in a way I never have before.”
The director further praised Phoenix’s portrayal of the film’s Joker, Arthur Fleck. His performance in the 2019 original earned the actor the Best Actor Oscar over Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in Tarantino’s own “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” That didn’t stop the director from calling Phoenix’s performance in the comic book sequel “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life in this movie.”
Tarantino also shared his evaluation of the film’s director, Todd Phillips. He said Phillips himself was a joker for making a film that was a big “f–k you” to the entertainment industry as a whole, as well as directly to the very fans that make comic book movies successful.
“The Joker directed the movie,” Tarantino said. “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. […] And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”
The first film pulled in a record-breaking billion dollars at the box office. Its sequel has been a far cry from that thus far. Since its release Oct. 4, “Joker: Folie à Deux” has only pulled in around $60 million domestically and $201 million worldwide. TheWrap reviewer William Bibbiani was on Team Tarantino in his enjoyment of the movie.
“‘Folie à Deux’ is the most interesting film about Arthur Fleck,” Bibbiani wrote. “It’s genuinely a little daring, genuinely a little challenging, and genuinely a little genuine. And that’s no joke.”
