Tarantino calls "Joker: Folie à Deux" a rebellious masterpiece
Quentin Tarantino expressed admiration for the film "Joker: Folie à Deux," directed by Todd Phillips, even though the sequel received a lukewarm reception from critics and performed poorly at the box office.
5:24 PM EDT, October 30, 2024
During an appearance on the "Bret Easton Ellis" podcast, Tarantino praised Joaquin Phoenix's performance, calling it one of the best he's ever seen. "I really, really liked it, really. A lot. Like, tremendously, and I went to see it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking. But I thought it was going to be an arms-length, intellectual exercise... And I didn’t find it an intellectual exercise. I really got caught up into it," the director said.
Tarantino admitted that he particularly enjoyed 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," he added.
The director also noticed similarities between "Joker: Folie à Deux" and his script for "Natural Born Killers," highlighting the motif of killer lovers. He noted that the director, Todd Phillips, is a true rebel who, in a way, tells everyone to get lost. "He’s saying [this] to Hollywood. He’s saying [this] to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers […] And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker," Tarantino stated.
The film's failure
Despite Tarantino's praise, "Joker: Folie à Deux" did not achieve box office success, earning just over 201 million dollars worldwide, compared to the over a billion dollars that the original "Joker" brought in 2019. The film is currently available in theaters and on VOD platforms.
