In a shocking twist that has left film enthusiasts scratching their heads, acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino has expressed glowing praise for the critically lambasted Joker: Folie à Deux, despite its catastrophic performance at the box office. The highly anticipated sequel to 2019’s Joker, which wowed audiences and critics alike, had high expectations riding on its shoulders. However, the film’s bizarre musical direction and convoluted plot left most viewers feeling disappointed and confused.
Tarantino’s Surprising Endorsement
During a recent appearance on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast, Tarantino shocked fans by singing the praises of Joker: Folie à Deux. “I really, really liked it, really,” he gushed. “A lot. Like, tremendously.” The Pulp Fiction auteur went on to explain that he had expected the film to be an “intellectual exercise” that wouldn’t quite work as a movie, but was pleasantly surprised by how much he enjoyed it.
“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.”
– Quentin Tarantino on his appreciation for Joker: Folie à Deux
Praise for Phoenix and Phillips
Tarantino reserved special praise for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, calling it “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life.” He also applauded director Todd Phillips’s audacious vision, comparing the film to a version of Natural Born Killers that he “would have dreamed of seeing.”
Regarding Phillips’s approach, Tarantino mused, “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? … He’s saying fuck you to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the movie audience. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood.”
A Divisive Reception
Tarantino’s enthusiasm for Joker: Folie à Deux stands in stark contrast to the majority of critical and audience responses. The $200 million film barely managed to scrape together $60 million at the domestic box office, a far cry from its predecessor’s $335 million haul. Internationally, the sequel has only mustered $201 million to date, whereas the original Joker raked in over $1 billion worldwide.
Critics have been equally unimpressed, with the film holding a dismal 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Many have criticized the film’s bizarre tonal shifts, incoherent narrative, and self-indulgent musical numbers. Even Paul Schrader, whose screenplay for Taxi Driver served as inspiration for the first Joker film, couldn’t stomach more than a few minutes of the sequel.
“I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”
– Paul Schrader on his brief experience with Joker: Folie à Deux
A Filmmaker’s Perspective
Despite the overwhelming negative reception, Joker: Folie à Deux has managed to find a fan in Francis Ford Coppola, another legendary filmmaker grappling with his own box office disappointment in Megalopolis. Coppola took to Instagram to congratulate Phillips, writing, “Ever since the wonderful The Hangover, he’s always been one step ahead of the audience never doing what they expect. Congratulations to Joker: Folie à Deux.”
As the dust settles on this cinematic debacle, one can’t help but wonder what Tarantino and Coppola see in Joker: Folie à Deux that seemingly everyone else has missed. Is it a misunderstood masterpiece, a daring experiment gone awry, or simply a case of great filmmakers appreciating the audacity of a colossal failure? Only time will tell if this curious sequel will find redemption in the eyes of future audiences, or if it will forever remain a cautionary tale of artistic hubris run amok.
