Quentin Tarantino praises ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ and labels it a “fuck you” to Hollywood
Director Quentin Tarantino has shared his thoughts on Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, which he has heaped huge praise upon.
Joker: Folie à Deux is a sequel to Phillips’ 2019 DC adaptation, Joker, which earned widespread critical acclaim. Joaquin Phoenix, who played the title role, even won an Academy Award for his performance in the original. However, the follow-up film has not been quite so successful.
Phoenix reprises his role as the Joker in the new film, while popstar Lady Gaga takes on the task of portraying the iconic Harley Quinn. The sequel pushes the story in new stylistic directions, bringing musical numbers into the mix while maintaining the gritty look of the original.
Joker: Folie à Deux arrived in cinemas earlier this month to a disappointing response, taking in just over $200 million at the box office which was below expectations.
However, the film did endear itself to Tarantino, who admitted that he “really, really liked it,” during a recent appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.
“Like, tremendously,” Tarantino emphasised, “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 that ultimately I wouldn’t think worked like a movie, but that I would appreciate it for what it is.”
However, Tarantino didn’t enjoy the film in the way that he expected. He “really got caught up in it” and even “really liked the musical sequences.” The director also admitted to finding the film “really funny” and heaped particular praise on Phoenix, describing his depiction of the Joker as “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Interestingly, Tarantino saw director Todd Phillips as the real Joker in Folie à Deux. “The Joker directed the movie,” he commented, “The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right?”
He went on to suggest that the film says “fuck you” to various different audiences, including comic book fans, Hollywood, and “anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Bros.” He stated, “Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”
Tarantino also noted some comparisons between the film and his own work, suggesting that the sequel was “indebted” to Oliver Stone’s 1994 film Natural Born Killers. Tarantino penned the initial story for the Stone film, which was later amended by the director and his co-writers.
Another iconic director to laud Joker: Folie à Deux is Francis Ford Coppola. Writing on Instagram on October 6th, the New Hollywood auteur wrote that Phillips’ films “always amaze me and I enjoy them thoroughly. Ever since the wonderful The Hangover he’s always one step ahead of the audience never doing what they expect. Congratulations to Joker: Folie à Deux!”
“I am also honoured that the films DP, Lawrence Sher, mentioned that the film is visually inspired by One From the Heart,” he added, mentioning the 1982 musical drama of his own that was a critical and commercial failure.
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