‘Joker’ Surprise: Quentin Tarantino Gives ‘Folie à Deux’ Two Thumbs Up
Quentin Tarantino may no longer be making The Movie Critic as his 10th and final film, but the Hollywood auteur became one when he gave two thumbs up to Todd Phillips’ antihero musical Joker: Folie à Deux during a podcast appearance.
“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 that ultimately I wouldn’t think worked like a movie, but that I would appreciate it for what it is,” Tarantino told The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast on Tuesday.
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Never mind the Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-starrer got a D Cinemascore on its release in early October, and then bombed at the box office to set up steep losses for Warner Bros. Tarantino begs to differ with his fellow movie critics, it appears.
“And I’m just nihilistic enough to kind of enjoy a movie that doesn’t quite work as a movie. 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,” he argued when talking about a recent screening at the multiplex for the Joker sequel.
Tarantino was especially impressed by director Phillips as a Hollywood insurgent. “He’s saying f— you to all of them. He’s saying f— you to the movie audience. He’s saying f— you to Hollywood. He’s saying f— you 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,” he told the podcast.
Tarantino’s grade for Joker: Folie à Deux runs counter to the poor word of mouth the Hollywood tentpole generated before its recent box office release. That’s after Phillips’ polarizing, R-rated sequel had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
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