Following a disastrous run at the box office, Joker: Folie à Deux hit VOD platforms today as Warner Bros. looks to recoup anything they can from a movie that promises to deliver a sizeable loss.
Neither critics nor audiences embraced the Joker sequel but the movie has earned a mega fan in Pulp Fiction and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood helmer Quentin Tarantino.
"I really, really liked it, really," he said on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. "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."
"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," Tarantino added, at least acknowledging its failings. "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."
Revealing that he saw Joker: Folie à Deux in an "almost empty IMAX theater," the filmmaker reiterated that he "loved" what Todd Phillips did with the movie and, "On top of all that, I thought it was really funny."
So far, it almost sounds as if Tarantino had a "so bad it was good" experience with the Joker sequel. However, there was no irony to his comments and the writer/director behind the likes of Django Unchained and Reservoir Dogs would go on to heap praise upon Phillips for what he did with Joker: Folie à Deux.
"Todd Phillips is the Joker. 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? And then his big surprise gift - haha! - the 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*** 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."
Well, that or he made a really sh*tty movie, right?
Honestly, it feels like Tarantino is looking waaaay too deeply into Joker: Folie à Deux, though his perspective is certainly an interesting one.
Perhaps Phillips did just want to deliver a "f*** you" movie, but when it's said to lose Warner Bros. hundreds of millions of dollars - and likely rob him of what would have been hefty bonuses had it reached the same level of success as Joker - we doubt it somehow.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.