Though Joker: Folie à Deux, directed by Todd Phillips, might not have soared at the box office, it certainly found a fan in none other than filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who recently spoke highly of the Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-starrer. Describing his experience watching the film as unexpectedly riveting, Tarantino shared, “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…And I didn’t find it an intellectual exercise. I really got caught up into it,” he shared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.
The legendary director, known for his bold storytelling and cult-classic films, confessed to being particularly captivated by the musical sequences. “I really liked the musical sequences,” he continued, “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.”
Perhaps most striking was Tarantino’s comparison of Phoenix and Gaga’s Arthur Fleck and Harleen Quinzel to another infamous couple from the cinematic universe. He drew parallels to Mickey and Mallory Knox from Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, a film Tarantino himself scripted but later disowned. “As much as the first one (the 2019 Joker) was indebted to Taxi Driver (1976), this seems pretty f**king indebted to Natural Born Killers. That’s the Natural Born Killers I would have dreamed of seeing,” he enthused, adding, “I mean, the whole movie was the fever dream of Mickey Knox.”
Tarantino didn’t hold back in his praise for Phoenix, calling his performance “one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life.” He also expressed admiration for Phillips’ approach, likening the director to the Joker himself in his method and risk-taking. “The Joker directed the movie,” Tarantino remarked, “The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it…he’s saying f**k you to all of them and Todd Phillips is the Joker.”
With his remarks, Tarantino underscored that, in his view, Joker: Folie à Deux surpassed even the original film, admiring the daring vision Phillips brought to the screen. It seems, despite the film’s rocky reception, Joker: Folie à Deux has more than a few powerful advocates in its corner.
