Quentin Tarantino ‘really likes’ 'Joker: Folie à Deux' amid box office failure

Quentin Tarantino has recently heaped praises for director Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux even though the movie bombed at the box office.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Quentin said, “I really, really liked it, really. A lot. Like, tremendously, and I went to see it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking.”

Elaborating on why he enjoyed the DC Comics-based movie, the Kill Bill director mentioned, “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.”

Quentin revealed he’s “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”.

“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,” he continued.

Quentin stated, “I thought the more banal the songs were, the better they were.”

However, the movie-maker described the movie “really funny” and watching it at an “almost empty Imax theatre,” enabled him to “laugh without bothering everybody”.

Quentin also raved Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of Arthur Fleck in the movie, adding, “He gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life.”

The Django Unchained director noted that Todd was “actually the Joker himself”.

“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?” remarked Quentin.

He explained, “And then his big surprise gift — haha! — 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.”

Quentin concluded, “Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”