Quentin Tarantino loved Joker 2 and Joaquin Phoenix's performance

He was also impressed by his counterpart's gesture: “Todd Phillips is the Joker!”

Very widely rejected by critics and the public since its theatrical release (and even its presentation in Venice), Joker: Folie à deux just found an unexpected ally. Until now, only Francis Ford Coppola had publicly supported Todd Phillips' film, which seemed a bit like a kiss of death, Joker 2 resuming Megalopolis the title of worst film of the cinema season.

Another illustrious filmmaker has come to the rescue of the sequel Jokerand it is therefore a question of Quentin Tarantino who spoke on Bret Easton Ellis' podcast (via Variety). Always ready to go against popular opinion, the director defended the blockbuster which is now a confirmed flop: out of the American top 10, it barely exceeds 200 million in revenue worldwide, compared to more than 'a billion for the Joker of 2019.

“I really, really liked it. A lot. Like, a lot, and I went to see it hoping to be impressed by its production. But I thought it would be an intellectual exercise that ultimately wouldn't work as a film for me, but that I would enjoy for what it is. And I'm nihilist enough to appreciate a film of this kind, almost messy. I actually didn't think it was intellectual. I really got into it. I loved the musical sequences. The more mundane the songs were, the better they were. I found myself listening to the lyrics of 'For Once in My Life' in a completely new way.”

In short, Tarantino loves Joker: Folie à deux for all the reasons why the majority of the press and spectators hate him. And he also saw a successful variation of the Born killers by Oliver Stone (with Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a bloodthirsty couple traveling across America), for which he had written the screenplay (or at least his first version).

“As much as the first was indebted to Taxi Driverthis one seems to be based squarely on Born killerswhich I wrote. This is the Natural Born Killers that I dreamed of seeing. As the creator of Mickey and Mallory, I loved what he did with it. I loved the direction it was going, the whole movie is like a Mickey Knox fever dream.”

Tarantino explains that he saw the film in an almost empty IMAX theater and laughed a lot without bothering anyone (“I know that I laugh at scenes that don't make others laugh“). And he also praises Joaquin Phoenix's performance, “one of the best performances I have seen in my life in a film“. Just that.

QT was also won over by Folie à deux as a gesture, and there it is Todd Phillips who he praises:

“The Joker directed this movie. The whole concept, the fact that he spent the studio's money like that, that's what the Joker would have done, okay? And he takes out this big surprise gift, it's the rabbit that comes out of the hat, he shakes your hand and you take a 10,000 volt shock. It pisses off all comic book fans. It pisses off the audience of the film. It pisses off Hollywood, all the shareholders of DC and Warner Bros. Todd Phillips is the Joker.“

Reconsider your opinion on Joker 2 after this vibrant plea from Tarantino?

The commercial failure of Joker 2 does not worry Denis Villeneuve