Joker: Folie a Deux might be one big ignominious flop—the biggest when compared to its predecessor—but it made one prominent fan in the film industry: Quentin Tarantino. Unlike critics, audience members, and other people in his field, Tarantino had nothing except positive things to say.
The Hateful Eight director extolled Todd Phillips’ sequel without holding back when he appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. “I really, really liked it, really. A lot,” he began (via World of Reel). “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. 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 further clarified. “As much as the first one was indebted to Taxi Driver, this seems pretty f-ing indebted to Natural Born Killers, which I wrote.”
He continued, “That’s the Natural Born Killers I would have dreamed of seeing, as the guy who created Mickey and Mallory. I loved what they did with it. I loved the direction he took. I mean, the whole movie was the fever dream of Mickey Knox.” He also remarked on how funny he thought Folie a Deux was. The film had him bursting with laughter in a Tel Aviv IMAX theater. Fortunately, it was nearly empty so he didn’t bother anyone. “I know I’m laughing at scenes that other people wouldn’t be laughing at,” he said.
Tarantino then effusively credited Todd Phillips for channeling the Joker persona in a way that got one over on the studio. “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 said.
“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,” Tarantino added. “And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”