Despite the overwhelming hype around Joker: Folie a Deux, the film tanked at the box office. However, Quentin Tarantino is among the rarest people who enjoyed the sequel to the blockbuster 2019 film.
During a discussion with his Pulp Fiction co-writer, Roger Avary, on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, the acclaimed filmmaker opened up about why he loved the film.
According to him, the first film felt like one-note for the majority of its runtime and didn’t enjoy how the premise “regurgitated” the story of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. As for the sequel, the director felt he was more invested in it.
Tarantino also praised the film’s leads Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn and Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck aka Joker, claiming that the latter’s performance was an improved version of his portrayal of the DC villain in the first one. ‘I went to see it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking,’ he said.
Tarantino presumed that the film was going to be an arms-length intellectual exercise because it didn’t work as a movie, but after watching it he appreciated the film for what it was. ‘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,’ he explained.
To his surprise, he got caught up in the film and the ‘banal’ songs made it even better. The director revealed another major reason why he had a great time watching the film was because he found it ‘really funny.’ The Pulp Fiction filmmaker found himself laughing at scenes in which most people wouldn’t find any humor.
Tarantino revealed that he was ‘in tears’ during Arthur Fleck’s performance of If You Go Away. The sequel revolved around the aftermath of the first film’s events where Joker publicly assassinated Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro). During his incarceration in the Arkham Asylum, he encounters Quinn (Gaga), the love of his life.
