Quentin Tarantino Is Defending One Of 2024's Biggest Flops

Sony Pictures

The most unfiltered director currently working is once again up to his usual antics, and this time he's letting us know how he really feels about Todd Phillips' notorious flop, "Joker: Folie à Deux." Quentin Tarantino has never been shy about shooting straight from the hip as far as his opinions are considered, whether it be praising his favorite movies of all time or telling off pearl-clutchers like Jan who think his violent films are directly responsible for all the ills of society. (If you haven't watched that famous interview clip that's turned into a meme over the years, you absolutely should.) His eclectic tastes have intrigued and confounded fans and fellow filmmakers alike over the years, so nothing he says at this juncture should ever feel like a surprise. So, for anyone who had "Tarantino defends 'Joker: Folie à Deux' specifically because it gives the middle finger to everybody" on their bingo card, well, congratulations.

While appearing on the "Bret Easton Ellis" podcast (alongside his "Pulp Fiction" co-writer Roger Avary), Tarantino couldn't help but weigh in on perhaps the most controversial blockbuster of 2024. The Joaquin Phoenix-starring sequel didn't exactly light the world on fire at the box office or among critics, though /Film's Bill Bria provided a much more measured take in his positive review. In some of the most quintessentially Tarantino comments ever, he didn't hold back from expressing his admiration for an experience that most audiences generally found off-putting and disappointing. As he explained:

"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, alright? [...] 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."

Warner Bros.

You know what they say about how one person's trash is another one's treasure? That certainly feels apt for Quentin Tarantino's passionate defense of "Joker: Folie à Deux" ... even as he admitted that the entire movie still feels like "a big, giant mess." In fact, that sense of unwieldiness only adds to the experience for him, as he explained throughout the podcast (which remains behind a paywall, though is well worth listening to). Even more than the technical craft on display, Tarantino apparently couldn't get enough of the divisive musical sequences and how intentionally subversive he found them to be:

"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, 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 went on to praise Joaquin Phoenix's leading turn as "one of the best performances I've ever seen in my life," a bold statement that contains no hyperbole whatsoever, yet that's not even the main reason he walked away impressed. "On top of all that, I thought it was really funny," he noted, adding that, "I know I'm laughing at scenes that other people wouldn't be laughing at." But his fondness for the overall story goes even further than that.

Warner Bros.

Everybody loves a little flattery, and Tarantino is definitely now immune as he found parallels between the "Joker" sequel and a movie he once helped write: "Natural Born Killers." The 1994 film was directed by Oliver Stone and originally written by Tarantino, though the latter was so disappointed by the final result that he claims he still hasn't watched the movie in its entirety. Starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a pair of lovers who become full-blown murderers and fugitives, that dynamic sure feels reminiscent of classic depictions of the Joker and Harley Quinn — a similarity that Tarantino noted and appreciated:

"As much as the first one was indebted to 'Taxi Driver,' this seems pretty f***ing indebted to 'Natural Born Killers,' which I wrote. 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 [Todd Phillips] took. I mean, the whole movie was the fever dream of Mickey Knox."

Yeah, this is all starting to make a lot more sense now. Nobody could possibly be surprised that a filmmaker as indebted to the exploitation genre as Tarantino would feel drawn to a movie with as much disdain for its own audience as "Folie à Deux," but this sure feels like the Rosetta Stone revealing exactly what the director sees in "Joker." Love him or hate him, Tarantino is always a fascinating case study in what makes an artist tick ... not unlike Arthur Fleck's misadventures in both "Joker" movies. While we await further updates on Tarantino's 10th and final film, folks can still catch "Joker: Folie à Deux" playing in theaters.