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‘I really got involved’

‘I really got involved’

Quentin Tarantino has received much praise Todd Phillips‘s divisive comic book sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, statement about the box office flop: “I really enjoyed it. A lot of. Enormous.”

The Pulp Fiction The 61-year-old director even compared the film to one of his own scripts, saying it looked like a version Natural killers he “would have dreamed of seeing it” before it was changed and eventually directed by Oliver Stone.

Speaking American psychopath author Bret Easton Ellis’ podcastTarantino said: “I went into it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking, but I thought it was going to be an intellectual exercise at arm’s length that ultimately I wouldn’t think would work as a movie, but that I would. appreciate it for what it is. And I’m just nihilistic enough to enjoy a movie that doesn’t really work as a movie or is, to some extent, a big, gigantic mess.

“And I didn’t think it was an intellectual exercise. I really got into it.”

Tarantino went on to say that Joaquin Phoenix had given “one of the best performances I have ever seen in my life”, and argued that Phillips had embraced the spirit of the film in his work. “The Joker directed the movie,” Tarantino said. “The whole concept, even he’s spending the studio’s money – he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, okay? … He says f*** you to all of them. He says f*** you to the movie audience. He says f*** you to Hollywood.”

Tarantino added that he had found it Joker: Folie à Deux to be a “very funny” film and that he “really liked the musical sequences”.

Quentin Tarantino and Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in 'Joker: Folie à Deux' (Getty/Warner Bros)Quentin Tarantino and Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in 'Joker: Folie à Deux' (Getty/Warner Bros)

Quentin Tarantino and Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ (Getty/Warner Bros)

Joker: Folie à Deux flopped at the box office. While the original film grossed over $1 billion in 2019, the sequel appears to be struggling to recoup its $190 million to £200 million budget it costs to make. The film has reportedly earned $120 million to date.

The independent gave it rare praise, with film critic Geoffrey Macnab awarding the film four stars in a partial read review: “The darkness at the heart of the film is underlined by the very brutal ending, which rejects comic book conventions in favor of psychological depth.

“Phoenix’s performance also remains powerful and compelling. The genius of it is that we have no choice but to care for Arthur, despite his neediness and derangement.’

Taxi driver writer Paul Schrader was among those who disagreed. He said in an interview that after about 10 to 15 minutes he walked out, bought something, came back for another 10 minutes and decided: “That was enough.”