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Quentin Tarantino on backlash over ‘Joker 2’ praise: “What do you care what the fuck I like?”

Quentin Tarantino has fired back at the people who attacked him for declaring his admiration for Joker: Folie à Deux.

In October, the Pulp Fiction director appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast and said he “really, really liked” the sequel, which has been largely derided by a lot of film fans.

“I went to see it expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking,” he said. “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.

Joker
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’. CREDIT: Warner Bros. Entertainment

“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.”

The comments sparked a reaction from critics of the film, and now Tarantino has come out fighting. During his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast this week (December 11), he said he read some of the comments about him, in which he was apparently referred to as a “fucking asshole”.

“‘Quentin is a fucking asshole. That movie fucking sucks. He’s a fucking asshole for saying that.’ Why am I a fucking asshole?” Tarantino exclaimed. “I liked the fucking movie! That makes me a fucking asshole? You either like the movie or you don’t. I’m not plugging the movie. I’m not doing anything. I’m just saying I like it. Who gives a fuck what I like? What do you care what the fuck I like?”

“Then they say I’m a fucking asshole for not seeing something,” he added. “What the fuck do you care what I see or don’t see? Someone will say, ‘Well I think he’s missing out.’ Well I am sure there is a lot of shit I could say you’re missing out on and I don’t care if you miss out on.”

Joker: Folie à Deux endured a tough time at the box office, taking approximately $40million (£30.5million) domestically on its opening weekend, well short of Warner Bros.’ original projections, and maxed out at $206million (£162million) worldwide, roughly one fifth of its 2019 predecessor.

Folie À Deux also became the first Hollywood comic book movie adaptation to earn a ‘D’ score from CinemaScore – even maligned films such as The Marvels or The Flash managed to secure a ‘B’ grade. It is also sitting on a lowly 32 per cent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an identical audience score.

NME, however, was a little more in line with Tarantino’s verdict. In a four-star review of Folie à Deux, we wrote: “As with the original movie, the film looks gorgeous throughout, with cinematographer Lawrence Sher making strong use of colour and conjuring up some beautiful images – highlights include an overhead shot of some umbrellas (referencing Jacques Demy’s 1964 musical The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg) and a stunningly lit frame of Arthur lighting a cigarette in his prison cell that resembles a lovingly illustrated comic book panel.

“In short, Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though – Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.”

Elsewhere in the Rogan interview, Tarantino and his Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary revealed details of the heroin-fuelled night out in Paris that inspired Avary’s 1993 film Killing Zoe.

The post Quentin Tarantino on backlash over ‘Joker 2’ praise: “What do you care what the fuck I like?” appeared first on NME.


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