Quentin Tarantino made headlines for defending Joker: Folie à Deux earlier this year against an onslaught of critics, and now another filmmaker is joining him by naming the film’s sequel one of the best films of 2024. Icon John Waters has published his annual list of the best 10 films on Vulture, and “Joker: Folie à Deux” came in sixth place.
“Finally, a love story I can relate to,” Waters writes. “Absolutely crazy, well thought out, well directed, and a lot of smoking! It’s Jailhouse Rock meets Busby Berkeley 9/11 This is entertainment!” The ending will have you shaking your head in cinematic amazement. Stupid critics. Gaga is so good. Joker is right. Die, dumbbell, die!
Topping Waters’ list is director Kristen Stewart’s lesbian thriller “Love Lies Bleeding”, which includes several Oscar nominees such as “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Perez,” “Hard Truths” and “Queer.” The “Joker” sequel is arguably the most divisive film on the director’s list. The film received mostly negative reviews and flopped at the box office with earnings of $58 million domestically and $206 million worldwide, a far cry from the $1 billion gross of the 2019 original film.
During an October interview on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino praised “Joker: Folie à Deux” and said Joaquin Phoenix “gives one of the best performances I’ve ever seen.”
“Joker directed the movie,” Tarantino said of the film’s director, Todd Phillips. “The whole concept, even him spending the studio money, he spends it like the Joker spends it, okay? And then his big surprise gift — haha! — Jack in the Box, when he extends his hand to you for a handshake and blows a 10,000-volt whistle at you — is the comic book nerds. He says fuck you to all of them. He says fuck you to the movie audience. He says fuck you to Hollywood. He says fuck you to anyone who owns any stock in DC And Warner Brothers (…) and Todd Phillips is the Joker movie, well, it is the Joker.”
These defenses in “Joker Part 2” are few and far between. Even the actors who appeared in the film spoke out against it. Comedian Tim Dillon, who had a cameo role in the film as an Arkham Asylum security guard, went viral last month after calling “Joker: Folie à Deux” the “worst movie ever.” “It was made.”
“It has no conspiracy,” Dillon said. “We were sitting there, me and these other guys were wearing these security outfits because we worked at Arkham Asylum, and I would walk up to one of them and we would hear this crap and go, ‘What the hell is this? And they were like, “This is going to bomb, man.” “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” I say. We were talking about this over lunch, and we were wondering: What’s the plot? Is there a conspiracy? I don’t know, I think he fell in love with her in prison? It’s not even worth watching. That’s how terrible it is.”
Head over to Vulture’s website to read our entire list of the best John Waters movies of 2024.