Folie à Deux’ Was Good, You Guys Are Simply Imply

Whereas the adage of “new yr, new me” is one which’s typically by no means adhered to by anybody who utters it, the handfuls (dozens!) of oldsters who swear by Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel, Folie à Deux, are God’s hardest-working troopers and can shout to the warmth demise of the universe that the DC Studios movie was merely forward of its time. Unsurprisingly, key amongst these of us are bigwigs at Warner Bros. who say they love the movie regardless of followers being lower than lukewarm with it.

In an interview with the Wrap, Warner Bros. CEO Pamela Abdy and chairperson Michael De Luca reminisced over the Joaquin Phoenix-led movie. Extra particularly, their dialog brushed over how the movie was a box-office bomb for the pocket-watchers amongst us and a rotten sequel, in keeping with Rotten Tomatoes. However so far as the Warner Bros. head honchos are involved, all that noise ignores what the movie actually was: daring and underappreciated.

“It was actually revisionist,” De Luca informed the Wrap. “It might be that it was too revisionist for a worldwide mainstream viewers, however I assumed that Todd and his screenwriting associate Scott [Silver] did the factor that most individuals making sequels don’t do, which is that they determined to not repeat themselves. I do give them immense props for not repeating themselves, but it surely simply turned out to not join with the viewers.”

Abdy echoed De Luca’s sentiments with a bit extra cup-half-full retrospective optimism about Folie à Deux, including, “I actually preferred the film. I nonetheless do.”

In contrast, Phoenix’s co-star, Lady Gaga, appears completely content material with of us not liking the film.

“Individuals simply generally don’t like some issues,” Gaga informed Elle in 2025. “It’s that straightforward. And I feel to be an artist, it’s a must to be keen for folks to generally not prefer it. And you retain going even when one thing didn’t join in the best way that you simply meant…When [fear of failure] makes its manner into your life, that may be arduous to get management of. It’s a part of the mayhem.”

Whereas Warner Bros. bosses saying they cherished a film that flopped is giving “We’ve investigated ourselves and located no wrongdoing” ranges of a cope, they aren’t the one individuals who consider that Joker 2, with sufficient time, will develop on folks. Famously, Death Stranding developer and famous cinephile Hideo Kojima wrote a prolonged overview on X, saying, “Over the subsequent 10 or 20 years, this movie’s status will possible change together with the permeation of hero films to come back. It might take a while for it to turn into a real ‘folie à deux.’”

Quentin Tarantino took his personal reward a step additional in a 2024 interview with the Wrap, saying that Phillips was the Joker in a cosmic sense, whereas taking pleasure in his directing serving as a center finger to execs and comedian guide followers’ expectations.

“The Joker directed the film,” Tarantino mentioned. “The whole idea, even him spending the studio’s cash—he’s spending it just like the Joker would spend it, all proper? After which his massive shock present—haha!—the jack-in-the-box, when he gives you his hand for a handshake and also you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts capturing you—is the comedian guide geeks. He’s saying ‘fuck you’ to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the film viewers. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood. He’s saying fuck you to anyone who owns any inventory at DC and Warner Bros… And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un movie de Joker, all proper, is what it’s. He’s the Joker.”

Sidebar: to everybody who couldn’t assist studying the above in Tarantino’s voice, we apologize. So far as the place the oldsters at io9 are involved, we’re nonetheless standing 10 toes down with our review of Folie à Deux. It simply sucked.

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