Joker: Folie à Deux

[Drunk Monk]

I luved this. 

But there will be haters. So many haters. There's a lot to hate.

In my defense, as you all know, I luv Bollywood. So this take on the musical was dark, gritty and twisted and that completely worked for me.

Phoenix & Gaga deliver brilliant performances. 

Our screener was in Dolby, and that was the best. It's got great acoustics, from the intimate song work to the chest punching gunshots to, well, a spoiler that I won't reveal.

Only D00M recommended if you liked the first one. But then, none of you did - http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=5202

[Drunk Monk]

Listened to Lady G's new Harlequin album which features songs from the soundtrack plus 2 new tracks from LG. It's good although Spotify on my Mac sound system hardly matches that lush Metreon Dolby theater. That sound system is awesome. But my ear is currently calibrated to jazz and there's a lot of old skool jazz in this. 

Here's a taste:

[Greg]

Not seeing a lot of love on the interwebz for this one, except in one spot.

[Drunk Monk]

Like I said - so many haters.

It’s an incredibly flawed film. Many of the risks it takes won’t pay out for most. I’m sure I’ll be alone in my enjoyment of it. Like we said in our review, it’s a donut. There’s a huge hole in the middle.

[Drunk Monk]

I guarantee that you will hate this film, Greg. But it’ll be worth it for you to watch it just so you can comment here. 

The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a monster play by Lady Gaga. And by monster, I don’t mean her little monsters. I mean monster museums, specifically the Louvre.

[Greg]

I'll watch it when it comes to Max in a week or two after the colossal bomb at the Box Office.

[Drunk Monk]

I’m sad I didn’t see it at the Louvre. Clearly I need to level up my press pass.

[Drunk Monk]

[quote pid="74344" dateline="1728157350"]
Drunk MonkI’m sure I’ll be alone in my enjoyment of it. 
[/quote]

I stand corrected. I share the opinion of John Waters.

Dec 6, 2024 10:32am PT
‘Joker 2’ Is One of the Best Movies of 2024, Says Director John Waters: ‘Stupid Critics. Gaga So Good. Die, Dumbbells, Die!’
By Zack Sharf

Warner Bros.
Quentin Tarantino made headlines for defending “Joker: Folie à Deux” earlier this year against the onslaught of critical pans, and now another filmmaker is joining him by naming the maligned sequel one of the best movies of 2024. “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray” icon John Waters published his annual top 10 list on Vulture and “Joker: Folie à Deux” is in the sixth spot.
“Finally, a love story I can relate to,” Waters writes. “So insane, so well thought out, so well directed, so much smoking! It’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ meets Busby Berkeley with a 9/11 ‘That’s Entertainment!’ ending that will make you shake your head in cinematic astonishment. Stupid critics. Gaga so good. Joker so right. Die, dumbbells, die!”
Waters’ list is topped by Kristen Stewart’s lesbian thriller “Love Lies Bleeding” and includes several Oscar contenders such as “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Perez,” “Hard Truths” and “Queer.” The “Joker” sequel is easily the most divisive film on the director’s list. The film earned mostly negative reviews and flopped at the box office with $58 million domestically and $206 million worldwide, a far cry from the 2019 original’s $1 billion gross.
Popular on Variety
During an October interview on the “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast,” Tarantino raved about “Joker: Folie à Deux” and said Joaquin Phoenix “gives one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“The Joker directed the movie,” Tarantino said about the film’s helmer Todd Phillips. “The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right? And then his big surprise gift — haha! — the jack-in-the-box, when he offers you his hand for a handshake and you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts shooting you — is the comic book geeks. He’s saying fuck you to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the movie audience. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood. He’s saying fuck you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers […] And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”
These defenses of the “Joker” sequel are few and far between. Even actors who appeared in the movie have spoken out against it. Comedian Tim Dillon, who had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role in the movie as an Arkham Asylum security guard, went viral last month for trashing “Joker: Folie à Deux” as “the worst film that has ever been made.” 
“It has no plot,” Dillon said. “We would sit there, me and these other guys were all dressed in these security outfits because we’re working at the Arkham Asylum, and I would turn to one of them and we’d hear this crap and I’d go, ‘What the fuck is this?’ And they’d go, ‘This is going to bomb, man.’ I go, ‘This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.’ We were talking about it at lunch, and we’d go, ‘What is the plot? Is there a plot? I don’t know, I think he falls in love with her in the prison?’ It’s not even hate-watchable. That’s how terrible it is.”

QT too. Honestly I don't know how I feel about sharing this opinion with those two. 

Waters is coming to the Rio for xmas. I have no desire to attend. Not really a fan.