Paul Schrader is the latest “Joker: Folie à Deux” critic.
The auteur seemingly couldn’t find any semblance of his “Taxi Driver” or Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy” in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” despite director Todd Phillips saying both inspired the Oscar-winning first film, 2019’s “Joker.” Frequent Schrader collaborator Scorsese also executive produced “Joker” but did not return for the sequel.
Schrader told Interview magazine, while in discussion with Jeremy O. Harris, that he couldn’t even sit in the theater for “Folie à Deux” past a (non-consecutive) 25 minutes.
“I see who’s coming up. I go to the multiplex,” Schrader said of his pastimes when not writing and directing. “I saw ‘Joker: Folie à Deux.’ I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”
He added that “Folie à Deux” is a “really bad musical.”
In fact, Schrader openly is not a fan of both “Folie à Deux” leads: Joaquin Phoenix who plays Arthur Fleck, the title character, and Lady Gaga, who joined the franchise as a subversive Harley Quinn.
“I don’t like either of those people,” Schrader said. “I don’t like them as actors. I don’t like them as characters. I don’t like the whole thing. I mean, those are people who, if they came to your house, you’d slip out the back door.”
Schrader instead pointed to indie “My First Film” as a better pick at the box office.
“The most exciting one I saw in the last week or two is ‘My First Film,’” the “Oh, Canada” writer/director said. “I think that’s really good.”
“My First Film” is Zia Anger’s feature directorial debut and centers on the meta story of making a stalled feature. Odessa Young plays a version of Anger, who 15 years ago started making a film about a young woman adrift after becoming pregnant. Read the IndieWire review here.
Schrader’s take on “Joker: Folie à Deux” also mirrors its box office dip: The big-budget sequel did not follow in its predecessor’s history-making footsteps, and fell by 81 percent in its second weekend. The Warner Bros. feature actually was beat out at the box office by indie horror installment “Terrifier 3,” which only had a $5 million budget that included its marketing campaign. Meanwhile, “Joker: Folie à Deux” cost a roughly $200 million price tag.
