Interesting to see some of the filmmakers defending Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux.” The film was never as bad the reviews entailed. Rather, the movie just didn’t deliver what people expected it to be. It’s not a ‘Joker’ movie, but rather one that tries to deconstruct the myth of the character, and then blow it up in people’s faces.
So far, and most famously, we’ve had Quentin Tarantino showing some love for the film. Mark Romanek and Jason Blum also recently praised ‘Folie à Deux,’ with Romanek adding that he knows many people in the industry who are huge fans of the film.
Now, here comes “Death Stranding” creator Hideo Kojima, echoing Tarantino, Romanek and Blum’s sentiments — he absolutely loved ‘Folie à Deux’ (via X):
We live in an age of mass production of "poetic justice" heroes, a battle between good and evil. Lately, many spin-off films with a focus on the villains have been made. Can villains be superheroes too? Is this question posed on the big screen as a DC movie, too avant-garde? Was it the Joker that audiences around the world loved? Was it Arthur? This is where the reviews have diverged. Over the next 10 or 20 years, this film's reputation will likely change along with the permeation of hero movies to come. It may take some time for it to become a true "folie à deux.”
Now that the ice has broken, expect more creatives to come out of the woodworks and start to reappraise ‘Folie à Deux’ — whether that will be enough to raise this film’s reputation from the gutter remains to be seen.