While the original Joker had been compared to Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver, that film’s acclaimed screenwriter Paul Schrader wasn’t impressed with Todd Phillips‘ panned sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux.
In a chat in Interview magazine, Schrader said he got to the theater to see the movie, but “I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”
He added, “It’s a really bad musical.”
When pressed for details, he had some choice words for Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, as well as their respective characters Joker/Arthur Fleck and Harley Quinn.
“I don’t like either of those people,” he sniffed.
“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.”
The Oscar-nominated writer used to be a film critic, and it seems other critics agree with his review: Joker: Folie à Deux has a 33% from them on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
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