Despite the film’s negative reception “Joker: Folie à Deux” in theaters, the famous creator Quentin Tarantino he expressed his excitement in a recent interview on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.”

The sequel, after almost a month in theaters, has grossed just $60 million at the US box office and $201 million internationally, according to Variety.

“I really enjoyed it” Tarantino said, admitting that he was expecting the film as a “mental exercise” rather than a cinematic experience.

“But I was captivated by the subject. I really liked the music sequences. They really got me….I find myself listening to the lyrics to ‘For Once in My Life’ in a way I’ve never heard before.” he reported.

Plus, compare the sequelwhich he saw “in an almost empty IMAX theater in Tel Aviv” with the film “Natural Born Killers” that he had written and called it a “spiritual successor” to the story. He pointed out that the characters of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are reminiscent of the couple Mickey and Mallory from the 1994 film, underlining that the sequel offers the version of “Natural Born Killers” that he “dreamed of seeing”.

He praised Phoenix’s performance as “one of the best I’ve ever seen in my life” while Todd Phillips said he directed the film as the Joker himself would.

“The whole idea, even spending the studio’s money, is doing it like the Joker would. Todd Phillips is the Joker” notes.

It’s worth noting that Tarantino prefers the sequel to the 2019 film which he found “drab” right down to the scene where Joaquin’s Joker shoots the talk show host played by Robert De Niro live in the air. The director called this one “one of the best scenes made in the last 20 years”. “The whole movie was worth it for that scene,” he concludes.