Weekend Read: Why Do I Find Myself, Alone, Defending 'Joker: Folie à Deux'?

The case for the year's most despised film

(no spoilers until I say, “spoilers”)

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When I emerged, exhausted, from an early IMAX screening of Todd Phillips’ new Joker: Folie à Deux last week, I saw two guys dressed head-to-toe as different variations of the infamous Batman villain. I recognized this kind of fervor from this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine, where several grown men were costumed as either of the two leads.

“What’d you guys think?” I asked them, genuinely curious as to how two adults, who took time out of their day—out of their life—to paint their faces and go in full Joker regalia, felt about the movie. 

“Uh… we didn’t like it really… at all.”

Smiling through the disappointment

That’s the prevailing sentiment for this Joaquin Phoenix + Lady Gaga psychodrama musical, which garnered a shockingly low D CinemaScore and tanked financially this weekend as bad word-of-mouth spread like wildfire. The reported $190M film (a budget up 220% from the original) is tracking to earn just $39M this weekend. Its incendiary 2019 predecessor? $96M opening weekend, on its way to being the first R-rated film to gross a billion dollars.

This is the most despised film of the year… and somehow, I find myself defending it.