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Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in Joker Folie à Deux
Image via Warner Bros. Discovery

‘It’s that simple’: Lady Gaga finally breaks her silence on how she feels about ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ stinking up a storm

Spoken like a true artist.

Over the course of 2024, many a cinematic villain burst into the limelight. Emilia Pérez has gone on to be the designated villain of the current awards circuit, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe ejected three whole turds into theaters everywhere, and Argylle carved out a rather notorious reputation for itself prior to its Apple TV Plus homecoming.

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But none matched the raw power of Joker: Folie à Deux, itself a film about one of the most iconic villains in the history of pop culture. Indeed, with a 31% critic approval rating to match the 31% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Folie à Deux found few allies outside of Quentin Tarantino and everybody else who actually understands why the film exists. As for Lady Gaga, who starred in the film as Joker’s love interest Harleen Quinzel, she knows that poor audience reception is just part of the artist gig.

In a recent Elle cover story centered on the pop megastar, Gaga nonchalantly remarked that the pursuit of artistry often means you have to be okay with some people not liking your work.

People just sometimes don’t like some things. It’s that simple. And I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it. And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.

Indeed, making art for the purpose of the widest possible audience appeal is an express ticket to creative dystopia. Can you imagine if Christopher Nolan or Greta Gerwig polled audiences about what they’d like to see in their next movies?

The case of Folie à Deux specifically is perhaps one of the most extreme cases of a film not being made for audiences, which is precisely why it’s been regarded so venomously despite being a fantastic portrait of love and identity, and an equally ferocious indictment of irony and anti-critical thinking.

Just look at some of these comments.

Do you notice a pattern?

The pattern, in case you missed it, is that the overwhelming majority of disparaging comments — specifically, those that substantiate their disdain beyond a throwaway “it sucks” sentiment — focus on the disappointment of the fans and what they wanted to see from Folie à Deux.

Except, Folie à Deux and Joker deal with the exact same subject matter, so if they liked Joker so much, why did they despise Folie à Deux? Could it be that Joker fans interpreted the first film as an incel power ballad that glorified violence and anger, and then held Folie à Deux to those exact expectations, only to throw a fit when the second film made clear that Arthur Fleck was never their champion, and that everything they cheered for was meant to be read as a tragedy this whole time?

This is what happens when audiences refuse to bring themselves and their minds to a film, and passively insist that it simply entertain and satisfy them. These narcissistic viewing habits breed resentment for anything that doesn’t ultimately appeal to them specifically, and it winds up stunting our growth instead of empowering it like a great film should. That’s entertainment, folks.


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