Video game creator and filmmaker Hideo Kojima has expressed his opinion on Joker: Folie à Deux.
Kojima took to social media to predict that audiences will view Todd Phillips‘ film differently in the next decade or two.
“Over the next 10 or 20 years, this film’s reputation will likely change along with the permeation of hero movies to come,” Kojima said in a post on X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter. “It may take some time for it to become a true ‘folie à deux.’”
Kojima also noted that there was “no doubt that everyone in the audience loved Joaquin [Phoenix] and [Lady] Gaga in this film.”
In his lengthy post, Kojima made a point that the Joker‘s sequel starts off with an animation sequence “depicting a story of Joker and Joker’s shadow.” The film moves on to a trial that poses the “question of his multiple personality,” which “is argued from beginning to end.”
“Is the Joker Arthur? Is the Joker another personality (his shadow)? Who exactly is Arthur? This revelation eventually transforms into a meta-perspective,” Kojima adds. “In the previous film, ‘Joker,’ was it really Joker who captivated audiences around the world? Or was it Arthur? This question is constantly raised to Lee and even to the people of Gotham City within the film.”
Kojima notes, “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.”
Kojima’s take on Joker: Folie à Deux comes after Quentin Tarantino praised the film, saying it was layered and that the plot twist ending made director Phillips the actual Joker.
“The Joker directed the movie. The entire concept, even him spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right?” Tarantino said on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. “And then his big surprise gift — haha! — the jack-in-the-box, when he offers you his hand for a handshake and you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts shooting you — is the comic book geeks. He’s saying f*** you to all of them. He’s saying f*** you to the movie audience. He’s saying f* you to Hollywood. He’s saying f*** you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers. And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”