Director and Former Film Critic Paul Schrader Loathed 'Joker: Folie À Deux'

Director Paul Schrader — The Card Counter, First Reform — has never been shy about offering his opinions (here he is on what a deadbeat Lindsay Lohan was during promotion for The Canyons). His latest is on the subject of Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie À Deux, a movie that manages to be both mean and very dull.

“I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough,” Schrader told Interview magazine. “It’s a really bad musical.”

And it wasn’t just the movie. He’s apparently not a fan of either the actors — Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga — or the characters they played.

“I don’t like either of those people. 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.”

At least he contributed to the anemic box-office of the film, which had the biggest second week drop for a superhero movie, ever, over the weekend. That said, I think I’m even more taken with the fact that he cut his interviewer off when he even deigned to mention Marvel.

HARRIS: Is a world where you would’ve ever made a sort of Marvel—
SCHRADER: No.

To be fair, Marvel would have the same response to the prospect of working with Paul Schrader.