Entertainment
Quentin Tarantino Enjoys One Of The Biggest Failures Of The Year
By Matthew Swigonski
| Published
From picking out your favorite type of candy to choosing the perfect toppings for family pizza night, personal tastes are highly subjective, and our movie preferences are no different. Just ask Quentin Tarantino, who has come out and said that he actually enjoyed Joker: Folie à Deux, even finding comparisons to the 1994 film Natural Born Killers.
While it’s not exactly a secret that Joker 2 is considered one of the biggest failures of the year, Quentin Tarantino says that he found the flaws in the film to have endearing qualities that clicked with him more than he imagined.
Quentin Tarantino On Joker 2
While appearing on the October 22 episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Quentin Tarantino and his Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary were sucked into a conversation regarding the box office flop, Joker 2. Despite the universal consensus that the film was an absolute disaster, the iconic filmmaker couldn’t help but view it from a different angle, admiring it for what it really is, a flawed movie that closely imitated the character it was centered around.
“I really, really liked it, really. A lot. Like, tremendously,” Tarantino told The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast host Bret Easton Ellis and Avary.
Appreciates The Flaws
To explain his reasoning, Quentin Tarantino said that he went into Joker 2 “expecting to be impressed by the filmmaking,” but he ultimately began to see the film as much more approachable than he originally envisioned. The Kill Bill director noted that he expected the movie to be “an arms-length, intellectual exercise that ultimately I wouldn’t think worked like a movie,” he told Ellis and Avary. “And I’m just nihilistic enough to kind of enjoy a movie that doesn’t quite work as a movie.”
Supporting one of the biggest failures of the year isn’t exactly an easy task, but if anyone has enough pull to successfully defend Joker 2, it’s Quentin Tarantino. Granted, he still called the film a “big, giant mess” that was a bit simplistic in its approach, but almost like watching a car crash in slow motion, Quentin Tarantino says that Joker 2 still managed to pull him in, admitting that he “really got caught up into it.”
Enjoyed The Musical Numbers
One of the aspects of Joker 2 that Quentin Tarantino liked the most was probably the one feature of the film that audiences across the globe have panned the most; the musical numbers. He revealed that for whatever reason, the music inside the film caught his attention and never let go, claiming that the more “banal” the song, the more engrossed he felt watching them.
As of October 29, Joker 2 currently holds a dual 32 percent critic and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviews pointing to the film’s odd pacing and uneven musical numbers as the biggest negative.
While Quentin Tarantino seems to be alone in his praise for Joker 2, he says that the film resonates with him on a personal level, which could explain his affection for the movie. He explained that while writing Natural Born Killers, he felt inspired by the film Taxi Driver.
While watching Joker 2, Quentin Tarantino says that the film “seems pretty f***ing indebted to Natural Born Killers, almost as if a torch has been passed between misunderstood films.
Source: The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast
Entertainment
BookCon 2026: Authors Rachel Reid, Stephanie Archer talk hockey romance and how it could change the sport for the better
With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there’s a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the “You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance’s Hottest Genres”, authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.
Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre “escaped containment,” like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, “what [the players] are doing seems impossible.” Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.
But there’s more to the genre’s success than the tropes. “It has to be said,” Rath argued, “that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism.” She went on to say that straight, white women’s voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.
Mashable Top Stories
Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, “I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene.” A similar sentiment came up during Reid’s Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, “No, you can’t skip the sex scenes. You’re missing so much character development if you don’t go on the journey with them.”
The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. “We’re writing the world as we want it to be,” Rath said.
Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. “People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen.”
With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there’s a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.
Entertainment
Save on gas (and everything else) with a $15 BJ’s membership
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Credit: BJ’s Wholesale Club
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Mashable Deals
Let’s start with the obvious, though. Gas prices. Members already get everyday savings at BJ’s Gas, but during this promo window, you’ll get an extra 15¢ off per gallon stacked on top of the usual 5¢ discount — bringing your total to 20¢ off per gallon through April 30.
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Mashable Trend Report
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Entertainment
This $43 bundle quietly upgrades your entire PC experience
TL;DR: This rare Microsoft bundle deal gives you a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows and Windows 11 Pro for only $42.97 (reg. $418.99) through May 17.
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Looking for an affordable way to make your old PC feel new again? If you don’t have the funds to buy a brand new computer, don’t worry. The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows lifetime license and Windows 11 Pro Bundle is the next best thing, offering your computer a total upgrade for only $42.97 through May 17.
Don’t count out your dusty old PC. This Microsoft bundle is here to give it a total facelift for less than $50. It kicks off with a lifetime license to some of the brand’s most popular tools — Microsoft Office, which you’ll pay for once and enjoy without any subscription fees.
Mashable Deals
You’ll get permanent access to a suite of eight helpful apps with Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows. It includes staples that have been around for decades, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. You’ll also get newer favorites like Teams, OneNote, Access, and Publisher.
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Mashable Deals
Show your PC some love with the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows and Windows 11 Pro bundle for only $42.97 (reg. $418.99) now until May 17.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
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