John Waters puts Joker 2 on Top 10 of 2024 list, calls out “stupid critics”

Last Updated on December 9, 2024

John Waters’ annual top 10 movies list is always an eclectic one, filled with movies on the fringe that we may have never even heard of, ever a champion for the maligned. But the most interesting addition this year is one that got a lot of attention this year – just for all the wrong reasons.

Taking the #6 spot on his list of the top 10 movies of 2024 for Vulture, John Waters picked Todd Phillips’ much-derided Joker: Folie à Deux, which had all of the hype possible behind it but flopped with critics and audiences. In his write-up, Waters told us just what worked for him: “Finally, a love story I can relate to. So insane, so well thought out, so well directed, so much smoking! It’s Jailhouse Rock meets Busby Berkeley with a 9/11 That’s Entertainment! ending that will make you shake your head in cinematic astonishment. Stupid critics. Gaga so good. Joker so right. Die, dumbbells, die!”

Supporters of Joker: Folie à Deux are few and far (we gave it a 5/10 in our review), but John Waters naming it to his top 10 of 2024 does put him in the company of Quentin Tarantino, who absolutely loved it and said Joaquin Phoenix’s performances is one of the best he’s ever seen. What, you think Tarantino is ever hyperbolic?

Joining the Joker sequel on John Waters’ top 10 list would be Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding at #1, Luda Guadagnino’s Queer at #2, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist at #3, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truth at #4, Alexi Wasser’s Messy at #5, Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s Femme at #7, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez at #8, Halina Reijn’s Babygirl at #9, and Truong Minh Quy’s Viet and Nam at the bottom. In 2019, Waters put Joker in the #10 spot, while last year he picked Beau Is Afraid as his favorite film, so Waters is most definitely a fan of Joaquin Phoenix.

For those that skipped Joker: Folie à Deux in theaters – and there were a lot of us, as the sequel made about a sixth of the first – it will be hitting Max on December 13th.