Quentin Tarantino has fallen victim to the Digital Media Industrial Complex. "I go on a show and I say that I like Joker 2. Now there’s 150 articles on it," he marvels on a new episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (via IndieWire). "One person listens to the thing and writes an article about it and there’s 150 rip-off articles on that. And then you read the comments: 'Quentin is a fucking asshole. That movie fucking sucks. He’s a fucking asshole for saying that.' Why am I a fucking asshole? I liked the fucking movie! That makes me a fucking asshole?"
Somehow, Tarantino seems to have missed the cardinal rule of Being Online, which is that denizens of the Internet will call you a fucking asshole for saying anything. (Just ask the lady who posted about drinking coffee with her husband in the morning.) But as a man who mostly cares about making movies, watching movies, and talking about movies, this mode of discourse mystifies him. "You either like the movie or you don’t. I’m not plugging the movie. I’m not doing anything. I’m just saying I like it," he says. "Who gives a fuck what I like? What do you care what the fuck I like?”
This is where things get a little disingenuous, because of course a lot of people give a fuck what Tarantino likes. Not only is he one of the preeminent auteurs of modern cinema, but he's also well-regarded as a connoisseur of cinema history. Frankly, you wouldn't start a podcast talking about movies you like if you didn't think people gave a fuck about what movies you like.
But his larger point is taken, that there's no reason for one person's opinion (positive or negative) on a film to inspire such passionate vitriol. Unfortunately, we're now among the 150 articles that will be published about Tarantino complaining about his remarks turning into articles—if only he weren't so quotable! The A.V. Club was not actually among the 150 articles about his opinion on Joker: Folie Á Deux; we went with the "Tarantino doesn't care about Dune" angle. But the director also takes umbrage with those bothered by his avoidance of Denis Villeneuve's remake. "What the fuck do you care what I see or don’t see?" He now complains. "Someone will say, 'Well I think he’s missing out.' Well I am sure there is a lot of shit I could say you’re missing out on and I don’t care if you miss out on." Fair enough, man.
