Martin Scorsese has had a lot to say about the comic book movie genre for the last few months. It’s not so much that he doesn’t respect them, it’s just that he sees them as something closer to a theme park attraction than to art cinema. That’s cool. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Interestingly, it was teased for a while that Scorsese would have some role to play in Todd Philip’s Joker film starring Joaquin Phoenix. It makes sense given that the movie seems like a thematic love letter to Scorsese films like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. The parallels have left fans wondering how he liked the new movie, and whether it fell more into the category of cinema or spectacle. Well, we’ve got our answer thanks to a new interview with the New York Times.
“I saw clips of it,” Scorsese said of “Joker.” “I know it. So it’s like, why do I need to? I get it. It’s fine.”
So, that’s it. He didn’t see the film and it sounds like he has no real interest. We’ll see if that’s still the case when The Joker’s Joaquin Phoenix goes head-to-head with Robert De Niro, who starred in Scorsese’s The Irishman (as well as making an appearance in The Joker)