The People’s Joker is the bravest and most heroic movie you’ll see all year. Vera Drew’s autobiographical and anarchic use of known comic book characters is a bold challenge to the way cinema has conducted itself over the last decade. When we watch Batman movies, we recognize the symbols and the ideas we ascribe to heroism, yet there is often nothing to take away, nothing that helps real people, nothing that reflects the mirror of cinema back into our world, and shows us heroism in everyday life. This is what Vera Drew has done, creating a fearless cinematic vision that is moving, hilarious, and stands up for human rights. What greater superpower could any hero possess than real empathy? That’s Vera Drew’s superpower, as she has built a movie that will mean everything to the right audience.
The People’s Joker is a dozen things and all of them are interesting. But what it is, most and best of all, is a gorgeous trans coming-of-age story. The film is simultaneously self-reflexive and outwardly seeking. Drew utilizes the mythology of some of our best-known movie characters and by tapping into our understanding of how they function as symbols, capably expands the meaning of these branded and corporate entities, telling the story with evident love for Batman and the cinema that’s being drawn from — especially for Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever (1995).
We’ve recently experienced a rash of IP exploitation, as rights have expired to some historically significant brands lately, none of these have the same bravery or integrity that’s at the heart of The People’s Joker. What’s so daring is that Vera Drew’s adapting a brand that’s still very much active and alive — there’s an officially sanctioned Joker movie coming out at the end of this year. That makes this both challenging and hilarious to the corporate status quo, just as DC has tried to weaponize their own Joker as a slightly-off version of what comic book movies have been up to, Drew completes all the extra steps, and takes the idea all the way home. After diligent legal advisement, the release of The People’s Joker now embodies something else — it reminds us that the ideas we found in the cinema are ours, they are The People’s Ideas, too, and that corporations do not have to be the only players in the game. There can also be radical figures like Vera Drew who does not have to play by the rules and mandates of big tentpole movies and refreshingly delivers a movie that is as constantly funny as it is full of heart and love for its subject.
There is a strain of improv comedy at the heart of The People’s Joker that is going to be irresistible for the right audience — the same audience that loves popular improv shows like On Cinema and Comedy Bang! Bang! — two of this author’s favorite programs, both which Drew has worked on as an editor. Her acumen for sharp comedic editing shows, as the film traces her background as a trans youth entering a world of comedy that was not built specifically for people like her. What’s clear now is that if this space did not exist formally in the past, Vera Drew has willed it into existence, as the year’s best comedy is now a coming-of-age story about a trans youth.
The People’s Joker is a transgressive new voice for cinema and hero movies. It is a singular work that holds space for other creatives to now file their versions. This expands our understanding of IP rights and how creative fair use can be leveraged to create subversive and deeply important stories by using brands rarely associated with either of those ideas. And yet, The People’s Joker is not mean in its use of the property. It is, in fact, the most loving and empathetic movie ever to use any of the associated properties, a masterwork of deep empathy and compassion for others. It’s also the funniest movie you might see all year. One thing is for sure: you should do everything you can to experience it with an audience. This will go down as a prized cult film for years to come and ought to play in just the right theaters in perpetuity. And now finally you have the option to support a hero movie that is for the good of cinema and humanity in the movies. The People’s Joker isn’t the past or the future, this is the movie of the moment, the picture of right now, so go out and have a great time. There may never be another movie exactly like this one.
9/10
Disclaimer: Vera Drew wrote this wonderful list of her favorite films for The Twin Geeks. We also want you to read it. It’s a brilliant list.