Review: The People's Joker

Multi-Media Comedy Puts the Trans in Transgression

There’s a difference between corporate-produced and endorsed faux iconoclasm and the real thing. Films like Fox’s DEADPOOL and Warners’ JOKER are the former, and the new THE PEOPLE’S JOKER – a film not beholden to the DC-owning WB monolith – is the latter, and better off for it.

At the time I’m writing this review, it’s been 24 hours since I’ve seen the film, and my head is still spinning. Director and co-writer Vera Drew, who also stars as the titular Joker the Harlequin, has created a what I gather is a thinly-veiled, quasi-autobiography of identity, an insane multi-media whirligig about a wannabe – and not especially good – trans-woman comedian trying to make her way in the cold canyons of Gotham City.

It’s a tall order. There’s the fascistic grip of the United Clown Bureau, whose initials are UCB (Drew apparently has some issues with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade), to contend with, and the aging gatekeeper Lorne Michaels — who’s portrayed as a featureless, CG animated effigy voiced by Maria Bramford — to overcome. Batman (voiced by Phil Braun) has a handlebar mustache; Ra’s Al Guhl (David Liebe Hart) is a comedy instructor; the Penguin (Nathan Faustyn) is Joker’s good buddy and the co-founder of a law-breaking anti-comedy club. The Joker’s lover, Jason Todd (Kane Distler) — who just so happens to look like Jared Leto’s Joker — is an emotionally abusive creep; Mr. Mxyzptlk (voiced by Ember Knight) is a wish-granting Muppet; and sequences will jump from live action to 2D animation to CGI to puppetry without warning. I’d try to give you more details, but I’d be here ‘til 2 AM.

Drew has previously logged time with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim — know for likes of TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW, GREAT JOB! — which may in part explain THE PEOPLE’S JOKER’s bargain basement yet still surprisingly polished aesthetic. And in casting her tale as the journey of someone struggling to find herself both as a woman and an entertainer, Drew also explores a rarely-noted — at least I haven’t noted it — aspect of the trans community: It’s not just about how one sees oneself, but also about how one is seen. By taking the iconic villain of Batman and turning him into a person trying to reconcile themselves to an identity that society still largely perceives as transgressive, Drew provides a powerful insight into a daunting personal journey, one that many of us – whether trans or not, whether it’s even sexual or not – will at one point have to undertake. THE PEOPLE’S JOKER is dizzying and irreverent and emotionally engaging. It’s a powerful statement of personal growth, and a pretty damn funny one at that.