The People's Joker

So I'm going to give everyone a full disclosure with this - I am not really into superhero movies. I don't generally dislike them, however what I dislike about the majority is it's either Joss Whedon style cracks at the expense of a sincere take on the story OR Zack Snyder style "I WANNA BE DARK!" edgy that it goes beyond the point of seriousness. The thing is I don't think it's so hard to tell a story that both can be a serious take on the characters AND ridiculous enough to be a fun ride. Also both are full of characters that are homework assignments for people who don't know who these people are and...the idea of "follow the brand that made the movie" ALWAYS sounds like the most boring way to actually engage with the way a movie is made.

This movie...is NOT a serious take on the story or characters. More it's a parody movie which kind of sort of retells the story of Joker (2019) but with a transfemale protagonist and director. There is a lot that gets reshaped to fit the needs of what that premise means for the story but if you want a "general gist" - that's it.

Now there are a lot of comic book references in this movie but I don't think it's impossible for someone to like this movie who has no idea who half the characters or scenes being parodied are. I do find that one scene that I recognized as being parodied and was objectively better here is the scene in Joker (2019) where he dances down the stairs. In this movie that scene is recreated but they replace Gary Glitter with a parody of the Prince song that played in the museum scene in the '89 Batman movie (insert "I did see these movies as a kid" disclaimer here). Cultural erasure of Gary Glitter will never be a bad thing to me.

Now a lot of what I've seen online in relation to this movie is people going in expecting this to be AS polished as the Hollywood stuff and getting disappointed (also slurs and people simping over companies keeping IP rights from the public forever, but I want to keep on track). You will not get that. The visuals rely on character identities getting swapped out a lot (people become 2D drawings, dolls, some characters are 3D animations that are uncanny valley). The amount of work that goes into animation like that suggests to me that the visual style of this movie being so disjointed is very deliberate.

So, if I don't like the genre and admit this movie can be pretty visually disjointed, why am I giving this movie a pass? Honestly because this movie isn't REALLY about comic book characters. It uses that as coding. "This person was a villain" "this person was a hero" and...deconstructing the idea of both. The movie outright dismisses the idea that any one person is a complete hero or a total villain. It's more a story of what we bring to it. Now that might not be very deep to some but my experience of comic book movies is they almost never bring that up. So it was nice to see that and I think it's worth a point for "just because I've heard it doesn't mean everyone else has or that people don't need to hear this."

Now I've talked serious for a bit, what about the "parody" aspect? I'll be honest in that it did get a few decent laughs out of me here and there. Now that's not going to be a sell for everyone as humour is very subjective and my sense of humour is NOT the kind that's applicable to everyone. So the best I can do is try to deconstruct some of the jokes but I don't really want to explain "Why did the clown jump into a vat of feminizing hormones at a chemical storage plant? Because gender health is inaccessible, even in comic book movies" Just...that made me laugh.

So, yeah. I know not everyone seemed to enjoy this but I think it's a cool little film.

Wow - what can one say about this wild, woolly, wigged-out spoof of superhero movies in which the protagonist is an edgy, crusading transgender harlequin comedian fighting the power structure of a corrupt, narrow-minded society? That description alone is pretty wacky in itself, but, as the finished product shows, its depiction on screen is even more bizarre and outrageous. Writer-actor-director Vera Drew's debut feature is simultaneously an exercise in the outlandish that's part high camp, part in-your-face irreverence, part alternative sexuality manifesto and part love letter to the Batman mythology turned on its ear. This story of a small-town boy's transgender awakening as a springboard to finding a new life in the wilds of Gotham City's underground comedy scene tells an off-the-wall, often-frenetically paced, sometimes-sentimental tale that defies conventional classification. Its inventive mix of live action, motion capture photography and animation serves up a unique viewing experience unlike anything most audiences have ever seen, including among most seasoned cinephiles. It also delivers some positively scathing one-liners and wicked sight gags that will leave many thinking "I can't believe they just did that!" Collectively, it makes for the kind of picture that will likely earn this production cult movie status and a guaranteed spot on midnight show movie lineups. Despite its many inspired cinematic innovations, however, the narrative occasionally tends toward overzealous self-indulgence and cryptic ideologies that appear to be employed simply to carry the story forward, making for a production that seems to be trying too hard just to see how much of a stunned reaction it can get from the audience. It has also come under some scrutiny for pushing the limits of fair use issues and acceptable propriety boundaries, elements that raised the eyebrows of some critics and of those who created the source materials from which this work draws (but that have also subsequently added to the picture's undeniable allure). Nevertheless, if you're looking for something that's part DC Comics, part John Waters, part "Liquid Sky" (1982), part "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975), and part exploration of the unknown and untried, this one might be right up your alley. But, if you're put off by such an eclectic blend of satire, social commentary, visual imagery and heretical rumination, don't say you weren't warned.

Now this is a movie that I heard buzz about before it started. I saw the title and had no idea that this was a parody of DC properties. There was a disclaimer in the beginning of this wild ride. The last bit was that this seems like one that Nightmares Film Festival was trying to get for bit and finally did. I got to see this for the Midwest premiere.

We are following Joker the Harlequin (Vera Drew). She goes about telling her story about how she was born as a boy, thought she might be in the wrong body and how her mother, Lynn Downey, took her to see Dr. Jonanthan Crane (Christian Calloway). She leads her into this dystopian world to Gotham where comedy is outlawed. Together with The Penguin (Nathan Faustyn) they start an anti-comedy troupe with Poison Ivy (voiced by Ruin Carroll), The Riddler (Trevor Drinkwater) and Mr. J (Kane Distler). This is an origin as well as a coming-of-age story as to how Joker the Harlequin changes the world.

This is a wild movie. It is a parody while also having a great message here. The depth of knowledge that co-writer/director Drew has along with Bri LeRose into the DC universe is great. There are so many references that I noticed and I'd bet there are even more that I missed. Not only that though, to take these things and mold them into a satire of the world we live in is great. Showcasing how Joaquin Phoenix's Joker isn't someone we should idolize or the same for Jared Leto's take from Suicide Squad. I'm just scratching the surface with what this is doing.

Now I will warn you if you haven't picked up this is a heavy LGTBQ+ message. I didn't have an issue with it as it made me laugh and think as well. It is looking at how Joker as a child knew they were someone trapped in the wrong body biologically. We see the repercussions of what the mother did. We even see a hilarious take on Lorne Michaels (voiced by Maria Bamford), trying to tame what is happening for money and success. There are even jabs here at Saturday Night Live that I found funny.

I should also bring up filmmaking. This is done on a low budget. There is use of green screen. I can be forgiving since we are bringing a comic book world to life and a backdrop of a dystopian world. What I love is the transitions though from the world we are in to cartoon. Having things edited in like AI and what not was expertly done. This isn't a movie that was ever going to pull in a true budget, especially for what I'm going to say next. Before that though, we have a good cast here. Drew leads the way as our main character. I like seeing characters like Mr. Freeze (voiced by Scott Aukerman), Batman (voiced by Phil Braun), Calloway, Carroll, Distler, Drinkwater, Faustyn and David Liebe Hart as Ra's al Ghul. Downey and the rest of the cast also rounded this out for what was needed.

This won't be for everyone, but if you're open minded and enjoy outrageous comedies. Give this a watch. It has a great message and does in a way that is outside of the box. It is going to ruffle feathers for sure.

My Rating: 6 out of 10.

The presentation: I suppose I MOSTLY feel duped because I paid for a ticket to watch something that I probably should have watched on YouTube. I don't think that people shouldn't make movies just because they don't have the funds for it, but I *do* feel like I can judge it on its quality if it chooses to cut corners. The green screen looks terrible, and this is barely "directed." Conversations are shot super close up, and the actors fall out of frame frequently. The effects look like Red Letter Media videos when Mr. Plinkett's house was floating at the bottom of the ocean. I don't even really feel like calling this a movie.

The DC property: I suppose if it stripped all of the IP away, some might still frame it as a "Joker origin story." But I still don't believe that the solution was to lean into it. It undercuts its trans journey message with...superhero fiction. This movie wants you to take it seriously and as a joke at the same time. And as for the boldness of copyright infringement, "Escape from Tomorrow" is also, similarly, not good, despite its ballsiness to try to slip it by Disney.

Only the actors and quick, cutaway gags are worth mentioning.

Using Batman characters and various other Gotham City-related namedrops (within the realm of Fair Use, of course; this is decidedly not an official DC release) to tell the story of a trans awakening and trans visibility, Vera Drew's The People's Joker is a mostly funny movie that also somehow works whenever it is unfunny.

Reviewers are not unjustified to use the term "Adult Swim coded". This rings true of the cast (Tim Heidecker and David Liebe Hart appear; even Drew herself has edited a number of Adult Swim shows), the sometimes deliberately awkward acting, and the general quality of the effects, with CGI shots that look like something you would see in the days of M. Dot Strange and Jimmy ScreamerClauz. But the artist that this film truly lauds is Joel Schumacher; the film is dedicated to his memory (alongside Drew's mother) and sometimes recalls his mostly reviled Batman films -- the ones that the Internet tastemakers of the late 2000s called some of the worst pictures ever made.

Video essayist Kyle Kallgren argued that most of the stuff that the Internet has categorized as "cringe" can be reduced to queer expression; a way to bully queerness for simply expressing itself in ways that many aren't used to. The People's Joker, in Kallgren's words, has "defeated cringe". In doing so, I guess, it also suggests that any problems Gen X/Gen Y nerds may have had with Batman & Robin is really a matter of not understanding a queer way of making art. (Recall that the film was released in the same era when the mere mention of trans people was typically a lead-in to a vomit joke.) Well, they understood that the shots of Clooney's leather-clad keister may have been put in because that's the sort of image Schumacher enjoys, but calling Batman & Robin "gay" as an insult isn't to understand why it looks, sounds, and feels the way it does.

What I'll tell you for certain is that The People's Joker is a highly entertaining ride with plenty of personality and wit. A mutual on Twitter argued that its color schemes, occasional "old television" aesthetics, and trans themes make it fit for a double bill with I Saw the TV Glow, but I'm not sure if the tonal shifts of such a movie night would work for everyone. You do you.