The People's Joker - Review: See How She Got These Emotional Scars

 

In the world of modern cinema, there’s something kind of magical about actually being able to describe something as “unlike anything you’ve seen before.” Not just in terms of visual characteristics, but in storytelling and plot, it seems as if we’ve been to every world, seen every creature, and experienced every kind of trope possible on the silver screen. But in comes the unauthorized, authentically mad, wonderfully indescribable “The People’s Joker” to smash all of that to the ground.

The film follows Joker the Harlequin, played by writer/director/editor Verd Drew, a trans-woman and aspiring comedian living in Gotham City who struggles with her attempts to break into the world of stand-up comedy. After failing to make it on the standup show UCB Live, she decides to start an underground alt-comedy group with her friend Penguin, played by Nathan Faustyn, and ends up dating one of the comedians, the Marxist-joke telling Mr. J, played by Kane Distler. Eventually, fed up with Batman’s ruling over Gotham and the way UCB treats its comedians, Joker decides to fight back against the system to take them both down, while going through a gender transition spurred by the movement in the process.

Drew’s sense of humor and style will certainly not be for everyone, but there’s a deep level of authenticity that simply cannot be faked. Drew and co-writer Bri LeRose (“Magic for Humans,” “Chad and JT Go Deep”) might be painting this tale with sickly greens and the brushes of 1000 different online contributors, but there’s a deep-rooted genuine nature to this tale of self and gender identity. Drew herself is an okay actor, and the performance she gives succeeds in that authenticity as it falters in more strictly “good” acting choices.

The rest of the film’s ensemble fares well, essentially matching Drew’s efforts, with a handful of minor background voices or roles feeling more like fan-made YouTube level clips. Distler manages to rise to Drew’s level, putting some real heft into his delivery without doing so well as to cover up the amateurish nature of the performance. Surprisingly, it’s Faustyn that manages to steal the show, delivering a legitimately funny and endearing interpretation of the Penguin’s persona. Also stealing the show is “Tim and Eric” regular David Liebe Hart as UCB Live alum Ra's al Ghul, who mentors Joker through the comedy world in a surprisingly sympathetic and endearing portrayal of the older mentor trope.

Visually, you’ve truly seen nothing like “The People’s Joker” and its do-it-yourself filmmaking aesthetic. Scenes go from live action on green screens to action figures posing to hand drawn animation to stop motion to rudimentary CGI in the blink of an eye. This sporadic nature lends itself well to the absurdist way this tale is told, with flashbacks literally censoring out any use of the Joker’s pre-transition deadname. Various scenes were even made by completely different people from across the country, all coming together to form a hodgepodge mishmash of insanity. It’s the kind of film where one cameo can get edited out and replaced with another with virtually zero effect due to the visual styles of the film. Hell, even Bob Odenkirk gets a spliced-in cameo after he heard about and loved the concept.

For those calling the film out on its subject matter or even its depictions of various DC characters, it's obviously done in an unauthorized way, but not without appreciation. This is clearly the kind of project that, for all its joking nature and clear criticisms for DC, Batman, Warner Bros., and the comics industry at large, there’s also a deep love for this world on display. From the recreations of iconic landmarks to specific moments in comic history to namedropping C and D tier characters, this seemingly anti-superhero-movie movie might just be one of the most passionate displays of love for the medium in a very long time.

It’s not without its faults though. As said before, the visual style and sense of humor are not for everyone, and it might simply be too visually busy for some to watch, even before taking the humor into consideration. It’s a very brash film, not interested in toning itself down in any way, requiring the viewer to meet it on its own terms. It also spirals a bit into bizarre self-headiness within its last ten minutes. It’s certainly a bold choice for an ending, and it does end on one single perfect moment, but it still feels weirdly more “experimental” than even the rest of the film. And Vera, we love ya’, but singing is not your strong suit.

“The People’s Joker” is just that; a superhero-set film made for the people by a lot of talented people. It’s a miracle that this film even exists, let alone continues to exist safe from the nuclear bombs of DC and Warner Bros. (Drew does credit her lawyers, even the ones who wish to remain anonymous, in the film’s credits). It is a sheer force of creative will and energy, a blast of colorful, anti-establishment comedy and superhero takedowns used to disguise a deeply personal story of identity that might be the only film in decades that could legitimately be described as unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. And that’s no joke. 4/5