Strictly as a legal undertaking, The People’s Joker is fascinating just for the fact of its existence – IndieWire accurately calls it “one of the most impressive and subversive stretches of fair use law ever put to film.” Writer/director/star Vera Drew adapts and deeply subverts the famous DC Comics villain, taking shots at all variety of trademarked superheroes…and gets away with it.
The real miracle is that, beyond that, the movie itself is fabulous, a deeply, meaningful and personal take on gender identity tied to an insurgent, hilarious pop-culture riff. The plot: A law-breaking, not-very-good comedian who is grappling with her gender identity forms a new anti-comedy troupe with a friend and finds herself battling a totalitarian society and its fascistic caped enforcer, who you may have heard of.
“The People’s Joker is the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen,” raved Richard Brody of The New Yorker. “Because, unlike studio-produced films in the genre, it responds to the filmmaker’s deep personal concerns.”
The film parodies 2019’s Joker, but also draws on Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy, mixing gloriously low-rent (and crowdsourced!) animated sequences with equally glam-shabby live-action material. Animated Lorne Michaels, voiced by Maria Bamford (really, how did this thing get made?), is particularly amusing, though it’s unlikely that Lorne Michaels thinks so.
It’s the hot-button movie of the moment. Come watch it with us.