In a dystopian world, a child growing up in Smallville, Kansas, takes an ordinary trip to the movies and comes across something that will change their life: Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. With its playful comedy, outlandish characters, and, most of all, a sexy and awe-inspiring performance from Nicole Kidman, they become instantly hooked. In that moment, they take a giant leap forward in understanding their own gender identity until their insensitive mother swiftly quashes the idea. This is Joker the Harlequin’s villain origin story in The People’s Joker. In the tradition of the kinds of parody movies that used to fill theaters like Scary Movie or Austin Powers, director and star Vera Drew lampoons the most popular genre dominating our screens today: the superhero comic. However, whereas other directors might rely entirely on wacky humor, Drew infuses this movie with a personal coming-of-age story that makes this movie deeply funny as well as unique.
A Trans Origin Story: While most good parody movies can let us see how certain tropes get overused or find the humor in some of the most iconic cultural moments, The People’s Joker does something much more insightful. Drew’s parody does not come from exaggerating characteristics but digging deep into the heart of these stories and finding something unique. The image of the superhero movie fan might be a hyper-cishet man, but Drew reveals how much the trans identity has been embedded in these kinds of stories. From the aesthetic similarities of having an alter ego with a new name to the more intimate details of wondering if you were born different from everybody else, the superhero journey rings much truer. In this way, Drew understands superhero psychology better than most of the directors DC and Marvel pay millions. This perspective not only lets us see superhero movies like X-Men or Batman in a different light, but it creates something audiences can relate to in a totally new way. Looking at, for example, the whirlwind romance of Harley Quinn and Joker through Drew’s eyes, we can see the awkwardness of a first love out of the closet and the desperation to create a found family.
A Home Movie: Even with all this intimate storytelling, Drew manages to make a genuinely funny movie. If you’re worried that its gender politics satire will make it too cerebral, don’t worry. There are plenty of dick jokes and biting narration to keep you laughing. Its humor is, in large part, a product of the collaborative nature of the movie. Made through crowdsourcing, the movie relies on the works of more than 100 artists. It embraces its low budget and goes for wacky and unbelievable cartoons to get even bigger and broader comedy. This, however, can be a double-edged sword. Relying too much on this can sometimes leave the movie feeling disjointed, and irony and satire can only paper over so many holes.
As far as debuts go, this is still one of the most inventive ones you will see. Whatever faults exist in this movie can easily be fixed with a bigger budget to match Drew’s wild imagination. Do yourself a favor: skip Joker: Folie à Deux; watch The People’s Joker.
