Vera Drew isn’t the first to call Bruce Wayne a fascist. Nor the first to make a comedy set in Gotham City. But it’s a guarantee you’ve never seen a film with Batman in it that feels so raw and personal. The People’s Joker takes Batman’s rogues and elevates them to the status of ultimate outsiders, crucial as foils to writer/director/star Drew’s journey to identity and self-acceptance. It’s all about her, and she makes no bones about it. It’s a transgressive, challenging, and absorbing piece of art that proves that if your script is strong enough, we’ll forgive a lot when the seams show.
And they do. By her own admission, Drew co-wrote a script with Bri LeRose that far exceeded their budget. She makes up for it with animation, greenscreen, and some 3D modeling. At times, it adds up to something sublime in acknowledging the multimedia presence of the Batman mythos. Limitations became an artistic statement.
But though the shadow of the bat looms large, this isn’t about him at all. This version of Gotham City appears to be sort of post-crime, where 15 minutes of fame has become the most important thing and comedy is carefully controlled. Like any resemblance to DC characters, resemblance to the state of affairs in the U.S. today is purely accidental. If there’s a real villain, it’s a cartoonish Lorne Michaels (Maria Bamford), producer of UCB Live. His judgment determines who becomes a “Joker” and who becomes a “Harlequin.” You can guess which one gets to be funny.
All look up to Ra’s al Ghul (David Liebe Hart), here a truthteller sort of like a sedated Dick Gregory. Appearing under half-hearted clown make-up, he rambles through routines and teaches the improv classes from which new Jokers and Harlequins are pulled. It’s a savage swipe at certain comedy institutions, but they can take it.
Drew casts herself as someone determined to defy the status quo. Dubbing herself Joker the Harlequin, she starts an “anti-comedy” club with Penguin (Nathan Faustyn — bearded but still evoking Danny DeVito in Batman Returns). Joker falls in love with Mr. J (Kane Distler), a former Robin with more than one secret.
At times, the plot turns on itself in confusion, but that makes an honest reflection of the struggles in Vera Drew’s own life. Initially inspired by Todd Phillips’ Joker, she uses a kaleidoscope of comics, films, and TV shows to share this vision of what it’s like to be a trans artist — or rather, a trans woman — in a society that every day seems bent on rendering her irrelevant at best. Occasionally funny, often dark, and always moving if you’re open to it, The People’s Joker won’t be everyone’s cup of Smilex, but it is a bold and important artistic statement.
It’s also got some pretty deep cuts. Since this is Fanboy Planet, I have to acknowledge that she knows her stuff. Some I won’t spoil, but the second that Jack Ryder showed up, I had to sit up and take notice. Maybe on a second viewing I’d annotate it, but I think that misses the point. Vera Drew is an artist to watch, if that’s what she wants to be. It seems the most important thing she can be is Vera Drew.
