The People's Joker

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1 hr. 32 min.

Comedy

Drama

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List

95%

83 Reviews

Tomatometer

72%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

In the absurdist autobiographically-inspired dark comedy, a painfully unfunny aspiring clown (Vera Drew as Joker the Harlequin) grapples with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City's sole comedy program in a world where comedy has been outlawed. Uniting with a ragtag team of rejects and misfits, Joker the Harlequin forms an illegal anti-comedy troupe that puts her on a collision course with the devious caped crusader controlling the city.

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Critics Consensus

The People's Joker uses classic characters in impressively inventive ways, working within a familiar framework to tell an invigorating story of self-acceptance.

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Ethan B

Contrary to modern belief, not every movie must appeal to every audience -- The People's Joker absolutely revels in this, crafting a unique and stirring narrative that speaks deeply to the exact people that needed to hear it while leaving no room for misinterpretation. This movie's infamous debut, which tested the limits of American parody law in the face of sanitized corporate monoliths, served as a necessary wake-up call to the banality of prestige cinema. It is a movie that is simultaneously a heartfelt deconstruction of transgender identity and an unhinged nitro-fueled parody of classic Batman camp, a lovingly-crafted mess of a movie that could not have worked better any other way. Keep your greasepaint, Warner Bros: the people have their hero, and she's a real laugh riot.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/26/24

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avacago C

This movie is absurd and spectacular.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/24/24

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Jaret S

Hilarious, sad, thought-provoking, heartwarming. Visually stunning. All the bright colors Gotham has been sorely missing since Schumacher. Multiple styles of animation, models, puppetry, and a great soundtrack, watching The People’s Joker is a stunning cinema experience.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/24/24

Full Review

Dave C

One of the best theater going experiences I've had in recent memory.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/24/24

Full Review

Carson L

The People's Joker breaks barriers of what a movie can and should be. It carries itself like a stage production with countless moments of personal direct address, mixed media collages, and punching-up humor skewering the bureaucracy behind the entertainment industry and the economic hellscape we're all navigating. These are difficult times to be queer and this movie serves to guide us toward the glimmers of hope just beyond our nose. It does bring with it an implied prerequisite of familiarity with specifics around the entertainment industry and batman cannon. But it never dives so deep that any one off the street might be confused. I laughed, I cried, I left wanting more but received everything I needed. There's never been a movie that's felt more catered to my tastes or spoke to my personal life experiences the way this film has. This movie, objectively, is not for everyone though. But it does carry messaging that everyone should hear. Because we as a people can have so much better from this world.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/24/24

Full Review

Audience Member

I haven't felt this seen by a piece of media since I read my first trans Asuka from NGE fanfic. Vera Drew, you changed my life and you deserve the world for it.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/27/24

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Vera Drew

Director

Vera Drew

Joker the Harlequin

Lynn Downey

Joker's Mom

Kane Distler

Mr. J

Griffin Kramer

Young Joker

Nathan Faustyn

Penguin

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The People's Joker: Trailer 1

1:37

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Richard Roeper

Chicago Sun-Times

Like no superhero movie before it, the subversive coming-of-age story reinvents the villain's origins with a mélange of visual styles and a barrage of gags.

Rated: 3/4

Apr 27, 2024

Full Review

Jen Yamato

Washington Post

It would be easy to mire this Joker in the darkness of her predecessors, but Drew finds a radically affirming way through.

Rated: 3.5/4

Apr 19, 2024

Full Review

Perri Nemiroff

Perri Nemiroff (YouTube)

It can be hard to fully put yourself in somebody else's world, but here Vera is letting you into hers by putting her own spin of characters we're already familiar with... It's something special.

Apr 19, 2024

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Patrick McDonald

HollywoodChicago.com

The core of this hilarious send-up is Vera Drew’s message, in that the promise of comic book fantasy is that your interpretation can soothe and salvage any difficulties that emerge to defeat boring expectations. Revolution as art, & Drew is a visionary.

Rated: 5/5

Apr 26, 2024

Full Review

Bill Arceneaux

Moviegoing with Bill

An incredible coming of trans revolution. Provocative. Challenging. Confrontational. Hilarious. Daring. Personal without being esoteric.

Rated: 5/5

Apr 25, 2024

Full Review

Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

If Andy Warhol had been raised on Minecraft, he might have made something like The People’s Joker.

Rated: 4/4

Apr 25, 2024

Full Review

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Synopsis

In the absurdist autobiographically-inspired dark comedy, a painfully unfunny aspiring clown (Vera Drew as Joker the Harlequin) grapples with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City's sole comedy program in a world where comedy has been outlawed. Uniting with a ragtag team of rejects and misfits, Joker the Harlequin forms an illegal anti-comedy troupe that puts her on a collision course with the devious caped crusader controlling the city.

Director: Vera Drew
Executive Producer: Lindsay Cohen, Brian Alkerton, Bee Frederickson, Leo Kovalik Jr., Johnee Reyna
Screenwriter: Vera Drew, Bri LeRose
Distributor: Altered Innocence
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 5, 2024, Limited