Vera Drew in The People’s Joker (Altered Innocence)

If you are looking for a superhero movie brave enough to tackle the real trans and queer experience, then you need to see Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker. As you can probably guess from the title, the film is a parody of the 2019’s Oscar-winning Joker—but with a twist.

The film is the brainchild of longtime comedian and TV editor Vera Drew, in what began as a dare to reedit Todd Phillips’s Joker. Although Drew does not agree with all of that movie’s politics, as she rewatched the film several times, she began seeing how the Joker’s story mirrored her own struggle in the comedy world and also her emergent trans identity and coming out. As the Covid pandemic began, she partnered with Bri LeRose to write a screenplay blending her own autobiography as a trans woman with the DC Comics universe. All of this is legal under fair use doctrine, probably.

Joker the Harlequin (Drew) is a mashup of the characters of the Joker and his lover and partner-in-crime, Harley Quinn. Joker the Harlequin narrates her backstory of growing up in Smallville, Kansas, and being put on a drug known as Smylex after she says to her mother that she thinks she was born in the wrong body. After high school, she moves to the big city, Gotham, in hopes of achieving her dreams as a comedian. She tries joining Gotham City’s government-sanctioned UCB improvisational school, only to see that the organization does not welcome diversity.

She and her friend Penguin (Nathan Faustyn) breakaway and start their own underground alt-comedy theater known as the Red Hood Playhouse. Don’t expect to laugh, though. The sets are mostly full of groaners like, “I’m Joker the Harlequin. My pronouns are he and ha.” Although one that did tickle me was about the virtues of comedy, which I will not ruin for you.

After the Playhouse becomes an underground success, a strutting Mr. J (Kane Distler) shows up, wearing the exact look of Jared Leto’s Joker from that pretty terrible Suicide Squad movie, and fittingly so, as he’s basically the same toxic characterization of the Joker from that movie. The two fall in love, and the remainder of the film details a more reality-based, less comic-booky version of their toxic relationship. Except for one really great gag involving a literal gaslight.

The plot is all over the place and anyone trying to follow the world-building of this dystopian Gotham City will be scratching their heads. (If comedy was outlawed, then why does the government still allow a weekly live sketch show? What exactly was this oft-mentioned Cyber War? Is Bruce Wayne “out” as Batman, or is it a big open secret?) However, The People’s Joker gets brownie points for being so different from the same old tired superhero schtick. Even the awkward performances deserve a pass knowing that some of them were crew members who jumped in front of the camera to help out. Out of the bunch, Nathan Faustyn’s Penguin is the true standout. The actor could easily have a career playing the comic relief in mainstream movies.

The production of The People’s Joker was basically one giant collaboration of housebound animators working under budgetary constraints and the pandemic lockdowns. It’s a mashup of live action and several styles of animation, reminiscent of 2021’s Mad God as well as another oddball film, 2019’s The Twentieth Century.

The People’s Joker makes me appreciate what can be done on one’s home computer these days, and also makes me hope that more bands of filmmakers will follow in Drew and company’s wildly creative footsteps.