Review: The People's Joker

The People's Joker is the finest superhero film since The Dark Knight Rises. Like the other four or five superhero films with anything interesting to say, it is a hot mess. Vera Drew's avant-garde parody/indie queer coming-of-age drama careens through a zany (if grounded) procession of disparate styles. Its denouement has hardly any resemblance to the rest of the movie. This is by design, and its very disparity is what makes it a perfect resolution. Why not suddenly change from an extended Batman riff into a Willy Wonka parody? To end as anything less than a hot mess would be an unwelcome betrayal of the audience's expectations.

Yet Vera Drew displays fine craftmanship throughout this greenscreen-and-Z movie effects-strewn movie. The People's Joker is impeccably conceived and executed, with its editing reflecting its clever idea to turn Todd Phillip's Joker into a trans comedy about the deep insecurity of American comics. Superheroes, comics, and trans people are three subjects just waiting for an artist's meditation on the politics of presentation. The People's Joker is a glorious disaster, and Anglophone cinema is better for its existence.