People’s Joker, The (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 10, 2024
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Vera DrewRelease Date(s)
2022 (August 13, 2024)Studio(s)
Haunted Gay Ride Productions (Altered Innocence)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: B
Review
In a world poisoned by irony, only one hero can save us! No, not Batman, he’s sort of a fascist. The People’s Joker, of course! Trans filmmaker Vera Drew gained immediate notoriety in the news when her film was set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, but then the film was pulled after a single showing because Warner Bros. was none too happy about Drew’s “abuse” of their intellectual property. Look beyond the headlines, watch the film and you’ll be exposed to more than a filmmaker with an energetic and creative voice, you’ll find a comprehensive DIY work of garish beauty that finally gives many marginalized artists a stage to tell their stories. And it’s remarkably funny that at the same time The People’s Joker hits Blu-ray from Altered Innocence, Warner Bros.’ Joker: Folie à Deux is hitting theaters and receiving near-universal negativity for being a limp-noodle jukebox musical that struggles to find reasons to exist at all. The irony poisoning that Drew herself has identified as being a driving force behind her beautiful DIY creation is also the same problem she intended to work through on the screen. How? By giving the mic to the people who have had the intellectual property being shoved down their throats, still somehow identify with it and seek to reclaim these experiences through the power of image making.
The People’s Joker follows a shy, in-the-closet trans girl from Smallville as she moves to Gotham City to make it big as a comedian. There’s just one problem: the only way to be successful as a comedian in Gotham is to join UCB Live, a government-sanctioned variety show that’s about as homogenized as it comes. Her role is chosen by a computer and she’s sent on her merry way to become a member of the show’s cast, which includes rigorous lessons by UCB cast member Ra’s al Ghul (David Liebe Hart, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie). Soon, she becomes disenfranchised and strikes up a relationship with The Penguin (Nathan Faustyn) and the duo decides to start their own comedy troupe. Anti-comedy is their game and many of Gotham’s forgotten-about denizens are about to finally be given the stage for self-actualization. Oh, by the way, Batman (Phil Braun) will stop at nothing to stop anti-comedy.
To talk about The People’s Joker as a tried and true narrative work is probably the wrong way of looking at it. To this particular critic, I found Drew’s own journey of self-actualization through her transformation into The Joker to be deeper, more enlivening and revolutionary than anything that’s been thrown into the Hollywood Batman movies of late. This isn’t so much as a parodic love letter to the superhero figures that trans artists have identified with and taken after, it’s about lacing those personal relationships with arsenic and working through the difficulties of trans-exclusionary Hollywood iconography to begin life anew. And how did Vera Drew achieve that with a DIY explosion of creativity orchestrated across the world and between a ton of artists with different styles? By being The Joker, essentially; supporting and reveling in Drew’s personal journey while relinquishing the stage to others, creating this somewhat-utopian film of yuks and tears.
Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of the film and look forward greatly to whatever Vera Drew does next. It’s no secret that she cut her teeth on working at Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s production company, learning about irreverent and insult comedy in real time. But where Drew’s own personal style separates from that company’s usual motions is in how she can both respect the audience’s pre-conceived notions of comic book material and expand them without deleterious hand-holding. It’s a true joy to watch a film that threatens to explode at any time, yet doesn’t because there’s a confident artist at the helm supporting her vision as much as what these other involved creatives would like to add to the canvas.
Seeing as The People’s Joker involved many different animation styles from artists across the world and that this is a DIY indie film, it should come as little surprise that the film was finished at 2K and in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. That said, Altered Innocence’s new 1080p presentation here is leaps and bounds better than the version streaming on Prime right now. There’s no better argument for physical media over streaming than watching all the green screen hilarity of this film not get clipped by a subpar bitrate and compression. The outlines of people against green screen can often be jagged and loose, but the sturdy AVC encode makes easy work of it all. You can tell on Prime that even their compression struggles to make the bright, garish primaries of this film work, which is why I cannot recommend this disc highly enough for its presentation.
The attached 5.1 surround track is presented in the DTS-HD Master Audio codec and is similarly terrific. All of the little whiz-bangs and sound board effects resolve wonderfully across the surround channels without being mixed too loud. The surround channels really kick in during climactic scenes, but I give the film credit for making its soundscape so chaotic yet graceful when the focus returns to The Joker.
Put a smile on and grab The People’s Joker on Blu-ray from Altered Innocence. Presented as a single-disc Blu-ray release with a double-layered 50GB disc housing both the 1080p presentation of the feature and a terrific selection of supplements. The disc is housed in a standard clear Amaray case with artwork on both sides of the sleeve, plus a 24-page booklet with a ‘zine by Vera Drew is included. And if you purchase this release from DiabolikDVD, you can select to add a Limited Edition slipcover designed by artist Michael DeForge.
Special features include:
- Audio Commentary with Vera Drew
- Audio Commentary with Vera Drew and Nathan Faustyn
- Audio Commentary with Assorted Cast and Crew
- A Discussion with Vera Drew, Willow Catelyn Maclay, and Caden Mark Gardner (HD – 46:57)
- Queebso TV Shorts:
- Suicide Cop Pilot (HD – 29:59)
- Serve the Date (HD – 5:30)
- Image Gallery (HD – 4:45)
- Anatomy of a Scene (HD – 10:43)
- Theatrical Trailer (HD – 1:34)
As for special features, there’s three audio commentaries to dig through involving cast and crew. They’re all great tracks for their own reasons. The track with Vera Drew alone is wonderful because it plays like a travelogue through the production, while the talk between Drew and actor Nathan Faustyn is more about how they collaborated throughout the project, then the final commentary is some insightful and slightly silly because of all the people on the track. It’s a joy to hear how deeply invested so many of these talented artists were to be in the production, and you really can’t go wrong with whichever track you choose to listen to.
In addition to the three audio commentaries, there’s a terrific talk between Vera Drew and Corpses Fools and Monsters authors Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Cately Maclay that goes deep on the trans art history that informed The People’s Joker. The trio talk about everything from their own transitions to how pop culture has excluded similar voices to theirs throughout the years. You’ll come away from this talk understanding even more how revolutionary the film is to exist at all.
Gotham City can’t defend itself from irony poisoning, and Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker is here to save the day. But not for superheroes, rather for the people excluded from homogenized pop culture. Altered Innocence presents this wonderful DIY work on Blu-ray with a great HD presentation of the feature, plus a terrific selection of supplements to enjoy. Grab some Smylex, dose up and get ready for a big laugh, because this release pulls out all the stops.
- Sam Cohen
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