The People's Joker
By Kit Macdonald
“When I was making this thing, I was never prepared for the level of visibility it would get,” Vera Drew, the director-star of The People's Joker, which re-imagines The Joker as a rising alternative comedian who realises she’s transgender, said in a recent interview around the film's cinematic release, which was delayed by years due to legal threats by Warner Bros. “I thought I would maybe screen it like once, in a warehouse or party or something, and all my friends would go, ‘Thanks for reminding us how traumatised you are and how many fetishes you have. Thanks, Vera.’”
Instead, Drew's film is on the way to becoming one of the most talked-about indie films of the year. Tim Heidecker, Bob Odenkirk, Maria Bamford and Scott Aukerman are among the American alt-comedy names who pop up in a very funny, unapologetic piece of trans cinema that has to be seen to be believed.