The People's Joker

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Vera Drew directs. Nate Cornett behind the camera. Vera Drew cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 2 years ago.
• 2Directed by Vera Drew, shot by Nate Cornett. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Editor Vera Drew shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 4Vera Drew and Lynn Downey and Kane Distler carry the top of the cast.
• 5Marketing tagline: "Come see how she got these (emotional) scars!".
• 6IMDB entry: tt21651430 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 7Only 52 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
• 8Classified under 11 themes, including "parody", "coming of age", "lgbt", "live action and animation".

The technical file

Cinematography

Nate Cornett

Editing

Vera Drew

Production design

Courtney McIntosh

Makeup / hair

Lauren Kezon

Sound

John Chamberlin

Runtime

92 min · 1h 32m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Box office

$4,057

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

The People's Joker (2024) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

96% 🍅 Fresh

IMDB rating

6.1/10 · 1,335 votes

MPAA

Not Rated

Also by

Vera Drew

• 
  On Cinema

  2012 · ★ 8.4
• 
  The Wedding of Vera Drew & The Joker

  2024
• 
  Our Bodies

  2019
• 
  Tim and Eric Qu?z

  2019
• 
  SCUM

  2019
• 
  I Love David

  2019

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  THE PEOPLE'S JOKER was Peter Kuplowsky's most memorable Midnight Madness | TIFF

  Featurette
• 

  ▶
  "Bed Jump" clip

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  "Tunnel of Love" clip

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  MUBI Trailer [Subtitled]

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Clip (Joker and Mister J in Love)

  Clip · Official
• 

  ▶
  Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Brent Marchant2024-04-27
  ★ 6/10

  Wow – what can one say about this wild, woolly, wigged-out spoof of superhero movies in which the protagonist is an edgy, crusading transgender harlequin comedian fighting the power structure of a corrupt, narrow-minded society? That description alone is pretty wacky in itself, but, as the finished product shows, its depiction on screen is even more bizarre and outrageous. Writer-actor-director Vera Drew’s debut feature is simultaneously an exercise in the outlandish that’s part high camp, part in-your-face irreverence, part alternative sexuality manifesto and part love letter to the Batman mythology turned on its ear. This story of a small-town boy’s transgender awakening as a springboard to finding a new life in the wilds of Gotham City’s underground comedy scene tells an off-the-wall, often-frenetically paced, sometimes-sentimental tale that defies conventional classification. Its inventive mix of live action, motion capture photography and animation serves up a unique viewing experience unlike anything most audiences have ever seen, including among most seasoned cinephiles. It also delivers some positively scathing one-liners and wicked sight gags that will leave many thinking “I can’t believe they just did that!” Collectively, it makes for the kind of picture that will likely earn this production cult movie status and a guaranteed spot on midnight show movie lineups. Despite its many inspired cinematic innovations, however, the narrative occasionally tends toward overzealous self-indulgence and cryptic ideologies that appear to be employed simply to carry the story forward, making for a production that seems to be trying too hard just to see how much of a stunned reaction it can get from the audience. It has also come under some scrutiny for pushing the limits of fair use issues and acceptable propriety boundaries, elements that raised the eyebrows of some critics and of those who created the source materials from which this work draws (but that have also subsequently added to the picture’s undeniable allure). Nevertheless, if you’re looking for something that’s part DC Comics, part John Waters, part “Liquid Sky” (1982), part “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975), and part exploration of the unknown and untried, this one might be right up your alley. But, if you’re put off by such an eclectic blend of satire, social commentary, visual imagery and heretical rumination, don’t say you weren’t warned.

  Read full review ↓
• badelf2026-05-01
  ★ 9/10

  The People's Joker (2022) Directed by Vera Drew Vera Drew's The People's Joker is creatively brilliant with a moving narrative, and she proves you don't need a multimillion-dollar Hollywood budget to make an awesome film. Shot in five days for $25,000, with an army of volunteer animators and visual effects artists recruited through Drew's YouTube show, this DIY trans coming-of-age story wrapped in a Batman parody has more invention, heart, and genuine risk than anything Marvel or DC has produced in the last decade. Drew plays Joker the Harlequin, telling an autobiographical story about growing up trans in the Midwest, coming to Gotham to pursue comedy, and discovering her identity through the worst relationship of her life with a character who looks suspiciously like Jared Leto's Joker. If I have any complaint, it's that the film is paced a tad too fast to catch all the nuances. But to be completely fair, I haven't watched one of those Hollywood, non-creative, comic book movies in many years, so was maybe contextually disadvantaged. Drew crams so much visual information, so many references, so many layers of meaning into every frame that you could watch it three times and still find new details. The "anti-comedy" warehouse is hilarious, especially on a meta level. Joker performs in an underground space with other Batman villains doing edgy comedy in a world where laughter has been outlawed by the United Clown Bureau, a vicious parody of SNL and the Upright Citizens Brigade. The fact that Drew made this film on lunch money is itself meta anti-comedy. The People's Joker is an anti-superhero film, featuring queer and trans friends, anti-establishment in every frame. This is the revolution, not metaphorically but literally. This is what it looks like when artists seize the means of production from corporate overlords and make something that actually matters. With the exception of maybe Deadpool, The People's Joker is the best superhero movie of this century. It's the only one that understands what Grant Morrison wrote 35 years ago: that the Joker possesses "super-sanity," an ability to perceive reality more clearly than the rest of us precisely because the character refuses to accept the world's absurdities as normal. Drew's Joker is super-sane in a world gone mad, and her refusal to conform, to be palatable, to apologize for existing is what makes her heroic. The People's Joker made its debut in 2022 at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival. It was a wildly successful screening, and then was forced off the roster by a message from Warner Brothers that it had violated its copyrights, kind of like a false DMCA takedown enabled by the corrupt politi-puppets of the capitalist infrastructure. The mere fact that a Warner Bros. CEO, who was paid $165 million in 2025, attempted to frighten a young creative filmmaker with a bogus copyright claim, knowing full well that parody has been protected since the Supreme Court case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., is probably a good reason for movie pirates to target Warner Brothers films. Not that I'm advocating that. Fortunately for us, Drew persevered, found distribution through Altered Innocence, and got the film released. Corporate intimidation failed. The movie exists. And it's magnificent.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• HA

  Haunted Gay Ride Productions

Key crew

• Costume DesignerLaura Wheeler
• MusicQuinn Scharber
• EditorVera Drew
• ProducerJoey Lyons
• Makeup & HairLauren Kezon
• MusicJustin Krol
• Sound Re-Recording MixerJohn Chamberlin
• Executive ProducerRichie Doyle
• Sound EditorJohn Chamberlin
• Production DesignCourtney McIntosh
• Executive ProducerRiccardo Maddalosso
• Sound DesignerShanna Polley
• MusicDanni Rowan
• First Assistant DirectorJoey Lyons
• CastingLauren M. Walker
• 3D AnimatorScott Lougheed
• Executive ProducerConor Hannon

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• parody
• coming of age
• lgbt
• live action and animation
• gender identity
• emotional abuse
• toxic relationship
• abusive relationship
• independent film
• transgender
• pretentious

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2024-04-05NR· New York City, New York
• Theatrical (limited)2024-04-19NR· limited expansion
• Digital2024-07-30NR
• Physical2024-08-13NR
• Physical2026-02-11· Video Store•Age released a physical USB version of the film available on videostoreage.com