Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for the newly released “Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All,” the rise and evolution of the singer/songwriter duo Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, also know as The Indigo Girls. In select theaters and through digital download since April 10th.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Vera Drew (she/her) wrote, directed and stars as a transgender male-to-female eventually named Joker the Harlequin. She moves from Smallville to Gotham City to find her identity and get away from her oppressive mother (Lynn Downey), and wants to establish a comedy career. With another oddball nicknamed The Penguin (Nathan Faustyn), they open a comedy club, with a goal to get a shot on Gotham’s most popular comedy show Ucb Live, produced by Lorne Michaels (voice of Maria Bramford). With the rogues gallery of lowlife villains in Gotham, plus the overhang of The Batman, they is no...
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Vera Drew (she/her) wrote, directed and stars as a transgender male-to-female eventually named Joker the Harlequin. She moves from Smallville to Gotham City to find her identity and get away from her oppressive mother (Lynn Downey), and wants to establish a comedy career. With another oddball nicknamed The Penguin (Nathan Faustyn), they open a comedy club, with a goal to get a shot on Gotham’s most popular comedy show Ucb Live, produced by Lorne Michaels (voice of Maria Bramford). With the rogues gallery of lowlife villains in Gotham, plus the overhang of The Batman, they is no...
- 4/26/2024
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Vera Drew’s debut feature The People’s Joker evades all easy descriptions. It’s a trans coming-of-age film constructed with deep knowledge and affection for DC comics (and their many film adaptations) that also takes aim at the male-dominated comedy community and the mechanisms that determine stardom. Combining comedy, action, drama and an impressive number of different animation styles, The People’s Joker is a self-conscious, intentional cult film, crafted with genuine love for everything in the margins. And it tells a story everyone can relate to, about a kid growing up and trying to find happiness and success in a dark, troubled world. And in this world, Batman is the villain. He rules Gotham with an army of drones, while using his power and influence to control every aspect of media and culture — even comedy.
But not for long. Joker (Drew) arrives in Gotham with one purpose: to become a...
But not for long. Joker (Drew) arrives in Gotham with one purpose: to become a...
- 4/16/2024
- by Jourdain Searles
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sometimes, a Bat Signal is a searchlight that sends a signal of hope capable of piercing even Gotham City’s darkest night. Sometimes, it’s a YouTube video on a channel devoted to getting sponsorship from Hot Topic, asking any artists if they’re down to collaborate. Vera Drew opted for the latter.
Her film, “The People’s Joker,” is not only one of the most impressive and subversive stretches of fair use law ever put to film, taking the characters and mythology of the Batman universe (as well as Lorne Michaels) to tell a trans coming-of-age story that DC Comics would never touch on its own. It is also an impressive, successful example of how crowdsourcing can elevate a project and bring out the radical queer politics at its heart.
Drew had initially thought about working on a project that repurposed and rearranged footage from Todd Philip’s “Joker,” but...
Her film, “The People’s Joker,” is not only one of the most impressive and subversive stretches of fair use law ever put to film, taking the characters and mythology of the Batman universe (as well as Lorne Michaels) to tell a trans coming-of-age story that DC Comics would never touch on its own. It is also an impressive, successful example of how crowdsourcing can elevate a project and bring out the radical queer politics at its heart.
Drew had initially thought about working on a project that repurposed and rearranged footage from Todd Philip’s “Joker,” but...
- 4/11/2024
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
While doing press for “Joker,” Todd Phillips talked about why he stopped making comedy movies like “The Hangover” trilogy. The director told Vanity Fair, “Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” said Phillips “There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore — I’ll tell you why, because all the fucking funny guys are like, ‘Fuck this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’”
The quote, which got a great deal of play in the media and social media, ticked off a number of people, including comedy writer and director Bri LeRose, who tweeted, “I will only watch this coward’s joker movie if Vera Drew re-edits it.”
“Bri then Venmo’d me 12 dollars,” said Drew, when she was a guest on an upcoming episode of the Toolkit podcast discussing the origin of her new film “The People’s Joker.” “I’m not saying...
The quote, which got a great deal of play in the media and social media, ticked off a number of people, including comedy writer and director Bri LeRose, who tweeted, “I will only watch this coward’s joker movie if Vera Drew re-edits it.”
“Bri then Venmo’d me 12 dollars,” said Drew, when she was a guest on an upcoming episode of the Toolkit podcast discussing the origin of her new film “The People’s Joker.” “I’m not saying...
- 4/5/2024
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker – which was pulled from TIFF in 2022 over “rights issues” — starts a theatrical debut today at the IFC Center, moving to LA’s Landmark’s Nuart next weekend and expanding thereafter with about 85 booking so far — a nice outcome for the mixed-media coming-of-age dark superhero parody that “had gone into into hibernation mode” until Outfest LA Film Festival, said Frank Jaffe, whose distribution company Altered Innocence acquired it then. It’s U.S premiere garnered a Special Mention in the North American Narrative Feature Competition.
Co-written by Drew and Bri LeRose, the film is a reimagining the origin story of iconic Batman villain The Joker, starring Drew as painfully unfunny aspiring clown and closeted trans girl grappling with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City’s sole comedy program, in a world where comedy has been outlawed. She...
Co-written by Drew and Bri LeRose, the film is a reimagining the origin story of iconic Batman villain The Joker, starring Drew as painfully unfunny aspiring clown and closeted trans girl grappling with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City’s sole comedy program, in a world where comedy has been outlawed. She...
- 4/5/2024
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
What can you say about a month of entertainment that opens with a TV series about a charming sociopath and closes with a movie about tennis players in love? It’s tempting to say there’s something for everyone to watch but, more accurately, April offers a lot of choices for those with specific tastes. From the theater to streaming services like Prime Video and Max, the best...
What can you say about a month of entertainment that opens with a TV series about a charming sociopath and closes with a movie about tennis players in love? It’s tempting to say there’s something for everyone to watch but, more accurately, April offers a lot of choices for those with specific tastes. From the theater to streaming services like Prime Video and Max, the best...
- 4/3/2024
- by Keith Phipps
- Rollingstone.com
Vera Drew in The People’s JokerImage: Altered Innocence
In an entertainment landscape dominated by intellectual property franchising made at increasingly higher budgets, it can sometimes feel like fresh storytelling ideas are considered too risky to be properly told, that only those films with majority mass-market appeal ever have a shot of finding their audience.
In an entertainment landscape dominated by intellectual property franchising made at increasingly higher budgets, it can sometimes feel like fresh storytelling ideas are considered too risky to be properly told, that only those films with majority mass-market appeal ever have a shot of finding their audience.
- 4/2/2024
- by Leigh Monson
- avclub.com
If you're just waking up to the saga of "The People's Joker," it starts out the way most comic book characters do — with a tragic origin story. After working as an editor for shows like "On Camera," "Comedy Bang! Bang!," and earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for "Who is America?," Vera Drew successfully crowdfunded her fair use feature directorial debut, in which she utilizes the iconography of arguably one the most recognizable DC Comics world — Batman and the Joker — to tell a queer, autobiographical coming-of-age Joker origin story that doubles as a massive middle finger to Lorne Michaels and the conventional, corporate comedy landscape. "The People's Joker" enjoyed a single screening at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival before it was pulled due to "rights issues."
Fortunately, Drew refused to go down without a fight, and after proving the film is protected under parody law, the Lgbtqia+-focused distribution company...
Fortunately, Drew refused to go down without a fight, and after proving the film is protected under parody law, the Lgbtqia+-focused distribution company...
- 4/1/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Just as The People’s Joker was preparing to premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, a “strongly worded letter” arrived that threatened immediate legal action if Vera Drew’s scrappy, bold feature debut went ahead with its multiple planned screenings. Warner Bros. was less than pleased that Drew and co-writer Bri LeRose based their film on a trademarked DC franchise, and it likely didn’t help that the film reimagines many of these characters as a largely queer troupe of “anti-comedians” who regularly talk shit about very powerful forces in the contemporary comedy landscape—Saturday Night Live creator-producer Lorne Michaels appears as […]
The post Forgive My Laughter first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Forgive My Laughter first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/18/2024
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Just as The People’s Joker was preparing to premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, a “strongly worded letter” arrived that threatened immediate legal action if Vera Drew’s scrappy, bold feature debut went ahead with its multiple planned screenings. Warner Bros. was less than pleased that Drew and co-writer Bri LeRose based their film on a trademarked DC franchise, and it likely didn’t help that the film reimagines many of these characters as a largely queer troupe of “anti-comedians” who regularly talk shit about very powerful forces in the contemporary comedy landscape—Saturday Night Live creator-producer Lorne Michaels appears as […]
The post Forgive My Laughter first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Forgive My Laughter first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/18/2024
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Typically, saying you're more excited about something other than the new Lady Gaga project is fair grounds for having your queer card taken away, but an exception can be made in the case of "The People's Joker." Indeed, as intrigued as I am to watch Gaga's Harley Quinn sing and dance her way through a toxic romance with Joaquin Phoenix's Clown Prince of Crime in Todd Phillips' "Joker: Folie à Deux" (a sentence I couldn't have imagined writing after watching Phillips' original Scorsesean DC drama for the first time back in 2019), it's Vera Drew's trans-coming-of-age DC Comics superhero parody that has my current attention.
Drew, similar to her fellow trans comedienne Harper Steele (the subject of Will Ferrell's acclaimed upcoming Netflix documentary "Will & Harper"), has quietly worked on some of the more memorable and daring comedic offerings of the past decade. In addition to editing Scott Aukerman...
Drew, similar to her fellow trans comedienne Harper Steele (the subject of Will Ferrell's acclaimed upcoming Netflix documentary "Will & Harper"), has quietly worked on some of the more memorable and daring comedic offerings of the past decade. In addition to editing Scott Aukerman...
- 3/5/2024
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
After seeing her DC-inspired debut feature The People’s Joker pulled from TIFF 2022 over what the fest described as “right’s issues,” Vera Drew has secured a North American release for the film via L.A.-based indie distributor Altered Innocence.
A mixed-media dark comedy drawing inspiration from Drew’s personal life, the film is set to open at IFC Center in New York City on April 5th, 2024, with additional markets and engagements to be announced at a later date.
Co-written by Drew and Bri LeRose, the film reimagining the origin story of iconic Batman villain The Joker sees Drew’s painfully unfunny aspiring clown grapple with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City’s sole comedy program, in a world where comedy has been outlawed. Uniting with a ragtag team of rejects and misfits, Joker the Harlequin forms an illegal anti-comedy troupe that...
A mixed-media dark comedy drawing inspiration from Drew’s personal life, the film is set to open at IFC Center in New York City on April 5th, 2024, with additional markets and engagements to be announced at a later date.
Co-written by Drew and Bri LeRose, the film reimagining the origin story of iconic Batman villain The Joker sees Drew’s painfully unfunny aspiring clown grapple with her gender identity while unsuccessfully attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City’s sole comedy program, in a world where comedy has been outlawed. Uniting with a ragtag team of rejects and misfits, Joker the Harlequin forms an illegal anti-comedy troupe that...
- 12/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Altered Innocence to release queer coming-of-age story in New York on April 5.
Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker, the unauthorised queer superhero parody set in the DC Universe which was pulled from TIFF 2022 Midnight section over copyright issues, has landed a US distributor.
Los Angeles-based Altered Innocence has acquired North American rights and will release on April 5 at IFC Center in New York with additional markets and engagements to be announced.
The film premiered and screened once at TIFF 2022 before it was pulled from the festival. Warner Bros has never commented publicly on the matter.
Drew stars in the...
Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker, the unauthorised queer superhero parody set in the DC Universe which was pulled from TIFF 2022 Midnight section over copyright issues, has landed a US distributor.
Los Angeles-based Altered Innocence has acquired North American rights and will release on April 5 at IFC Center in New York with additional markets and engagements to be announced.
The film premiered and screened once at TIFF 2022 before it was pulled from the festival. Warner Bros has never commented publicly on the matter.
Drew stars in the...
- 12/20/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Finally, the people have spoken: “The People’s Joker” is getting a North American theatrical release.
The buzzy film, which had its world premiere at TIFF 2022 in the Midnight section before being dropped by the program, will now be available to the public two years later. The film was acquired by Los Angeles-based distributor Altered Innocence and will open April 5 at the IFC Center in New York City, with more markets to be later announced.
“The People’s Joker” is set in the Batman universe and reimagines the Joker as a trans origin story, with co-writer/director Vera Drew playing the title character. Billed as a “queer coming-of-age superhero parody film,” the feature is not licensed by DC Studios or Warner Bros. Discovery.
Drew withdrew “The People’s Joker” from 2022 TIFF due to rights issues, as announced at the time. The controversy led to the hashtag campaign #FreethePeoplesJoker, with the film debuting in the U.
The buzzy film, which had its world premiere at TIFF 2022 in the Midnight section before being dropped by the program, will now be available to the public two years later. The film was acquired by Los Angeles-based distributor Altered Innocence and will open April 5 at the IFC Center in New York City, with more markets to be later announced.
“The People’s Joker” is set in the Batman universe and reimagines the Joker as a trans origin story, with co-writer/director Vera Drew playing the title character. Billed as a “queer coming-of-age superhero parody film,” the feature is not licensed by DC Studios or Warner Bros. Discovery.
Drew withdrew “The People’s Joker” from 2022 TIFF due to rights issues, as announced at the time. The controversy led to the hashtag campaign #FreethePeoplesJoker, with the film debuting in the U.
- 12/20/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The People’s Joker opens with a disclaimer: “This film is a parody and is at the present time completely unauthorized by DC Comics, Warner Brothers, or anyone claiming ownership of the trademarks therein…”
The fact that the film, which was directed, cut and performed by Vera Drew from a script by Drew and Bri LeRose, requires the statement up front isn’t surprising. This transgender Joker origin story is steeped in Batman and DC references, but it is unabashedly ruthless in who and what it mocks, resolutely taking aim at certain canonical characters and plotlines while also reverently paying homage to many iterations of Batsy.
Credit creator Drew, who repurposes her own trans experience to tell the coming of age/coming out story of young Joker (Griffin Kramer). Growing up in Smallville with her mother (Lynn Downey) and absent, never seen father, Joker feels out of place in her male body.
The fact that the film, which was directed, cut and performed by Vera Drew from a script by Drew and Bri LeRose, requires the statement up front isn’t surprising. This transgender Joker origin story is steeped in Batman and DC references, but it is unabashedly ruthless in who and what it mocks, resolutely taking aim at certain canonical characters and plotlines while also reverently paying homage to many iterations of Batsy.
Credit creator Drew, who repurposes her own trans experience to tell the coming of age/coming out story of young Joker (Griffin Kramer). Growing up in Smallville with her mother (Lynn Downey) and absent, never seen father, Joker feels out of place in her male body.
- 9/14/2022
- by Joe Lipsett
- bloody-disgusting.com
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