by A.R. Sherbatov
The People’s Joker is a movie that I have been patiently following for quite a long time, since I started college, actually. Desperately looking for reviews of it from people who attended the Toronto International Film Festival, I was dying to hear the perspective of another trans Joker. That is why when the first line of the movie was uttered, “Ever since I was a child, I always knew I was a Joker.” I felt like I had finally found a movie that understands what it’s like to be me.
I was proven wrong rather quickly.
To me, The People’s Joker is a movie of missed opportunities. Trying to form a community in a big city as a trans person is, admittedly, difficult. I give credit where it’s due, really. This movie gets right the portrayal of the main character’s struggles — of drug abuse, alcoholism, of awkward reunions with parents (see: you look different!), of having a nonexistent sense of self, of coping with it somehow, anyhow.
The issue lies in the portrayal of everyone else.
A perfect exhibit of this is Jason Todd, a trans man, a tattooed Joker with tragic stories and even more tragic jokes, a wearer of screw earrings and trench coats. I took one look at this man and thought: Oh my God, he is literally me! I am literally all of those things! Over the course of the movie, I was saddened when the character of Jason Todd, which could have been a rich demonstration of the complexity of found family, was reduced to being a static, cookie-cutter narcissistic abuser. Going into this movie it seemed similar to how Joker (2019) was supposed to represent all mentally ill people, especially those whose existences are considered violent, The People’s Joker would fill the same role for the trans community. Yet, the movie ducked that opportunity and gave Jason Todd very one-dimensional traits that served merely to classify him as a representation of a narcissist instead of a legitimate person who happens to suffer from narcissistic personality disorder.
That is not at all to discredit experiences of abuse at the hands of narcissists. I simply think that trans men and people suffering from personality disorders deserved to see themselves in their full complexity in a movie quite literally titled The People’s Joker. Director Vera Drew had the perfect opportunity to use the DIY comedy scene in her movie as a vehicle to explore the nuances and ailments of several characters, instead of just the main character. DIY punk, art and comedy communities are one of the best ways to find ‘home’ as the movie puts it, as a trans person in a big city, at least in my personal experience. I have discovered so many people who struggle with the same things I do, who laugh and cry at the same things I do, who understood that having lacking family support as a trans person will inevitably fuck you up at least a little. However, the way that opportunity was missed makes the main character feel like not a “people’s” Joker, but just another Joker.
The gravest sin of this movie, however, is not including a “wanna know how I got these scars?” joke when Jason Todd came out to Joker as trans. I can forgive everything else, but certainly not that.
A. R. Sherbatov is a student at Columbia University, clothing designer, essayist, nuclear engineer, speaker of four languages, guitarist in a black metal band and radio show host. His true identity remains a mystery to us all.
