Acclaimed trans film The People’s Joker gets UK cinema release
The People’s Joker is coming to the UK. (The People’s Joker)
Get your smylex ready, The People’s Joker is set for a UK cinema debut next month.
The less-than-copyright-friendly unofficial parody of DC Comics villain The Joker, directed, created by and starring Vera Drew, will open in the UK and Ireland cinemas on 21 February.
The crowdfunded indie film was notoriously removed from the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022 because of “rights issues”, stemming from its unofficial use of several DC Comics and Warner Bros characters.
Calling itself the “illegal comic-book movie,” The People’s Joker tells the story of an aspiring comedian living in Gotham City, who spends years numbing her feelings of gender dysphoria with a fictional inhalant known as smylex.
Featuring stars such as Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk, and work from “200 independent artists on three continents,” the film has become a cult classic thanks in part to the controversy it created in 2022.
Drew announced in an Instagram post on Wednesday (15 January) that a screening tour will begin in February.
“Finally! The People’s Joker is coming to big screens in the UK and Ireland,” she wrote. “Screenings in London, Manchester and Birmingham are already confirmed and on sale, with many more on the way.”
The film’s first screening will be at the Prince Charles Cinema, in London’s West End, on 15 February, along with Funeral Parade of Roses and TGirlsOnFilm.
There will also be showings in Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Edinburgh, York, Brighton, Bath and Birmingham.
The film has a 95 per cent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called it the “best superhero movie I’ve ever seen”, thanks to its “deep” and “personal” themes.
Other critics described it as “refreshingly euphoric”, saying that the film’s protagonist “allows the laughs her cartoonish antics generate, to make a lasting impression that many [viewers] – gay, straight, lesbian, bi, trans, whatever – are going to treasure for ever”.
Tickets for the UK and Ireland screenings are available here.
The People’s Joker will open in the UK and Ireland cinemas on 21 February.
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