The People's Joker Is A Woman of Her Word

by Nick Taylor

That’s right folks: It’s time. The review you’ve all been waiting for. It’s me, talking about The People’s Joker, one of the year’s best films. You’ve had over a week now to see this magnificence in your own homes, to treasure its weird earnestness barely submerged amidst so much scuzzy kitsch, to marvel at such ingenuity despite palpably limited assets, to bemoan the lack of international release or festival screenings even though this would kill at a queer film festival. My two trips to see this in a packed theater, flanked on all sides by queers who were so ready for the madness Vera Drew promised them, rank among the best crowd experiences I’ve ever had, and it’s a genuine bummer more people won’t get to experience The People’s Joker in that environment.

It’s not the release this film deserves, but being even this accessible to a wide audience is what it needs. For those wondering what The People’s Joker is, or need an extra push to check it out, follow me below the cut and learn all about it . . . . 

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Soundtracking: Batman (1989)

by Chris Feil

By now the grim discourse surrounding the arrival of a new version of the beloved Joker feels like a ceaseless, depressing spiral. In the years since Heath Ledger’s genius and revolutionary take on the character, the social context for the clown terrorist has only gotten darker. After a tattoo and grill-clad iteration in Suicide Squad to now Joaquin Pheonix’s take that hews closer to the unwell men who find inspiration in the character in our isolative online era, we seem to be losing the character’s sense of fun in every conceivable way. This franchise needs an enema [kazoo sound]!

The mad balance between Joker’s violence and vibrancy is so skewed, it feels like we need to bring back a different kind of extremity. Like the kind that accompanied Jack Nicholson’s version, that hasn’t gotten its fair share of side-eye. I’m talking about the technicolor earnestness of Prince’s Batman concept album.

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Links: Color Purple, Yuba County, and Rebel Wilson

Playbill very cool news. The tony winning The Color Purple musical will be adapted to screen. Smart of Cynthia Erivo to immediately focus on the screen following her Tony win for that show. Perhaps she can transfer the role now that she has a larger profile in the film industry?
Pajiba first photos of Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly offer an uncanny resemblance
Tod Phillips Joaquin Phoenix taking a smoke break on the set of The Joker
/Film Deadwood just began production on a movie with the TV series cast returning to their acclaimed roles

IndieWire held a little ceremony to honor some of this year's top film people: Charlize Theron, Amandla Stenberg, Ryan Coogler, and Alfonso Cuarón among them.
Tribeca Film Disobedience deserves a place in awards season
Variety Rebel Wilson in hot water after proclaiming (incorrectly) that she's the first plus size woman to lead a rom-com (if she had just admitted she was wrong, this wouldn't have blown up but for some reason she doubled down)
Variety Fun! Allison Janney and Laura Dern will be co-starring in a comedy called Breaking News in Yuba County for director Tate Taylor (The Help)
Awards Daily Best Song Oscar-winner Annie Lennox wrote a new tune for A Private War
Into on the erasure of both polyamory and bisexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody
Humanizing the Vacuum perceptive review of Can You Ever Forgive Me?