January 20, 2025 – This madcap comedy is finally being released, two years after it was made, just in the nick of time for much needed comic relief from the dark direction in which the world is headed.

This movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2022, but was quickly pulled due to copyright problems, since it uses numerous characters licensed by others, including Batman, the Joker, Harley Quinn, Lorne Michaels, the Riddler and many others. Writer-director Vera Drew has a note in the credits thanking co-writer Bri LeRose “ ... for writing a screenplay with me that everyone said would be impossible to make (and sorta was) ... ”

Somehow, this crazy, funny movie was released, and I am sure glad it was. This movie, about half of which is animated, follows the adventures of an unhappy girl trapped in the body of a boy, who wants to be a clown, played by Vera Drew (who is also the writer, director and editor of this movie). She ends up moving from Smallville, Kansas to Gotham City, calling herself Joker the Harlequin, the combined persona of D.C. Comics characters Harley Quinn and The Joker.

Harlequin tries out for the only show where a comic can legally work, on the UCB network, run by Lorne Michaels. The emcee of the show is Ra's al Ghul (played by David Liebe Hart of “Vampire Zombies... From Space!”) who takes a liking to Harlequinn, despite an awkward audition. She cannot, however, afford the $15,000 training fee to get on the show. In this movie the bad guys are the good guys. They are against people like The Batman, which represent the totalitarian evil establishment.

Harlequin, and another aspiring comedian, The Penguin (played by Nathan Faustyn) decide to open their own, illegal, comedy club, hoping to fool the authorities by calling it an “anti-comedy” club. Harlequin develops a comedy act where she has a person come on stage to tell a tragic story, while she laughs at them, with the aid of a kind of laughing gas called Smylex.

Harlequin falls in love with another performer at the club, Mr. J (played by Kane Distler) who, like Harlequin, is also a transsexual. At first, it seems like true love, but then Mr. J turns out to emotionally manipulative.

Harlequin feels empty inside and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Then, she has an epiphany, and launches a full scale attack on the whole system, Lorne Michaels, Batman and the UBC.

There is an old saying to the effect that it takes a bad childhood to make a good comedian, and that is the case with Harlequin, who doesn't have a single happy memory from her own childhood, and she wants that more than anything.

The first part of the movie looks at Harlequin's childhood, and her tortured relationship with her mother, played by Lynn Downey of “The Long Way.” This includes a scene where Harlequin's mother takes her to Dr. Jonathan Crane (Christian Calloway of “Ted K”) for a cure. He prescribes Smylex, which causes side effects, and Harlequin becomes addicted to it to mask her unhappiness.

The wild ending of the movie includes a plant that eats people (but only bad ones) a trip to the Fifth Dimension, help from the powerful trickster Mx. Mxyzptlk, the ascent of The Penguin and “Supersanity.” This movie is very imaginative, and it contains a huge number of jokes about show business, and politics. This movie rates a B+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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