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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
SUPER There have been several films during the latest wave of comic-book inspired movies that have branched off of the simple question: “What if I were to become a superhero?” They've ranged in quality from decent (Kick-Ass) to terribly flawed (Special) and some that are so far under-the-radar as to be cultish (Defendor). Former Troma B-movie director James Gunn originally wrote his script before the big craze hit with Batman's reboot in 2005. Super is about how Frank (Rainn Wilson) goes off the deep end after his wife, played by Liv Tyler, leaves him for drug dealer and strip club owner Kevin Bacon. He starts to see society as sick and where crimes need to be stopped, much like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, an obvious influence that the film wears on its sleeve. Even more so than Bickle, Frank's wrath of God-like. He's influenced first by a Christian television superhero, the Holy Avenger (a hilarious Nathan Fillion), who makes platitudes against his main villain Satan, and secondly by the hand of God, literally seen by him in a hallucination. From this encounter he becomes the Crimson Bolt, a masked guy in spandex using a pipe wrench to take out criminals—drug dealers, child molesters—and then more petty types, like, say, a guy and girl who cut in line while at the movies(!) He also is joined by a precocious and excitable young woman, Libby (Ellen Page in a very surprisingly turn), who insinuates herself as his sidekick Boltie. Her disguised persona is used both for fighting crime and as a sexual fetish (whom the prudish and still-married Frank tries to ward off). This all leads into very dark territory, despite (or maybe it's in jest to) an opening animated credits sequence that has the main characters dancing around to a peppy rock song. The opening scenes, though, are more of an indicator of where this will go are, showing Frank as a loser (shot in gritty hand-held) trying desperately to win back his wife and failing, working a crummy job flipping burgers in a diner, and praying to God to get his wife back and some semblance of reason to his life. His trip into vigilantism is not taken lightly by the filmmaker. Unlike last year's Kick-Ass, Gunn doesn't use the premise as a jumping off point to go recklessly into homage territory a la Tarantino. What's striking to me about Super, aside from it being so sickly and blackly comedic at times that it's very uncomfortable to watch, is that its director and its leading man never take Frank for granted. I always felt that he was someone I cared and had hopes for, even as his future looked bleaker as the story moved along. And much credit has to go to Wilson. If any comedy comes about, it's almost by accident. Wilson's more a straight man here to the wild antics of Page or the over-the-top sneering of Bacon as the villain (unlike his role in TV’s The Office). When he sobs, it’s moving, and when he’s “zapped” or “touched” by God, it’s startling and disturbing, and yet he’s also subtle, like when Frank deflects suspicious questions from his co-worker at the diner. It's a wholly formed character and performance that makes the film grounded even at its most insane. There
are some problems with the film, namely in that its tone is so dark and
twisted that it's likely to turn off many viewers. Some expecting
another action-filled romp like Kick-Ass may get their money
worth, but not how they expect. Gunn sticks to his Troma (and former
horror film Slither) roots by making things super-gory and
splatter-ific, going into overdrive near the end. And regarding the last
scene (a little too happy of an ending, if slightly bittersweet), I'm
still, days after seeing the film, mixed about it. Up until then it's a
rough, unapologetic film that almost finds humor by happenstance—or, if
nothing else, by the always hilarious posturing of Nathan Fillion.
Jack Gattanella
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