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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
 SPECIAL
Sometimes reading the press notes with filmmaker interviews is fruitless and not worth mentioning in a review. But sometimes there are some nuggets worth pointing out, and Special had two from first-time feature writer/directors Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore. One involved the objective of making a movie about a superhero that wasn’t just fluff or escapist fare, that would take the subject of being an ordinary guy with special powers seriously. The second concerned how they wanted the film to look—like a drug trip. The first point might have been valid, say, 20 years ago, but after Tim Burton’s Batman movies, the Spider-Man series, and, of course, Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, there’s a whole catalog of movies that more or less seriously treat the existential hang-ups of the superhero. On top of this, the psychological depth here is close to nil. And the second point… basically, you’re either Terry Gilliam and/or Darren Aronofsky or you’re not, and these guys definitely are not—when they’re consciously trying to make the film feel druggy, anyway. The story involves one loner, Les (Michael Rapaport), who works as a meter maid. In his constant narration, he informs us of his mild lifestyle and his dreams of being a hero like in the comic books he reads. One day, he signs up for a medical experiment as a guinea pig for a new anti-depressant drug. After taking them for a spell, he gains the ability to levitate, to walk through walls, and to spot where a crime may be taking place. After donning a ridiculous homemade silver outfit with the medical company’s logo on the back, Les becomes the target of secret agents who want to take him out for appearing on TV. Now, to be fair, not all of Special’s faults can be blamed on the filmmakers. Star Michael Rapaport is a constant, irritating distraction with his way-too childlike mannerisms. Used in smaller doses like in True Romance or the TV series Boston Public, he can be effective. But here he is never more than a two-dimensional actor, and sometimes not even that. It doesn’t help that some of his co-stars, with the exception of maybe Josh Peck and Robert Baker as his stoner geek buddies, all appear to be plucked off of amateur ads from Craigslist. To be fair,
if this was perhaps a short film, it might have been a curio on the
craziness of what could happen with drugs-gone-bad. Maybe that was where
the filmmakers could have hit their stride. In 80 minutes,
filled with pretentious platitudes from its hero/narrator and hysterical
scenes of his psychotic outbursts, not to mention one of those God-awful
“inspiring” endings filled with BIG close-ups on super-serious faces, it
goes on far, far too long.
Jack Gattanella
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