Special (2008)

With Hollywood so obsessed with easily-bankable superheroes, sooner or later you were going to get a spate of movies making fun of them.However, 'Special' isn't one of them. It, like another similarly-themed film called 'Defendor,' is a different take on the genre. If you want a parody of a superhero film then watch something slapstick like 'Superhero Movie' (which, incidentally, is the cinematic equivalent of self harm). 'Special' is about a decent, well-meaning man who signs on for some experimental drugs-testing trials. The results make him believe he has superpowers. Obviously, he doesn't. Here might have been the time to add in some really funny jokes into the mix. Special doesn't. It's a sad take on seeing a rotten world through the eyes of a man who wants to do the right thing, but doesn't really know how - or even get it right.I found this film sad and poignant rather than laugh-a-minute. If people do think it's funny, then it's the blackest black comedy around.It won't be for everyone. It's low budget is visible from time to time and it goes without saying that there are know well-known actors in it.Did I enjoy it? Yes, but you have to be in the mood for something a little heavier than Toby Maguire in red and blue tights.Uplifting and heart-warming it is. The X-Men it is not.

A solid movie of the kind Hollywood can't make. A small but excellent cast tell a small but engrossing story of a normal man who wants to be something else.Rapport really steals/carries this, and his performance is flawless. The supporting cast are also all solid with Alexandra Holden doing a particularly stand-out job as the brilliantly understated love interest.If there is an off note anywhere in the film, it is the ending which slightly strains credulity but, more to the point, is not really clear in what it is trying to say.A film well worth watching, and talking about afterward.

An introverted meter maid attempts to change his pathetic personal life by participating in an anti-anxiety drug study, but quickly runs into some psychotic side-effects. When the drug alters his perception of reality, his mind takes the cue to mean he's developed super powers, which he immediately applies to the streets as a self-styled hero. A dark comedy that's quite similar to Rainn Wilson's odd superhero send-up Super, it's often hopelessly lost in the deep, complicated middle ground between absurdist comedy and bleak, grizzled reality. Character actor and stand-up comic Michael Rapaport plays a good sympathetic lead, but his naive nature and good intentions only make the tribulations he endures that much more difficult for the viewing audience. It's a light, energetic first act that's backed by a tough, distressed greater story, and the frequent reminders that the protagonist is hallucinating steal most of the drama from its root concept. A troubling little package that can't quite settle its own private identity crisis.

Special is a film that remembers what super-heroes used to mean to people and isn't ashamed of it. Before they became big budget spectacles that make hundreds of millions of dollars, before they became sardonic and self-loathing vehicles for societal and psychological deconstruction, super-heroes were power fantasies for the young, the young at heart and for people who felt they were powerless in their own lives. They were about not liking or being satisfied with who you are and yearning to be something amazing. That kind of needful desire can be silly, sad and even inspiring. Special is that sort of film.Les (Michael Rapaport) is a lonely, awkward, quietly desperate meter maid whose only real friends are a couple of stoners (Josh Peck and Robert Baker) who own the local comic book store. Les decides to take part in a clinical trial, testing a new drug to ease crippling feelings of self-doubt. What the pills give Les are psychotic delusions that he has super-powers. So, he does what any socially awkward, grown up comic book fan would do to quench his thirst for validation…he quits his job, cobbles together a silver costume and starts patrolling the city as its newest protector.In real life, however, it's not that easy to find muggers or jewel thieves to heroically thrash, so Les' increasingly addled brain finds substitute targets. There also aren't any super-villains in the real world, though drug company executives afraid that Les' adverse reaction to their pills will ruin their chance to be rich manage to play the part in both Les' fantasies and his actual life. But as he becomes more deranged and more dangerous to himself and others, he must find a way to give up his hallucinations of heroism and find something truly heroic in ordinary, unexceptional Les.Special manages to take the idea of a crazy guy who thinks he's a super-hero and embraces every aspect of that concept. It's absurd, disturbing, touching and even ennobling. There's a humor to be had in someone who thinks he can run through walls and make things disappear with by waving his hands. There's something frightening about a person who acts out because he sees and hears things that aren't there. There's something poignant about a man who wants to hold on to his insanity because as terrible as it is, he still thinks it's better than his unhappy reality. And there's something uplifting about a timid and unsure man finding the strength he's always looked for by finally looking inside himself.Michael Rapaport gives a very fine performance in this movie. He's playing a character who lacks social skills in more ways than are simply convenient for the story. Les doesn't understand himself or how to interact with other people which Rapaport makes first pathetic and charming and then threatening when Les' personal inadequacies are fueled by pill-spawned psychosis. Josh Peck and Robert Baker are also pretty good in small roles as Les' stoner friends. Baker's character is roughly equal in age to Les but is a bit more emotionally capable and able to put some ironic distance between himself and his juvenile preoccupations. Peck's character is younger and gets caught up in the ridiculous thrill of super-heroing before crashing against the unsettling fact that the super-hero is a dangerous lunatic.Writer/directors Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore deserve a good bit of credit for their work as well. Special is a very low budget film and it looks it, but Haberman and Passmore manage to come up with quite a few ways to visually mine the comedy and the tragedy out their story. They cleverly blend Les' madness and his sanity in ways that illustrate the struggle going on inside his mind. This film also has dialog that is realistically funny and dramatic, never straying into pretension or melodrama. I also salute their ambition as filmmakers and their wisdom to not get carried away by it. I've seen a lot of 90 minute or 2 hour indy flicks that should have never been more than 15 minute film festival entries. Special is 81 minutes long and it's got enough plot, theme and characterization to fill that up. And while there are opportunities and had to be temptations to stretch the story out and try and make it a bigger deal than what it should be, Halberman and Passmore didn't go down that road.Special is one of those little movies that more people should see because a lot of them would enjoy it. If you spot this DVD on the shelf amidst the dreck, dregs and stuff you've already seen, give it a try.