 |
| God's lonely dork. |
Super is twisted. Some films can pull that off in a positive way. Recall a film from '98 called Happiness, directed by the superbly screwed up Todd Solondz. That's a film that somehow manages to find the dark humor in the sexually disturbed characters it portrays. Of course this isn't a Todd Solondz film. It wouldn't be as ugly if it were. No doubt, Super is very funny, in parts. Director James Gunn, who's last film was the deliriously strange Slither, gives us a portrait of a mentally unhinged man who accepts a calling from God to be a superhero. He sees visions of demons and rights small wrongs, until stumbling into a big crime. He wields a pipe wrench and cracks skulls for a living. The line between fantasy superhero and regular hyper-violence is blurred. Not just in his mind, but in the film's as well. We aren't ever really shown a man we can get behind, even if it's just to sympathize.
More after the cut --
