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Starring
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MPAA Rating: R Kids-in-Mind Rating:
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Confessions of a Superhero
a review by Neil Carnahan The Basics This is a documentary film about wannabe actors on Hollywood Blvd. They dress up like famous superhero characters, mill about in front of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (much to the irritation of the theater owner, and sometimes the police department), and take pictures with tourist for tips in the hopes of someday being discovered by someone in the film industry that will give them their big break. The main focus of the movie is Chris Dennis, who plays Superman. He has what can only be described as a Trekkie-like obsession with Superman. Having spent nearly $90K on the super heroes memorabilia, it covers his tiny Hollywood apartment. He doesn’t talk much about his past and the small bits he does reveal are in question from other family members. Jennifer Gerht, who players Wonder Woman, was a southern cheerleader with the acting bug. She dropped out of college and the next day moved to Los Angeles to become an actor. Maxwell Allen plays Batman, who deals with serious anger issues, and Joe McQueen, the Hulk, was homeless for a few years while struggling with the audition process. This movie is pretty interesting to look at. The regular footage of the film was interlaced with old style 8MM type footage and very telling, very interesting still photography of iconic Hollywood sites, as well as long shots of the characters faces and mannerisms in a way that you can see what's behind their costumes and shows simply a broken and lonely soul. For the most part, the story of these four just makes me sad. To see these people with big dreams of fame and success and having to watch them as they ready themselves day in and day out in their dismal, sad apartments was kind of hard to watch. Aside from Superman, they don’t seem particularly happy with where they are in life, they just think somehow that being a street performer will get them discovered by “the right” producer in the film business. The strangest of all these folks has to be Jennifer/Wonder Woman -- not because she’s the oddest (that title certainly goes to Superman), but because she seems the most normal of the bunch. I can see how the others ended up there; stories of homelessness, drug abuse and other random shady tales of their backgrounds. But Jennifer seems like the most put-together and stable of the bunch who could spend her days far better than she does. This film truly shows the flip side of the dream-big-and-make-it town and magnifies the far too common broken dream scenario. It’s surprising how many people are so delusional that think they are going to make it big, when they are basically panhandlers that came across a deal on a costume one day. The film does drag about 2/3 of the way into it. After so many long shots of solemn faces and slow music, I was like, we got it, it’s sad, let’s move on. But it didn’t hinder it too much; this is a good one to rent at home. What the DVD Offers The version I saw was a screener copy of the DVD; it had no extras on it. Visit the film's official web site here. Film Grade: B DVD Grade: N/A
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