When I first heard about Super, by director James Gunn, I was quickly intrigued. A super-hero movie from James Gunn? Starring Rainn Wilson and Kevin Bacon? You had me at hello.
Unfortunately, there were some problems. Super quickly suffered the plague of a limited release. It was simultaneously released on OnDemand, but I don’t have that. That’s one I owe Super. Super was recently released on Blu-Ray and dvd. I bought it within the week of its release, but I’m only just now getting around to reviewing it. That’s two I owe Super.
There will be a third. Also a fourth, fifth, sixth and gazillionth. That’s because this movie is fantastic.
The plot of Super is not the story of your basic super-hero. Frank D’Arbo is a simple, religious short-order cook at a diner that is married to a beautiful recovering drug -addict Sarah. His two greatest achievements, or as he calls them, perfect moments, is marrying Sarah and pointing a police officer in the direction of a criminal. One day, Sarah leaves Frank for local crime-lord Jacques. Frank can’t handle it, and goes to the cops, who show him up, then Jacques, whose thugs beat the crap out of him.
After a long bout of prayer, Frank is inspired to become a super-hero, The Crimson Bolt, beating up drug dealers, child molesters, and line-cutters with his trusty pipe-wrench. He later teams up with hot comic-book geek Libby, who becomes Boltie and helps him take on crime and fight Jacques and his henchmen to save Sarah.
The movie is quite deeper than that. This awkward super-hero story has some in-your-face blood squirts, blown apart bodies, and a “touched by God” scene that would make any Troma fan remember why they loved Gunn. It’s entertaining, goofy gore rather than disgusting. At the same time, there is a layer of comedy throughout the film that straddles the fence of slapstick and black comedy, more than just the campy Holy Avenger references with the director as the Devil. It can be as simple as the joke of beating someone over the head with a wrench for cutting in line, or as creepy as a super-hero yelling at a criminal like a little kid before stabbing him to death.
In the lead, Rainn Wilson does an outstanding job. Making low-budget, hip fare like this is going to give him a career that I imagine will still be going strong after The Office inevitably ends. His character is an endearing sort. This is a regular schmo who’s been at the receiving end of a lot of casual cruelty over the course of his life. The one thing he has going for him is his recovering drug-addict wife, played by the luscious Liv Tyler.
However, the real scene-stealer here has to be Ellen Page. Wow. You’ve never seen Page like this before. Her role as a totally unhinged, murderous, nymphomaniac comic book store worker, with a passion for slicing drug dealers faces up with her Wolverine-like claws might be downright iconic. She’s absolutely incredible here. Her mixture of ferociousness, and understated sex appeal would have suited the role perfectly. Anyone who only knows Page from Juno, get ready to have your world rocked by her work here.
The depth of the movie takes on a few serious themes as well. For one, dependence, both emotional and drug-related, as is shown in the marriage of Frank and Sarah. The second is how true love is when you want someone to be truly happy, whether or not you are actually a part of that happy life. These themes do take a while to emerge in the film, but it works because it makes sure the movie does not get too heavy at the beginning. Later on, the emergence of these themes give this movie just the right depth to be an arguably awesome movie.
Gunn already proved that he’s a crafty, clever guy with Slither, a film that not nearly enough people saw. At some point, he’s going to make a film that’s a big crossover hit, and we’ll see him aligned with something really big– I have no doubt about this. But I don’t think Super will be that movie: it’s just a little too dark for the masses, a little too “Should I be laughing at this?” to kick Gunn up into the next level of directors, despite it having more heart than easily its closest comparison, Kick-Ass.
When I picked up this movie, a friend of mine told me “Where Kick-Ass had extremism, Super has heart.” I can’t think of a better description.
One thought on “MasterChugs Theater: ‘Super’”
Comments are closed.