Taking the recent wave of movies depicting “realistic” vigilantes to new and twisted heights, James Gunn’s Super tells the cautionary tale of a downtrodden citizen with apparent psychological disorders who decides to don a mask and take on crime, with less than heroic results. Perverse, violent, inappropriate and bizarre, the film — to take an oft-repeated comparison — plays like a more cultish and extreme version of Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, and is certainly not for everyone. More accurately, it is a film that will probably disgust and appal a good many people, what with its bloody and unrelenting violence played unashamedly for laughs. But for people like me, who like their comedy dark and their superheroes psychopathic, Super is a guaranteed good time.
Rainn Wilson (of The Office fame) stars as Frank, a sad, schluby excuse for a man whose life is thrown into turmoil after his recovering drug-addict of a wife (Liv Tyler; The Incredible Hulk) relapses and runs off with local a local drug dealer (Kevin Bacon; X-men: First Class). After what may or may not be a vision from God in the form of an evangelical TV superhero, Frank fashions himself a costume, procures himself a kind-of-weapon in the form of a wrench and takes to the street, dealing out his own brand of violent, disproportionate justice to everyone from drug dealers, paedophiles and people who cut in line.
Super pulls very few punches. Not only is the violence brutal, but it also feels exceedingly real and painful — which is of course the reason why it’s so damn funny. In my audience, the laughs were matched time and time again by groans, winces and occasional cheers. This is a movie with the balls to go there; to be unapologetically sick, to hell with what anyone else thinks. Rainn Wilson’s performance is genuinely strong, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t occasionally feel for Frank… when he’s not bashing people’s heads in, that is.
The side characters are a little more hit and miss. The highlight is Kevin Bacon, who is clearly having a blast playing the smug scumbag Jacque, while geek icon Nathan Fillion (Serenity) is also hilarious in an absurdly wholesome cameo as “The Holy Avenger”. Less impressive, although through no fault of Liv Tyler, is Frank’s wife Sarah; rarely on screen, and high as a kite when she is, it seems like a bit of a waste casting such a high-profile actress in such a non-essential role. Rounding out the supporting players is Ellen Page (Inception) as Franks’ over-eager, sexually lascivious sidekick. She’s basically playing an insane version of Juno, and I’m still on the fence as to whether I liked the performance or not. Either way, the character was fairly unnecessary other than to generate a few more gasp of horror and disbelieve.
In its last five minutes or so, the film takes a dark and not at all funny turn, where the violence takes on an inarguably nasty edge. To specify, the last two killings in the movie (and yes, there are plenty) went from being shockingly entertaining to shockingly vile. Whether Gunn has a social point he is trying to make, or if he just felt compelled to provide an ending with some gravitas, I do not know. If the former, it was lost on me. If the latter, it was a mistake. I hope that Super will become on repeat viewings like Jody’s Hills Observe and Report; a misunderstood film that I find more and more pointed and intelligent each time I watch it. For the time being however, the ending of Super was just plain unpleasant, even to the point of making me question how much I enjoyed everything that came before it.
Hate or love the film to whatever degree you chose, there is no denying that James Gunn is a man with an uncompromising vision. And despite some misgivings, I thought it was a funny one. I cannot deny how much I laughed throughout this film, and I suspect there are many people out there – and you should know by now if you are amongst them – who will have exactly the same reaction.
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Tom Clift is a web-based film journalist from Melbourne, Australia. Visit his website here: http://reviewsbytom.blogspot.com.
You can read all of Tom Clift’s coverage of MIFF 2011 here.
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