Special

Clearing my Wishlist - Pt. 7: Do you know how hard it is to find a movie called "Special"? Put the title in any search engine and you get nothing but "Big Bang Theory Halloween Special," "Old Milwaukee Light Presents: NASCAR Special Qualifying Circuit," "It's Not the Anal Beads that Make You Special, It's Your Smile - The Tara Reid Story," and the list goes on. How I actually found this after 10 years of searching is nothing short of Special. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the film.

An extremely moving look at the superhero genre. It's funny in a very unique way, but it can also be depressing. Does a great job of building tension as well. Everything comes together to give the film a tone unlike any other film I've seen.

Nothing short of amazing up until the last 10-15 minutes, where it became too sentimental for my taste. The first hour was a believable and unique psychological study on loneliness and insecurity, where the superhero theme - and Les' need to stay a superhero - was brilliantly juxtaposed with his unstable frame of mind. If they had stuck with the raw and depressing tone for the entire duration, "Special" would truly have lived up to its title. But less will do. And Les will certainly do.

Rapaport's acting is great and there are some good gags, but it definitely suffers from not having an engaging plot or clear statement. Not a lot happens in the brief runtime, and oddly it feels both too short and too long for different reasons. Supporting characters don't add much. I can see why it never got a wide release.

Top badass moment? This is a special film. (Sorry, but it had to be said.) This movie provides a timely reminder of what can happen with pharmaceuticals, as at this very moment a barely tested set of vaccines is being rolled out to billions of people worldwide. (Note to future self: this is referring to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-2022, when all life on Earth ended due to a Google calculator app error, caused by 5G phone masts, electric cars and mangos.) No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

Good acting and the above-average production (c'mon, for what it is) make this recommendable. The themes are taught - linking superheroism with a kind of selfish hallucinatory need to excel - but the scenes with the love interest fall flatter than they should. I don't like the ending. At all. It seems disjointed compared to the rest of the film. Otherwise this would get much higher marks.

Awesome premise. Rapaport, in the lead for once, carries his role quite well. A small movie... recommended.

Michael Rapaport is awesome in this but it is another (good) standard throw away indie flick. Cool spin on the superhero genre but if it was longer than the 75 minutes that it was I would've felt like I was wasting my time.

The filmmakersWANT the film to have a message but they don't seem to know exacty what it is. Is it demonstrating the dangers of spending too much time thinking about adolescent power fantasy comics? There's a small something there, but it's overpowered by the bigger message:something about what makes a person unique. At one point the film seems to say "None of us are special" & fair enough, but that's not enough to base a movie on, & then the idea is withdrawn anyway! Rappaport is great though.

Rapaport is really good. The movie is an entertaining little film, but nothing special.

Rapaport is good and it's fairly interesting, but for the most part it's just sort of odd and meandering.

Although it is quite a bit more serious than the trailers make it seem, it is still a very uplifting film

a funny and touching little film.

a fairly entertaining pseudo-superhero movie that hits some of the right notes, yet fails to stay on a progressive path. it ends up attempting to explore a romantic area, but leaving it somewhere in the dust by the end. had the ending been more fulfilling i would have appreciated it more.

great acting from Michael Rapaport...touching story

Great film with a weak ending. Possibly Rapaport's best role ever.

An interesting premise let down by poor execution. Although Rapaport is good, the filmmakers make it hard for us to follow him on his philosophical journey - by the end it's a bit of a confused mess. And it could have done with spending more than $5 on locations.

This was awesome! Who knew Michael Rapaport could do such an amazing job? If you are tired of same superhero films check this out.

- worth experiencing