this is another bunch of thoughts and ideas that were probably going to be a review at some point. i'm just throwing these out there as a sort of purging and also to be pretty transparent right off the bat. once I've aired all my dirty laundry and started posting some new shit i'll probably take these down but for now you can at least see a bunch of shit that i started then abandoned for some reason and completely forgot about until now. also only second unfinished review in and already this isn't a horror film, so off to a terrible start.
This film doesn't know what it wants to be, and in this case I think that's a positive. It plays violence for laughs AND for real. It's fun and funny seeing drug dealers and child molesters get whomped. But when the line-butter is in for it, we know that Frank has gone too far even before he cracks his skull open. And it is played, tonally, much differently than the violence that has come before it. The film then carries on its manic little way as if nothing happened, but those moments resonate. Personally, I hated the fucking shit out of Kick-Ass. It's the filmic equivalent of those fuckers who will quote something in conversation, and then reference that quote just in case they think you were too dumb to get it. Textuality should enhance art, not inform it. You don't need to know shit about comic books to enjoy Super. Then again, plenty of people will hate the fucking shit out of Super, comic book lovers included, and I can't blame them. I enjoyed its psychotic tonal shifts, the feeling that it didn't know what the fuck it was doing. I actually engaged with it on a level deeper than the majority of the films I've seen of late. I pretty much fell in love with the film the moment that I was genuinely moved and saddened by Frank's incapability of dealing with pain and loss leading to his creation of an alter-ego to shoulder the burden. It is a very thoughtful, very fitting outcome and a real insight into the processes of the mentally ill (of which Frank most certainly is). And it is tragic too, because although he is going to fight for what he (thinks) he believes in and genuinely does save someone in need, he is utterly and completely destroys himself, and many many others, in the process of making that happen. And when Frank delivers his incredible speech about justice and morality to Jaques ("You don't butt in line! You don't steal! You don't molest little children! You don't deal drugs!") and I realised just how psychotic he was, working in total binary absolutes, I was honestly moved and mesmerised. In my opinion it's a hell of a moment. Frank foregoes the possibility of clemency or mercy because operating in shades of grey have never done him much good. Of course, it also tears away the last vestiges of his non-psychotic personality. The film may be told from Frank's point of view, but I don't actually think we're supposed to actually see the world the same way that he does. Or maybe we are. Or not. Or maybe etc
I also found the ending very touching, but possibly not in the way that others did, or didn't, or even in the way that the filmmakers maybe intended. In many ways, Super reminds me of an even more grossly misunderstood film - Jody Hill's Observe and Report. Whereas that film ended with the character's sociopathic wish fulfilment in full ascension, Super ends with Frank alone, staring at a wall of images illustrating "perfect moments, like an inmate in a cell might stare at a wall of graffiti and centrefolds. And it isn't as if the pictures he's drawn are all that perfect anyway. Some are pretty good. Some not so good. Is that the point? I don't know. Obviously his wedding and him stopping the thief weren't actually perfect, I get that. But I guess what I'm saying is if these other ones are comparable, and the original ones weren't all that good to begin with, then this isn't really all that happy. Is this just one more area of his life that Frank is utterly confused about. I don't know. And what about the fucking bunny rabbit? He didn't want to take it home initially and now what!!?? We all saw what happened to (spoiler). And there's Frank just sitting there. Crying. Looking stupid (this scene actually reminded me a bit of the I ending of About Schmidt. That's a hell of a goddamn movie that About Schmidt). I guess what I'm trying to say is that the film and the characters and the ending and everything may not be what they appear to be while also at the same time being what they do appear to be but then also only being what they appear to be and not what they may not appear to be. Or not. I don't fucking know. I don't think the film even knows. But I'm okay with that. I hope for your sake that you can be okay with it to because, let me tell ya, out of Super, Special, Defendor and Kick-Ass this shit is by far the most interesting and worthwhile.
P.S I thought that Defendor was actually pretty good.
what the fuck even is this? was i just assuming that whoever read this would already be intimately familiar with the film i was writing about. this is so weird. i have no idea what i was thinking here.
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