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Special

6.2

726

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Original title

Special

Year

2006

Running time

82 min.

Country

United States

Director

Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore

Screenwriter

Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore

Cast

Music

Tom Wolfe, Manish Raval

Cinematography

Nelson Cragg

Producer

Rival Pictures, Magnolia Pictures

Genre

Sci-Fi. Drama | Comedy-Drama. Superheroes. Independent Film (US)

Synopsis

A lonely traffic warden becomes convinced he's a superhero after he volunteers to take part in a drugs trial. Les Franken (Michael Rapaport) leads a painfully unremarkable life as a meter-maid until he enrolls in a drug study for an experimental anti-depressant. An unexpected side effect of the drug convinces Les he is developing special powers and must quit his job to answer his new calling in life... as a superhero. A very select group of people in life are truly gifted. Special is a movie about everyone else.

Rankings Position

#77 Best Superhero Movies

Critics' reviews

"'Special' is an inexplicable downer that favors pathos over satire."

Time Out
"Rappaport does a yeoman's job in this tonally confused oddity."

Lou Lumenick: New York Post
"It may not be perfect, but this under-the-radar indie from Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore is smart enough to leave you glad you found it."

Elizabeth Weitzman: New York Daily News
"Its ambitions are limited -- though at 81 minutes, wisely proportioned -- but its heart is in the right place."

Scott Tobias: AV Club
"Thanks to Rapaport's brio in embracing the hero's drug-induced delusions, the movie is less a failure than a noble experiment gone awry"

Adam Markovitz: Entertainment Weekly
"This fantasy battle between good and evil is merely a cute, minor idea with little depth and even less conscious purpose, fit for a 15-minute short rather than a feature-length narrative."

Nick Schager: The Daily Beast
"'Special' enjoyably toys with some knockabout comedy until it begins to take itself too seriously."

Robert Koehler: Variety

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Special

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