Take[s] a page from the cartoonist Bill Watterson, who noted of the tiger protagonist in his great Calvin & Hobbes, 'The nature of [the character's] reality doesn't interest me, and each story goes out of its way to avoid resolving the issue.'

| Nov 21, 2008

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

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 21, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 21, 2008

Ultimately it adds little to our understanding of the curious return of the superhero as our paradigmatic pop archetype.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 21, 2008

Shot for pennies -- a cash limitation that benefits the production's creativity and credibility -- this haunting film keeps shifting the ground under our feet

| Original Score: A- | Nov 21, 2008

Its ambitions are limited -- though at 81 minutes, wisely proportioned -- but its heart is in the right place.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 20, 2008

A great genre film dissects authentic problems without attempting to supplant them. Reasonably enough, Special belongs to that category with the rest of Magnet's Six Shooter Series.

| Nov 20, 2008

Special is an inexplicable downer that favors pathos over satire.

| Original Score: 2/6 | Nov 20, 2008

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.

| Original Score: C+ | Nov 20, 2008

Rappaport's befuddled sincerity has never registered so poignantly, but given its singular premise, for the film to waste an easy opportunity to satirize vigilante do-goodery and pharmaceutical dependence is, well, villainous.

| Nov 19, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 16, 2008

Special enjoyably toys with some knockabout comedy until it begins to take itself too seriously.

Full Review | Jun 3, 2008

Genuinely original in parts but this works as a comedy only in places.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 7, 2007

It's a tonally uncertain, unsatisfying muddle.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 18, 2006