special

no.131 Special

This movie hit home, I'm ashamed to not have written about it immediately after I saw it, where my nerves were raw and exposed. Michael Rappaport's character starts a psych med clinical trial - he shows signs of moderate depression. He's a guy who doesn't have much, is terribly normal, a meter maid who loves comic books. Then everything goes haywire. The sideeffects of the meds lead Les down a really interesting and silly path. Don't get me wrong, I might come down hard, but I would recommend this, just know, it's not all comic book geek jokes, it's really serious.

Although every trailer made this out to be a comedy about someone who thinks they are a superhero, it's really a socially irresponsible way to treat the film. As someone who lives with a serious mental illness, I totally understood this film. As serious as the side effects of reverse psychosis were real, they were funny. But were the filmmakers trying to make a statement about corporate Rx greed or the fact that we are all just such small specs on this planet, in the universe?

"I suppose this will be my final journal entry. I'm not looking forward to returning to my old life, the truth is, with so many billions of people on the planet most of us can't be unique or important in any meaningful way. We go to sleep, we wake up, we go to work, we eat, we spend time with friends, we watch tv, maybe we even fall in love. But we don't have any magical powers and we don't have any great fights to fight, no evil forces to defeat and no mysterious men in suits chasing after us. We just have reality, and believing anything else is just, well, believing anything else is crazy, isn't it?"