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 Confessions of a Superhero is
a documentary that will not appeal to most people. Even I, as a huge
comic book fan, found this documentary to be a little depressing. Let me
start at the beginning.
COAS is about four different
“actors” who are part of a group of people who don superhero costumes
such as Superman, Batman, the Hulk and Wonder Woman and patrol Hollywood
Blvd taking pictures with tourists for tips. Sounds innocent enough, but
in truth, it's just glorified panhandling. The reason given by
Christopher Dennis (Superman), Maxwell Allen (Batman), Jennifer Wenger
(Wonder Woman) and Joseph McQueen (The Hulk) are all the same, they want
to be actors.
Christopher Dennis claims to
be the son of actress Sandy Dennis (her family denies it) and is
obsessed with Superman. Every room in his home is filled with everything
Superman, claiming that he has over $90,000 dollars worth of
memorabilia. He also claims that he has been in 18 or 19 movies and 8 or
9 TV shows, yet his IMDB page shows none of this. Even though Chris is
living out his dream and happily married (he actually got married in his
Superman costume in Metropolis, IL at the Superman Celebration held
there yearly) I am still saddened by his level of obsession.
Max Allen claims to be
proficient in multiple styles of martial arts and self defense. Again, I
say “claims” as even his wife says we should only believe about half of
what he says. He even claims to have killed people in the past. His
major issue is an anger management problem that has gotten “Batman”
arrested for aggressively asking for tips on Hollywood Blvd, along with
Elmo, Mr. Incredible and Cookie Monster. Now that was interesting to see
as they had footage of the arrests.
I saved Jennifer Wenger and
Joseph McQueen for last as they are the most normal people who really
seem like they want to better themselves. Joe was homeless for four
years while still going on auditions, trying to get a break. That break
seems to have come during filming as Joe got a part in Finishing the
Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee. So kudos to him. Jennifer Wenger
is an aspiring actress with attachment issues. During filming she met
and married a man she knew for only four days. The marriage didn't even
last the length of filming. Like Joe she is really trying, we see her go
on an audition as well as a visit to her acting coach.
Enough about the individuals,
lets talk about the film itself.
Interspersed with still
images that tell a more interesting story than the documentary itself,
COAS is a documentary that I feel is still looking for an audience. It
actually seems like this should be a college psychology study or
something as there doesn't seem to be a real good reason for this doc to
be made. It's not like the documentarian (Matthew Ogdens) is trying to
draw attention to a cause or even a biased opinion as Michael Moore is
wont to do. Documentary fans may ask, “What is the point?” and comic
book fans will look upon this as a sad reminder of how geeky we really
are.
If you can't tell this
documentary has confounded my sensibilities. Did I like it? I don't
know. Did I not like it? I don't know that either. All I do know is that
this was a look into something that I'm not really sure we really needed
an in depth look at. Sure there are four stories here in which two seem
to cancel out the other two as far as motivation and why these people
dress as imaginary characters. You can just call me undecided as I see
that some are bettering themselves while others seem to be feeding
deeper problems.
Mitch E
mitchemerson@hotmail.com
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