Read Comics

I just watched Confessions of a Superhero, a documentary about four LA actors (one actress), who work on Hollywood boulevard dressed up as Superman, Batman, the Hulk and Wonder Woman. In some respects, they are little more than glorified pan-handlers, making money from “tips” solicited after posing for photos with tourists.

The documentary actually had superb photography, which may have been its greatest asset. The lives of the actors were mostly rather sad. We ended up wondering whether Batman and Superman were pathological liars. Superman claimed to be the son of a famous dead actress (a claim her sister refutes), and Batman had all kinds of stories about when he used to work for the mob back in Texas.

Throughout the film, there were recurring scenes from interviews taken in this very strange and possibly abandoned house. The photo above was taken in it, and Wonder Woman’s interview was primarily set in a bedroom while she sat on a bare mattress. Florence and I discussed whether this was intentionally done to highlight the similarities between her posing as Wonder Woman and prostitution. There were other scenes that may have also been in the movie primarily to emphasize that comparison.

I would recommend this to anyone who particularly likes documentaries about interesting characters. It will obviously hold some appeal to Comic Book fans, but aside from an apartment full of Superman memorabilia, a glimpse at the Superman Days celebration in Metropolis IL, and some DVD extra scenes set at Comic Con in San Diego, there isn’t really much here that’s comic related.

This entry was posted by Martin on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.