Ian’s at the dry cleaners. He wet his extremely manly Twilight bedding again, so I’ll be handling this extra edition of The Big Two in the preferred fashion: without him.
I watched ‘Defendor‘ the other night. Much like Woody Harrelson’s character, I thought I knew what I was in for, but found myself ill-prepared. Whatever your pre-conceived notions going into this, be they based on the synopsis, the poster, Woody’s strung-together-by-a-retarded-kid outfit or the usual death kiss that accompanies the words ‘A Canadian Film,’ throw them out a plate-glass window. ‘Defendor’ is amazing.
As Arthur Poppington, Woody brings a larger-than-life presence to this strange man without ever going over the top or scenery-chewing. The potentially comedic performance is grounded by the inherent drama of thrusting this deranged, child-like ‘slow’ man into a fast and hard environment filled with danger, sleazy scum, sex, drugs and violence. Arthur, like many of the superheroes he emulates, is essentially an orphan. Raised by his WWII veteran grandfather and comic books, he holds one of those ‘Stop/Slow’ signs on a construction site by day, and fights crime by night as Defendor. Except for his weird day job, it sounds like your run-of-the-mill superhero movie, right? Wrong! With a costume held together by duct-tape and determination, Defendor’s only super-power is his huge heart, will (or stupidity) and getting his ass kicked, but refusing to stay down. The weapons he has cobbled together are what a seven-year-old might fill his utility belt with, using things from mom’s kitchen and dad’s tool shed. (They are an absolute joy, and I won’t spoil them here.) When Defendor confronts the characters in the film, they can’t help but laugh at him, and I found myself doing the same. As the movie progressed, however, we all stopped laughing.
Something instrumental to this film being as awesome as it was, that will probably go unmentioned in most reviews of this film, is John Rowley’s score. On top of just being really f@¢&ing good, it is key at keeping the whole film balanced on it’s tightrope, ensuring it doesn’t tip either into full-on comedy/satire or take itself too seriously like most super-epic superhero cinema. One review I saw described the film as “Forrest Gump meets Batman Begins.” While Woody fills in the Gump half, the score is all Bruce Wayne. An odd couple that you didn’t know you would want to see team-up that works perfectly. And when the music is coupled with the close-ups of ‘Defendog’ (trust me, not what you think, and it’s amazing) throughout the film, it is sheer genius and pure magic and an audio-visual summation of the title character. Funny, but attempting to be foreboding.
Written and directed by Vancouverite Peter Stebbings, the script lays a rock-solid foundation for the actors to build their performances on and it is shot surprisingly beautifully, using unique angles and crisply gritty settings to paint an entirely original picture of our hero’s decaying stomping grounds. Don’t believe me? Here’s one of my favorite shots from the movie:
Alongside Defendor in that shot is Elias Koteas (think De Niro after a mudbath and a night smoking meth). Playing crooked cop/pimp Dooney, he makes you want to bathe your eyes. I’ve been a fan of Elias since I was a kid thanks to his portrayal of Casey Jones in ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’ Since then, he’s built a quiet but powerful career for himself, mostly playing dirtbags like this one. As usual, Koteas acts his creepy ass off, but the film belongs to Harrelson. Honestly, words can not do his performance here justice. He’s been inherently likable in every role he’s ever had right from (and maybe due to) his television debut on ‘Cheers.’ Whether playing a street basketball hustler (’White Men Can’t Jump‘), a cheesy-in-anyone-else’s-hands zombie killer as quick with a quip as he is with a bat (’Zombieland‘) or an evil psychotic you should be appalled by (’Natural Born Killers’), you inevitably find yourself rooting for him. ‘Defendor’ does nothing to disprove this trend.
Though the film is anchored by Woody, the supporting cast all fill staple roles and knock them out of the park. Arthur has his Lois Lane (Kat Dennings), Commisioner Gordon (Clark Johnson) and Alfred (Michael Kelly). Even these characters who start out thinking Arthur is a joke, are believers by film’s end. You will be too.
This film will inevitably be compared to the up-coming ‘Kick-Ass,’ another film that, while hyper-stylized and exaggerated, tries to show how rough the road would be if real people actually tried to go out and fight crime, and also subtly explores the influence comic books can have on a kid when left to his own devices. While there are parallels, in discussing this movie with music-column-grass-cutter Piggy, we decided it is more in line with ‘Unbreakable,’ another excellent ‘inspired-by-superheroes’ movie and, in my opinion, Shyamalan’s finest. Either way, if ‘Kick-Ass’ is half the movie ‘Defendor’ was, it will live up to it’s title.
‘Defendor’ is in limited theatrical release now, but come April 13th, it will be available on DVD and Blu Ray. Ian blew all of his money on the Twilight: New Moon Hetero-Edition, which was cancelled due to not existing, and is going to miss out on a great film. Don’t make the same mistake.
Put one in the air That’ll do, Pig…
– Nuv
NEXT ISSUE: YELLOW, BLUE AND GREY PUT WHITE ON MILK CARTONS!
TUNE IN: SAME IAN-TIME, SAME NUV-CHANNEL…
