SPECIAL (RX) SPECIOPRIN HYDROCHLORIDE


US, 2006, 81 minutes, Colour.
Michael Rappaport, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Peck.
Directed by Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore.

A very brief drama, a tour-de-force for Michael Rappaport. The writer-directors are from a film school and the film gives the impression of a small-budget debut feature. Not that this is bad. In fact, the film is quite interesting, especially in the way that it uses contemporary themes of comics, drugs and psychological breakdown.

Les (Rappaport) is a parking ticket officer (who can be persuaded to be lenient by drivers’ crocodile tears) who lives alone. His only two friends are a pair of brothers who run a shop selling comics.

He agrees to take part in a medical experiment, taking tablets which have been designed to suppress that part of the brain which produces low self-esteem. In a short time, Les finds himself levitating (he says he had always dreamed of flying), exercising telepathic influence and able to read minds. He thwarts a supermarket robbery and sees himself as a superhero. He also sees himself as being followed by suited pharmaceutical company agents who confront and bash him.

The two brothers are concerned. Is this really happening or not?

Rappaport is able to persuade us that Les really believes all that his drug-induced condition is causing him to experience – quite an alarming portrait of psychological breakdown and paranoia.