Special (15) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

A tragicomedy of delusion. Michael Rapaport plays Les, a lonely parking attendant who undertakes a clinical trial of a new anti-depressant that bestows upon him, he believes, the powers of a superhero. There's a sad humour in the side effects of the drug as Les takes to crime-fighting, rugby-tackling innocent passers-by and slamming into walls he imagines he's just walked through; but the mood takes a darker turn when the drug manufacturers decide their mistake needs to be hushed up.

Directors Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore have something to say both about drug-dependent America and the pathological drive of an individual to be "a somebody". Michael Rapaport is alternately sweet and disturbing as the ordinary joe who teeters on the abyss, sold short only in the last reel by a script harbouring delusions of its own.