Defendor

The feature directorial debut of Vancouver actor-turned-filmmaker Peter Stebbings is a real surprise. Defendor (the misspelling is deliberate) serves up a smart, poignant, serio-comic skewering of the superhero genre. The action is set in the real world — a barely-disguised Hamilton, Ontario; the protagonist, well played by Woody Harrelson, is a simple, marginalised man whose nocturnal heroics as amateurishly-costumed Defendor (the emblematic “D” on his chest crudely fashioned from duct tape) border on the pathetic. But when Defendor intervenes to protect a young prostitute (Kat Dennings) from a brutal and corrupt cop (Elias Koteas), the danger is very real indeed. Sandra Oh plays the hero’s court-appointed shrink. “This fine directorial debut by Stebbings feels like a sharp subversion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman reboots . . . Harrelson plays his urban knight as a noble if overmatched hero who gains in tragic heft as the story progresses, while still finding room for little comic moments” (Norman Wilner, Now Magazine). “Clever and original . . . Steeped in comic-book iconography but stripped of the elaborate trappings of modern movies of the genre, Defendor is a pointed, emotionally affecting poke at our comic-saturated culture” (Jesse Wente, Toronto I.F.F.). Colour, DVD, 95 mins.