A lonely metermaid has a psychotic reaction to his medication and becomes convinced he's a superhero. A very select group of people in life are truly gifted. Special is a movie about everyone else.
Acting
Rapaport's fragile, desperate commitment — never winks at the camera.
Writing
The Exiler drug trial satire cuts deeper than most Marvel films.
Practical Effects
Zero budget, maximum heart — homemade costume hits harder than CGI.
Director
Hal Haberman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rapaport took the role for scale pay because the script hit too close to home; he later called it his most personally meaningful performance.
Shot in 18 days with a $500k budget, this predated the superhero saturation by years — imagine if Les had access to Marvel movies.
US
