Defendor

A film set in a Canadian city. Arthur works on road maintenance by day. At night he puts on a costume and goes into the street. He has given himself a name: Defendor. He has no powers. He has no gun either; he carries a stick, a jar of wasps and a handful of marbles. He has a target. He is looking for someone he calls Captain Industry and believes that person is responsible for his mother's death. From there the film is a story of searching. Arthur goes to the same streets every night and is beaten every time. He meets a girl. Kat is seventeen and an addict. Arthur thinks he is saving her. She uses it; she takes his money and invents information. The narrative states his condition plainly. He has a mental disability and is being assessed by a court. The film uses those assessment sessions as a frame and tells the events in flashback. What the narrative is interested in is not heroism but care: its question is a man nobody looks after having to invent a duty for himself, and nobody around him stopping it. There is humour, but the narrative does not hand over the laugh easily. The scenes mostly end painfully. The violence is real. Arthur is beaten, broken, and takes time to heal. The ending is predictable but the narrative does not turn it into a tear-jerk. Woody Harrelson never overplays and never makes the character a cartoon. Peter Stebbings wrote and directed; it is his first feature. Woody Harrelson, Kat Dennings, Elias Koteas, Sandra Oh and Michael Kelly are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes low-budget films that invert the superhero shape. Who it is not for: anyone looking for action; the narrative is a drama and every fight is deliberately inept.