Once Upon a Superhero

Absolute pleasure to watch. Gripping and real, yet humorous and pleasant. Hats off to the cast and crew for a riveting performance and a keen artistic vision. John M Kline delivers!!

In a world over saturated with super-powered content, it takes a work of tremendous heart to truly stand apart from such a crowd. Enter Solar Flare, star of John M. Kline's ONCE UPON A SUPERHERO to get this specialty job done. OUAS is a thought provoking indie feature that utilizes multiple mediums of visual storytelling to get its solemn and rather shocking narrative across to an audience. The story of a man trapped among an unfamiliar landscape, doing his best to do not only what he believes is right, but doing so against the grain of social norm. It's a tale all too close to many of us in one way or another. Sure, he's a superhero trying to prove his origins & existence within a crowd of Hollywood's professional impersonators, but this only aids in the plight crashing down upon him. In the end, this is a story reflecting the notions of vice, perseverance, mental health and at times, even parallels to the modern immigrant oppression crisis. This is a movie both ahead of its time and right where it needs to be all in one beautifully shot package. With a great soundtrack, wonderfully rendered illustrated segments and a absolutely outstanding performance by lead Adam Marcinowski, Once Upon a Superhero is a movie you cannot forget post-viewing and one that needs to be seen by many audiences over.

Once Upon a Superhero is the darkest ,grittiest movie I have seen in a long time and yet surprising tender. Take what is great about any superhero and twist it around the backstreets and alleys of Hollywood then add a dog - and you have OUSH. The acting was spot on, the cinematography was breathtakingly beautiful. It's not for kids or the faint of heart but it's a movie you'll be talking about long after you leave the theater. Could be Oscar worthy...

The showing last night in Phoenix was a great experience. The movie ending left more questions than answers but the story was captivating from beginning to end. Not often can you walk away from watching a movie that is so hard to put into words and at the same time be so satisfied because the tragedy is overshadowed by the quality of the film. Watching Solar Flare be succumbed to the temptations of the streets while preserving his faith in the future was tortuousness. I wanted to yell at him and say "it's not real and it's not going to happen" while questioning myself "what the hell do you know?" Maybe he is a super hero...at least to some. Thank you for making me speechless with a smile on my face.

I'm more than familiar with the shortcomings of low budget cinema. I went in with those expectations. But, damn! I thought it was high grade and high octane! Sophisticated and stylish employment of cinematic language. Great acting and atmosphere. Creative and ambitious cinematography. Really nice use of out of focus street light spheres as graphic elements. The application of splitting frames as reference to comic book panels was nicely handled, and often visually compelling by sliding and expanding boxes. The scene of Solar prostrate on the sidewalk gradually being divided up in a series of small rectangles was inspired. Great representation of passing time and expressive of jumbled dream thoughts. The editing was excellent, with plenty of beats and rhythms that kept everything flowing nicely. Certain allusions to Man Who Fell to Earth dissolution came to mind.

The soundtrack and atonal effects were evocative and accentuated the film with nuances that pushed the weirdness vibe.

The costume is really great. I love how the molded 6-pack abs of the clean new outfit become a smooth and paunched pouch of the soiled supersuit. The crotch-cup coin purse is hilarious.

The cavalcade of characters were rich and amusing. Adam Marcinowski really handled it, coming across as totally in it. Nice doubling of Yvette Monreal as the celestial princess and the street performer cowgirl. Loved super dog's leg trick.

The animated bits were right on and added to the off kilter aura. The graphic style contrasts nicely and stands out for extra oddness.

I very much enjoyed the film..