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They hang out on Hollywood Boulevard and if you vacation near there you are likely to meet them and partake of their services. Their costumes are usually colorful and flamboyant. They are hard to resist. Each one leaves their home in the morning not knowing how much money they will make. A bad day could net them as little as ten to thirty dollars, a good day as much as five or six hundred.

They are the costumed denizens who make their living by portraying super heroes and other colorful film and TV characters and having their pictures taken with tourists who want a memory to take home. They work for tips- a dollar here, two there, or if they are lucky, five or ten. Some might call them beggars, but they are serious about their craft and they hope that it might lead to something bigger in the celluloid world.Image


Confessions of a Superhero follows four of these costumed mortals as they go about their day: Superman (Christopher Dennis), Batman (Maxwell Allen), Wonder Woman (Jennifer Wenger) and The Hulk (Joseph McQueen). Their costumes and make up range from excellent (Superman) to leaving quite a bit to be desired (The Hulk), yet they seem to have a charm all their own. Christopher Dennis bares a remarkable facial likeness to the Christopher Reeve Superman and in some shots I thought I was looking at a film clip of Reeve himself, only to watch the head turn or the image zoom out and find it was Christopher Dennis. Maxwell Allen is a dark Batman and he hints at an unsavory past. Honestly, I would like to see him really play Batman; I think he could pull it off pretty well. Jennifer Wenger's Wonder Woman would be better if she was a little taller and thinner. Joseph McQueen's The Hulk looks like he bought his getup at a cheap costume shop. Surprisingly Joseph seems to have had the most success in finding roles on the big screen.
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I'm not really revealing anything about the film by telling you all this. Confessions of a Superhero is really about the people behind the costumes: their lives and their dreams and the codes they live by. I've never really wanted to vacation in California or go to Hollywood, but if I do one of the highlights will be going down to Hollywood Boulevard and seeing if I can get my picture taken with Christopher Dennis as Superman. I have a feeling he will be there no matter how long it is before I get there.

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