There’s another side to Hollywood, one outside of big stars and big money. Hollywood has been known as the boulevard of broken dreams and this documentary focuses on some street performers who dress up as famous superheroes. The idea seems unlikely and maybe uninteresting, but the proceedings show the lower level of Hollywood in which they to dream big but perhaps never will be.

Essentially a talking heads documentary, director Ogens has seriously dug into an interesting idea. Is there real money in this for the street actors? At first, no. They are essentially a hustler. Picking at every and any willing visitor to have them or their kids pose for a picture with them.

Mostly Ogens never allows a condescending eye to view these rather hapless people; their failed dreams and situations tell a story not needed of any manipulative editing. After awhile though, the film feels aimless and you are left with a feeling on how you should feel about these people. I wanted a more solid reason on why we should really care about these people. One lies about who his mother is, the other is your typical small town girl looking for her big break, one is an ex-hit man/bodyguard, I just wanted a little more compelling subjects. But with the nature of their job, much is almost worth seeing if they fail and how bad or if they succeed. Hell, most of the time I kept wondering why they chose their superhero costumes.


Don’t get me wrong, I kind of dug these oddball people. Ogens tries to have them have a somewhat happy ending, but their stories are more likely still being written. It goes from a documentation of this rather odd job, to a cautionary tale about your slim chance in Hollywood to their personal victories. It’s worth a watch to see an underbelly of Hollywood that’s unknown, but one thing for sure-“Batman” is scary.