Comic-Disadvantage Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

A Thomas Tull and Warrior Poets presentation. (Worldwide sales: CAA, La.) Created by Jeremy Chilnick, Matthew Galkin, Harry Knowles, Thomas Tull. Executive producers, Gil Champion, Harry Knowles, Stan Lee, Jack Selby, Benjamin Statler, Joss Whedon. Directed by Morgan Spurlock. Compiled by Spurlock, Jeremy Chilnick.With: Carol Conrad, James Darling, Guillermo del Toro, Seth Eco-friendly, Se Youthful Kang, Harry Knowles, Stan Lee, Frank Burns, Eli Roth, Chuck Rozanski, Joss Whedon.Somewhere in Iowa, there lives a lonely geek deeply embarrassed with his passion for comicbooks, figures and/or "Star Trek" re-runs. Morgan Spurlock's "Comic-Disadvantage Episode IV: A Fan's Hope" is made to convince that poor misfit he isn't alone -- that for four days every This summer, there is available a location where he goes. Keeping themself off-camera while putting professional producers Joss Whedon, Stan Lee and Harry Knowles front-and-center alongside six extreme fans, Spurlock brings his usual good-humored method of the topic, nicely balancing absurdity with genuine human interest. VOD and direct-sales appear the surest method to achieve the Disadvantage-verted. Before Spurlock, many have attempted and unsuccessful to create a film that definitively captures the Hajj-to-Mecca-like connection with the 125,000-plus pop-culture aficionados who crowd the North Park Convention Center every year for Comic-Disadvantage. Some arrived at meet their idols, others aspire to be found, but many simply thrive within an atmosphere where they are able to celebrate a common imaginary figures. Remember, "fan" is short "fanatic" these aren't low-key personas. The logistical challenges alone make telling their collective story an undertaking much more complex than shooting a three dimensional Miley Cyrus concert movie, and something that needed as much as 26 cameras moving at any time. To simplify things, Spurlock solicited potential subjects on the internet and chose six whose personal stories symbolized the plethora of go through the event provides: a collector enthusiastic about purchasing a restricted-edition toy, two ambitious illustrators, a novice costume designer, an experienced comicbook dealer along with a youthful guy who met his soul-mate at Comic-Disadvantage twelve months earlier (their co-dependent relationship gives new meaning towards the word "cling-on"). With what could end up being the "Canterbury Tales" in our generation, had Chaucer enlisted the cathedral's most evangelical priests to underwrite a Catholic recruitment video, "Comic-Disadvantage" offers understanding of the dreams and desperations of those six pilgrims. Will Chuck Rozanski, who owns Mile High Comics, look for a buyer for that Ultimate Goal of Marvel comics, a near-mint copy of Red-colored Raven No. 1? Can Carol Conrad and her team of Mass Effect fans overcome wardrobe malfunctions to win the masquerade ball? The number of Storm Military are you able to go with one photo op? Each one of these questions and much more is going to be clarified with what feels as though a long sizzle reel for that event (which bears little resemblance towards the nerdy swap meet that started in 1970). Through the finish of Day Two, with another half-hour to visit, the thrill has already been starting to put on thin. Dealing with editors Tim K. Cruz and Tova Goodman for pretty much annually, Spurlock can't quite select how to arrange everything footage, forecasted in a low enough resolution he or she must have intended the work for home viewing , where it is not difficult enough to bundle the film with hrs of bonus material. Additionally to creating this doc, Spurlock also released a coffee-table book featuring photos (entirely costumed regalia) of "cosplay" groupies as well as their idols clicked against an ordinary whitened backdrop. Video interviews from all of these same periods make their distance to the film, which strains between cramming in as numerous famous faces as you possibly can and finding anything significant to express. Spurlock is simply too busy hyping the film/TV/comicbook/vidgame industries' single greatest hype platform to obtain philosophical, though researchers might have a area day with one of these figures (like Eric, whose parents met in a Star Trek convention). For that casual film or TV admirer, the end result includes a vaguely unsettling believe calls in your thoughts the "Gooble gobble! Among us!" scene in Tod Browning's "Freaks." This is not a vicarious tour of Comic-Disadvantage a lot being an indoctrination.Camera (color, HDCAM), Daniel Marracino editors, Tim K. Cruz, Tova Goodman music, Jingle Punks seem, Michael Legum supervisory seem editor/re-recording mixer, Lewis Goldstein connect producers, Shannon Gibson, Alba Tull casting, Michael Sutton. Examined at Toronto Film Festival (Real to Reel), Sept. 11, 2011. Running time: 86 MIN. Contact Peter Debruge at peter.debruge@variety.com