Our Hero is an interesting and humorous short film that tells the story of a novelist who once had a best-selling book, but hasn't been published recently and is down on his luck. He meets with his publisher at a restaurant, and begins weaving various storylines trying to win the publisher's approval. The storylines are acted out onscreen. Early on they play as action-oriented drama, but then take a humorous turn toward spoof and maybe even fantasy or fairy tale.

There are some nice action scenes, such as "our hero" getting dragged along while handcuffed alongside a runaway car in the first "storyline", about a government agent trying to infiltrate a gang of drug smugglers. The next scene, set in medievel times, begins with "our hero" setting out to free the princess from the evil sorcerer - with the steering wheel from the previous car crash scene still handcuffed to his arm! The next scene, where "our hero" is a commando, is no less "action packed" or humorous.

The story takes a very unusual twist at this point, with "our hero" bursting out of the imagination of the novelist and into the restaurant where the novelist is pitching his story ideas to his publisher. I won't give the rest of the story away, but it is kind of a humorous sci-fi turn that has overtones almost reminiscent of an old "Outer Limits" or "Twilight Zone" episode.

This interesting and entertaining short has some lofty goals, such as illustrating the dangers of "selling out" one's true self for crass commercialism, but I think that is probably lost on most audiences. It's enough that's it remains interesting and entertaining throughout its (approximately) 20-minute runtime and provides a few laughs along the way.

Our Hero (1996, MCC Films) (out of 4)
directed by Glenn McCabe and James McCauley
written by James McCauley and Glenn McCabe
produced by Ben Prayz
starring:
Matt Malloy
James McCauley
Frank Senger
David Troupe
Paul Damato

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