Tribeca ’03: Justice (review)

All praise Evan Oppenheimer for daring to acknowledge what too many people tiptoe around: that black humor is often the best way to deal with grief. Another New Yorker coping with 9/11, Oppenheimer gives us a Manhattan comic book artist, Drew (Erik Palladino), who works through his own grief by creating a reactionary vigilante character called Justice. Justice is a success, welcomed by a city all too eager for vengeance, but Drew’s gotten himself into a sticky mess — he based Justice on a real New Yorker, someone who doesn’t know he’s been transformed into a superhero. Extricating himself and swatting down the teasing of his far more liberal fellow artists and writers will keep him busy, and that’s Oppenheimer’s point. Integrating adversity into our lives and work is a part of the answer, but it’s the simple getting on with living and working that’s key.