Hand Over Fist

I queued up Archenemy (2020) because Paul Scheer from How Did This Get Made is in it - he wouldn't say much about his role, but assured us we'd like it. He did give us a hint - it's about a bum who claims to be superhero.

But more, it's about a black brother and sister. She, Zolee Griggs, deals meth for a guy called the Manager (Glenn Howerton). She is pretty together, a little ambitious, and hopes to move up in the crime world. Her brother is Skylan Brooks, a wannabe viral vlogger and video journalist. He tries interviewing a street dealer, and takes it to a video website, where everyone is cool, drinking espresso and playing foosball in the office. The cute editor offers him a gig if he brings back something good.

Brooks runs into Joe Manganiello, as Max Fist, a grizzled drunk and street bum. His story is that he was a superhero in another dimension. To stop his archenemy (and ex-wife?), he punched a hole in the universe and got stuck on Earth. He lost his powers and the only thing that sustains him is booze and crank, which are necessary for life on this planet. 

The Manager tells Griggs to meet up with Paul Scheer, and out of town dealer, and get the money he owes. He is a freaked-out tweaker, played by Scheer in BVDs with a shaved head and facial tattoos, waving around a pistol. He makes Griggs play Russian roulette, and when she wins, he's so amused, he accidentally kills himself. So it isn't a big role, but a fun one.

Griggs takes the money and plans to take off with her brother, but the Manager sends his goons for her. You know they are bad news, because one has a copy of Nihilism for Beginners that he has been reading. Brooks comes home with Manganiello, who beats the hell out of them - not because he has superpowers, but because he surprised them and beat them to a pulp. So Brooks and Manganiello set out to rid their city of crime, or at least of the Manager.

Manganiello is great in the role - he had sort of the look of a Jason Mantzoukis and the voice of Jeff Bridges. They keep you guessing about whether he comes from another dimension until near the end. They don't show his past in flashback, but in comic book animation. 

This is written and directed by one Adam Egypt and I don't really know anything about him but his name (hard to forget). It pretty much falls into that interesting genre of low/mid-budget indie movies about ordinary hard-luck people, usually people of color, encountering superpowers. It's a little more of a comedy than, say, Fast Color, but it still fits.