Hero Tomorrow

OK, here's a movie premise you haven't heard before: “David, a struggling comic book creator from Cleveland, spends his days cutting grass and his nights smoking it while desperately trying to keep his superhero fantasies alive.” HERO TOMORROW is a tragically hip look at the Cleveland comic scene as viewed through the lens of local indie filmmaker Ted Sikora. David is a young man with Rasta dreadlocks and nothing on his mind but Apama, his comic book creation. Unable to sell his stuff, David has to resort to mowing lawns. His relationship with gothically fashionable Robyn, an aspiring designer with a real job — working at the comic store — is on the skids. When even his friend Greg, off whom he's been sponging for awhile, kicks him out, David reaches his darkest hour. It's then that his character Apama takes over, avenging the helpless and weak of Cleveland's suburban jungles. Great Lakes beer and City Buddha feature prominently in this bizarrely adventurous slacker saga, but I'm willing to bet they didn't pay for it; Sikora and friends have kept their production values appealingly low. –B.B.