Film Comments and Reviews, more of less in chronological order Shazam "Shazam!" portends that what heroism is, what marks a real hero, is when, after walking away from a friend about to be bullied, you return to defend him, after being prompted to do so by a last minute recall of projective identiﬁcation, that is, after a last minute address by the bul- lies to the bullied, with speciﬁcations that draw you into sympathetic identiﬁcation with the bullied person. It's iffy heroism, at best, But it passes our notice, our reﬂection, because attention is drawn to the bul- lies contemptuous assessment of a boy's relationship with, need for, his mother, and so attention is off him as anything that arouses some agreement but also some dissonance would when immediately followed by something that debauches the sacred. This foster boy has entered into a foster family that is this ﬁlm's real demonstration of ultimate power to which all must cowtow too. It's an interracial foster family, with genuine heart, with everyone there evi- dencing that they've been amongst the neglected, for containing at least a characteristic or two that resounds of it. You sense immediately that there isn't a ﬁlmmaker in town who'd ever contrive a ﬁlm where a fami- ly like this isn't defaulted to something blessed and remarkable, even if they had misgivings. Borrow on its authority, the moral assurance of it, you're drawing on a power greater than any Zeus could forge to make a bad spell you're going through, suddenly turn completely around. For instance, the cute little black girl in the family, has a tendency to cling, and embrace as family people she really hardly knows at all. The most signiﬁcant, and worthy, action the foster boy, the one who becomes Shazam, does, is try and be frank with her about this, rather than readi-