Spoilers do not try, they do or do not.

If you’re going for comedy in a fantasy setting, chances are the rules of your world will be broken or, even worse, just dropped altogether. It’s very hard to do both so this feature was a bit of a surprise. Its commitment to comedy is both superb, silly but not stupid, I was expecting anything set in stone would be gone by half the runtime. Instead, it managed to effortlessly wrap everything in its story thread almost seamlessly.

The Paragon (2023) is written and directed by Michael Duignan. Dutch (Benedict Wall) has been hit by a car and left crippled for life. His wife has left him and his tennis career, which was already slipping, is now nonexistent. His only goal in life is now is to find the driver of the silver Toyota Corolla that struck him. For this, he’s willing to become a psychic acolyte and learn the power of telelocation from master psychic Lyra (Florence Noble). No, the accident did not affect his mental faculties in case you’re asking yourself that. He seems to have always been that way.

Get ready to embark in a hero’s journey to the local gym and train your mental faculties beyond the mortal realm. Dutch starts pretty much as a complete fool, but as the story progresses the character is sure to grow on you (or not, in which case this is not going to be fun) as he has those rare moments of empathy. On the other hand Lyra, the enigmatic mentalist will come with her own baggage as we’ll learn she has an evil brother, and long dead father and a mysterious object (the titular Paragon) that will become the macguffin everyone will end up pursuing at some point.

As much laughs and over the top dramatic performances that will just break you down, the plot is more character-driven than you think. At some point, rather than be annoyed, I knew myself to be invested in these character’s zany crusades. Once the concept of parallel universes is on the table, you’d think the storyline will not bother to try to tie both past and future scenes together. I thought that way, but I was impressed to realize this is not a half-assed comedy but rather subtly hidden crafted interdimensional comedy. I’ll leave you to judge whether it does wrap around all ends without paradox.

Recommended for fans of niche comedy with just a tinge of a supernatural spark and lots of zany characters to root for and against. That being said, a lot of the character investment will depend on your tolerance/empathy of Benedict Wall’s performance as Dutch so your mileage might vary.

That will do for now.