Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
ccthemovieman-1
This is a very, very strange story and even a different kind of documentary. From what I could see here, scanning the reviews, most of them were not favorable toward this.Myself, I found it slow in the first but more and more fascinating as it went on. It's just so bizarre, it's hard to know what to think as you watch this. When it was over, I found I was glad I took a chance on this DVD and will watch it again. But - it's not a happy experience.....and it is a bit haunting.I would just comment on a few things: 1 - I agree that, considering the subject matter and strange character (Henry Darger) whom this is about, this documentary should have been more interesting; 2 - I did not object to the artwork coming to life on occasion. It added badly-needed interest to the presentation. You never quite knew what you were going to see next, and I liked that; 3 - I enjoyed the two main voices, those of Larry Pine and Dakota Fanning. Pine voiced Darger as an adult and Fanning was the narrator and represented the Vivian Girls. Although young for this kind of role and vocabulary, Fanning is an exceptional young actress and seems to handle to everything well. Both did an outstanding job and the two complemented each other nicely, too.4 - I disagree with those who assumed Darger had no idea the physical difference between men and women, which is why he drew penises on the little girls. Come on - how naive can you be? Everyone - even shut-ins - knows the difference, whether one is celibate his/her own life or not. People see nudity throughout their life, even in the most innocent of places such as statues in public parks, museums, galleries, almost anywhere. He knew. Lord knows why he drew what he drew but let that remain his business. 5 - The more one listens to this account, the more insane Darger appears. I wasn't totally sure of that until he went into his "weather" phase. Holy smokes, this man had problems! It's sad, in a way, and is a prime example of how much an imprint your childhood has on the rest of your life. With a "normal" childhood, with a loving mother and father, would Henry have been a "normal" adult? Anyway, I found his book - from what Dakota and the others read from it - somewhat boring and definitely depressing, to be frank. To me, in addition to being immense adventure story it is, it was just as much - if not more - simply a long diary of man wrestling with his tortured soul.Definitely recommended, but know what you're in for.
villianlasegunda
Herny Darger seems to be a strange and lonely man, but sadly none of the people interviewed in the film can give us any insight into his life. The film-makers deliberately set their contradicting comments about him next to each other so that the audience is aware of how little any person actually knew him. But because it is true that no one knew him in the least, it seems impossible to make a satisfying documentary about him and his work. The illustrations from his stories are animated, and the narration is done by a little girl (Dakota Fanning) so that the whole thing is very surreal and actually slightly magical. But the fact remains that seeing his work is probably the only real way to get any insight about him or his inner workings, while seeing this movie will only make you want to do just that.
cwoods-4
This is easily the strangest movie I have ever seen, and I've seen some odd ones. The movie and animation were well-done but I did not like the movie overall. I suppose this is because I am tired of people exalting mentally disturbed and/or extremely eccentric individuals as undiscovered artists when they are often lost souls in need of some intense therapy. Don't get me wrong, as we know, a lot of extremely creative and talented individuals have been and are disturbed (I think often times this helps fuel the creative process), but I certainly don't think it was true in this case. Darger was merely an extremely sick individual who was expressing this sickness in his "art."
dissidenz
Yu does a great job presenting and condensing the work of "outsider artist" Henry Darger. His life, as well as his work, are fascinating enough to make a movie, and Yu does this intelligently, without sensationalizing or sentimentalizing her subject. Darger does come off as a sort of icon of the eccentric loner (is there another kind??), and the discovery of his work is likened, in tone, to the discovery of Tutankhamen's treasury. But Darger's art and writings are extraordinary for any artist, and are worthy of exultation. This movie is a great introduction to Darger's "realm." There are several books on his exhaustive and radiant oeuvre, and originals of his work can be found in several museums and galleries, particularly The American Folk Art Museum and Gallerie St. Etienne, both in New York City. He's worth Google-ing too.
