Movie review: Darkon a hilarious true documentary
By Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Unrated, playground violence. Where: Bell Museum Aud.
If the last Christopher Guest mockumentary left you feeling undernourished, don't miss "Darkon," a hilarious true documentary about a stranger-than-fiction bunch of medieval war-gamers. The hordes of Darkon are a thousand LARPs (live-action role players) who gather on the soccer fields of Baltimore, dressed in knightly regalia and ready to battle with foam rubber swords for the honor of their imaginary homelands.
Directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel have a lot of affection for their subjects, who are generally in their 20s, smart, imaginative and powerless in their day-to-day lives. That's why they dress up in cloaks and helmets -- as one puts it: "Everything that was once noble and good in this world is gone, and it's been replaced with Wal-Mart."
There's a blessed absence of snark in the filmmaking; "Darkon" never mocks the players. In fact, the camera puts us in the thick of battles that look like a community college production of "The Return of the King" and make it look like huge fun -- there are even catapults. It's cleverly and ambitiously filmed (flyover shots of the gamers' gridlike housing developments make them look a lot like the cells on the Darkon map). No surprise that it took the Audience Documentary Prize at last year's South by Southwest Film Festival. Battle on!
By Colin Covert, Star Tribune
Unrated, playground violence. Where: Bell Museum Aud.
If the last Christopher Guest mockumentary left you feeling undernourished, don't miss "Darkon," a hilarious true documentary about a stranger-than-fiction bunch of medieval war-gamers. The hordes of Darkon are a thousand LARPs (live-action role players) who gather on the soccer fields of Baltimore, dressed in knightly regalia and ready to battle with foam rubber swords for the honor of their imaginary homelands.
Directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel have a lot of affection for their subjects, who are generally in their 20s, smart, imaginative and powerless in their day-to-day lives. That's why they dress up in cloaks and helmets -- as one puts it: "Everything that was once noble and good in this world is gone, and it's been replaced with Wal-Mart."
There's a blessed absence of snark in the filmmaking; "Darkon" never mocks the players. In fact, the camera puts us in the thick of battles that look like a community college production of "The Return of the King" and make it look like huge fun -- there are even catapults. It's cleverly and ambitiously filmed (flyover shots of the gamers' gridlike housing developments make them look a lot like the cells on the Darkon map). No surprise that it took the Audience Documentary Prize at last year's South by Southwest Film Festival. Battle on!
