VARIETY: DARKON REVIEW

Darkon

(Documentary)

An Ovie Entertainment presentation of a SeeThink, Ovie Entertainment production. Produced by Ethan Palmer, Tom Davis, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz.
Directed by Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer.

By EDDIE COCKRELL
The same Maryland woods that yielded "The Blair Witch Project" now bring forth "Darkon," a clear-eyed and oddly touching docu about a gaggle of Baltimoreans who dress up in home-made medieval garb and chase each other around soccer fields and meadows...

Though never mentioned by name, "Darkon" falls under a phenom called LARP, or "live-action role-playing." It's a tradition known to outsiders primarily through Dungeons and Dragons, the inspiration for a number of Darkon players.

From among the many average types who blow off steam in this fantasy world, two leaders emerge. Skip Lipman is a stay-at-home dad whose supremely tolerant wife and children don't seem to mind that he moonlights as proud warrior Bannor of Laconia. As the pic progresses, Skip ... err, Bannor, schemes to defeat the forces of Keldar of Mordom (real world office drone Kenyon Wells, whose parents explain that in his youth their son "wasn't a people person").

Keldar's awfully good at rallying the troops, however, and the balance of "Darkon" features Bannor's increasingly disillusioned rabble-rousing -- inspired, per co-helmer Andrew Neel, by the filmmakers' presence -- against Keldar's land-grabbing ways to explore the interface between the dreary workaday world and the appeal of the game.

Subjects were apparently fearful the pic would cast them in an unflattering light, but that hasn't happened. Helmers' approach is respectful -- a shrewd decision that coaxes both humanity and humor from the proceedings.

Climactic confrontation takes place in and around the highly anticipated Citadel of Peace, which turns out to be a gray-painted plywood facade that the victors end up burning to the ground. It's never explained if they need permits for any of this.

Ultimately, their dedication, while unfathomable to most, is admirable. And Darkon clearly fulfills a need in the their lives. "Little world," Bannor tells one foe. "Just as real as big world."

Made over three years and distilled from 300-plus hours of footage shot in large part with a camera bought by Neel's mother, "Darkon" was by accounts a seat-of-the-pants operation that emerges a lucid and streamlined saga by virtue of good coverage and disciplined editing. Shrewd use of aerial footage and an overworked crane add to the pic's proudly threadbare sweep. Violinist Jonah Rapino, who also scores silent classics, has created an evocative score on par with any Hollywood fantasy.

Review - Darkon: LA Film Fest

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By Emanuel Levy

"Darkon," winner of this year's Austin's SXSW Film Festival Audience Award, opened to a large, eager crowd at the Los Angeles Film Festival, most under the age of 30. An ode to nonconformity, it's easy to see why the documentary would be a favorite among young urbanites. Yet for all its hipster appeal, it's hard to imagine anyone who would not be charmed by this humanistic, thoughtful and highly entertaining film.

Daniel is a pudgy Starbucks employee who has trouble talking to girls. Skip is a stay-at-home dad who enjoys making cardboard shields and dressing up in elaborate Halloween costumes. Kenyon, as his parents explain, wasn't a "real people person" growing up.

Most would call these people nerds. But in the Realm of Darkon, they discard their self-effacing demeanor and poor social skills for chain mail and powerful leadership positions. On the battlefield, Daniel, Skip and Kenyon become Trivius, Bannor and Keldar.

These "weekend warriors" meet in Baltimore-area soccer fields and public parks to engage in LARK, or live-action role-playing. Wielding foam sticks and PVC pipes, participants battle for power and territory. The land, as one warrior explains, is essentially invisible, but it certainly helps to bolster one's ego.

Filmmakers Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, who spent three years researching various types of role-playing games, are not oblivious to the humor that comes from seeing grown men and women don homemade armor, exchange battle tactics and refer to themselves as their alter egos. The mock-seriousness of the epic, "The Lord of the Rings"-style battle scenes juxtaposed with such everyday footage as Skip petting his cat while he discusses his plan to defeat Keldar keeps the laughs coming. However, "Darkon" is never condescending; Neel and Meyer understand their subjects and treat them with affection.

To the casual observer, these characters may seem a bit freakish. A psychologist would call their behavior unhealthy, escapism taken to the extreme. Even the media, an escapist medium, is grounded in a realist mentality. Dr. Phil, Oprah and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" tell us to get a clue, get a life and get a decent wardrobe.

"Darkon," alternatively, shows that escapism is not only comforting, but also empowering. In a society where they are ignored and ridiculed, alter egos allow these characters to assume agency and form an identity for themselves separate from the ones they have been trapped in since birth. One woman says she has a menial job where it wouldn't really matter if she came in each day, but battles give her a sense of purpose.

We also have to ask ourselves, why are some forms of escapism more acceptable than others? Why is it OK to turn to our I-Pods and issues of US Weekly whenever life gets us down, but not to engage in medieval role-playing, which, as silly as it looks, at least encourages social interaction?
By the end of the film, we may not find ourselves teaming up with elves to fight the forces of evil, but at least we can understand why some people just might be inclined to do so.

DARKON - So many movies, so little time - There ain’t no flops at SILVERDOCS

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So many movies, so little time - There ain’t no flops at SILVERDOCS

Then there’s online gamer Andrew Neel, who went nuts when he heard about a Baltimore group whose members transform themselves from mundane stay-at-home dads and Starbucks Coffee barristers to live action heroes. Seems every other weekend, some 200 to 300 costumed play-actors take over a park or farmland and spend the day fighting, conquering and nation building. High-tailing it down to Maryland to meet the potential film stars, a couple of years and hundreds of videotape hours later, Neel and his partner Luke Meyer have made the feature-length film ‘‘Darkon.”

Washington City Paper - DARKON - SILVERDOCS - Splice of Life

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SILVERDOCS - Splice of Life
Go see the one about the over-the-hill roller-derby players. Skip the one about the giant anarchist bicycles. And, depending on how much reality you can take, you might want to take a chance on the one about the woman with breast cancer.

...Some of this year’s better documentaries, however, are serious considerations of not-so-serious topics, from the live-action role-playing of Darkon to the roller-derbying of Jam to the eccentric extension of a career on the ball field in Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey.

Darkon
Anyone who’s seen the much-e-mailed clip of the “Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!” kid might think he understands live-action role-playing (or “LARPing”): a beyond-geeky mashup of Dungeons & Dragons and Civil War re-enactments. Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer’s film sets out to disprove that perception—especially the “beyond-geeky” part. Their subjects are real people with jobs, families, and, yes, lives outside the game. The co-directors spent nearly three years following a group of Baltimore-area LARPers who meet every other weekend at parks and campsites to further the exploits of their alter egos through a combination of acting, political strategy, and full-contact battles with foam-padded weaponry. Each of the participants has his own reasons for spending so much time with the Darkon Wargaming Club: Andrew (aka Shapwin of Laconia) laments the suckiness of our modern age, saying, “Everything that was once noble and good in this world is gone and is replaced with Wal-Mart.” Danny (aka Trivius the Nomad) gains the self-confidence he lacks in reality: “I can act like I’m not Danny. I like Danny, but sometimes Danny doesn’t have the balls to do what Danny needs to do.” The filmmakers made a surprising technical choice for a doc, depicting the gamers’ real-world lives with traditional one-on-one interviews while using Steadicams and crane shots to lend a slickly cinematic quality to their in-character interactions. It’s an effective device to represent immersion in a fictional world, but the film’s biggest success is showing how that world isn’t as unreal as it seems: Andrew and Danny’s passion, Darkon suggests, is just an amped-up version of the role-playing we all do in our daily lives.—Jason Powell

At 2:15 p.m. Saturday, June 17.