In the Realms of the Unreal

To say Darger's work is eccentric is an understatement. Yu's doc also has some unusual elements, with varying results. At times I was annoyed by the animation. It's a compelling idea, and mostly effective, but a troublesome approach to art. The Dakota Fanning narration is a well-intentioned notion but one that fails in execution. The lack of personal detail is frustrating, and I wish there had been more drawn from his autobiography. But perhaps it's better to let the art speak for the artist.

Good documentary, its best feature the bringing of Darger's drawings to life through animation (Tom Waits soundtrack a nice touch as well). Interviewees call Darger eccentric, schizophrenic and childlike, but it becomes clear if never explicit that he was a repressed paedophile with gender identity disorder. His Christian upbringing scarred him. He wrote and drew obsessively (an amount surpassed only by Adolf Wölfli) to redeem himself. The war his epic tells of expresses an inner one.

Darger's story is interesting, but not full length movie interesting. I would have rather visited the folk museum and just seen it for myself.

To quote the film, "Sometimes questions don't have answers."

Fascinating and disturbing story of a troubled recluse whose elaborate fantasy world was discovered after his death by his landlord.