directed by:
Yavor Petkov written by: Yavor Petkov genre: Comedy, Drama |
Meet Danny. Legend. God - and that's right, reader, full stops between each word. As you probably know, the world can't seem to get enough true to life content, and it's using this premise, Yavor Petkov presents his film. "Danny. Legend. God." I want to say that the approach to this movie is exciting and unique, but in fact, it's something that has been done quite a bit in recent years - at least here; however, it's done well. As a mockumentary, it primarily works, and as for the drama? At first, it's fleeting, but Petrov's flick packs some seriously dark content by the end of the film.
In the film, protagonist Danny allows a documentary film crew to follow him daily and promises full transparency. The documentary itself is supposed to be about corruption and money laundering, but Danny quickly and forcefully pushes his wants and needs onto the film crew and host. This is a film about him. Plain and simple. If the crew doesn't like it, they can get the hell out - as Susan, the host, does relatively early on. What follows is a no-holds-barred look at Danny and his corruption - and at times, this movie is pretty damn funny. But ever so slowly, things take a more sinister turn, and before the film is done, there's no longer anything funny about it. You may be thinking this is a film about machoism, and to some extent, you would be right. Yet, there's so much more here, and this film definitely delivers for those who see it through. This brings me to the length of the movie. At the end of the day, this movie was just too darn long for my tastes. Danny's character himself is the very definition of indulgent, so adding that extra twenty or so minutes of directorial indulgence was really felt in this flick. Other than that? My unprofessional view of this movie is that it was pretty damn cool. I went in expecting a Borat clone, and by the time this movie was finished - Borat was the last thing on my mind.
And that's just it isn't it? There was a lot of great stuff in this movie, including the look and feel. It plays like a reality-based documentary but not a cheap one. And then there's Danny himself and man, can this guy talk! Dimo Alexiev's portrayal of this movie's leading man is excellent. From the happy-go-lucky temperament straight through to the crazy, Alexiev held my attention nonstop until the end. Also worth noting is that I watched this film without the subtitles turned on. A large portion of this film is not in English - but actions speak louder than words, and for the most part, even if I didn't know exactly what was being said, I understood what was happening. That definitely has to say something right? Keep in mind, the subtitles do exist - you just need to turn them on. Why didn't I do it? That's a really good question. When it's all said and done, I found this film to be one I could easily recommend. Yes, it is a little long, but so what? Lots of movies are a little long. I appreciated that this movie wasn't a one-trick pony and found the performances, in general, made it easy to forgive any minor gripes I may have had—three and a half stars - well done. |
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