Critic Reviews
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, Los Angeles Times
By approaching the subject without a sense of ironic distance, Neel and Meyer get at something elemental, a variation of the American Dream at work, in which everyone can live out their life as they see it, even if that's as a medieval elf.
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Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Eloquent and occasionally touching, Darkon is haphazardly photographed but unfailingly generous toward subjects who exhibit an astonishing degree of self-awareness.
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V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Neel and Meyer approach their subjects with open minds. Running around Baltimore in medieval armor isn't everyone's chalice of wine, they seem to be saying -- but who are we to judge?
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Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
There should be plenty of material here. But all we see are average men and women looking for an escape from their boring jobs and disappointing home lives.
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Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
Empowered as they are, it's hard to take this motley crew seriously when they spit medieval maxims with soccer goals in the background, but the filmmakers approach their subjects with humanity.
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Michael Esposito, Chicago Tribune
There are lessons to be learned here, not the least of which is that you should never trust elf mercenaries, no matter how much you pay them.
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Grady Hendrix, Slate
Joins the ranks of movies like Hoop Dreams and Murderball as one of the great documentary dissections of how Americans play.
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Nick Schager, Slant Magazine
The film perceptively addresses the intertwining of fantasy and reality, which eventually seems so pronounced that one senses players are acting out their dreams of either being, or striking back against, bullies.
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
How can you not like a movie where a guy says, completely without irony, "During my third campout, I was assassinated seven times."
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, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
This low-budget documentary by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel spends three years chronicling Darkon, a medieval role-playing group whose members dress up in homemade costumes and chase each other around fields in suburban Baltimore.
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
For all its hipster appeal, it's hard to imagine anyone who would not be charmed by this ode to nonconformity, a humanistic, thoughtful, and entertaining film that won this year's SXSW Film Fest's Audience Award.
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Eric D. Snider, EricDSnider.com
A documentary that peers casually into the inner workings of a game and lets us laugh at -- er, with? -- the participants.
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Nora Ankrum, Austin Chronicle
You won't leave this film with a full grasp of, say, how a Darkonian knows when he's mortally wounded, but you'll relate to this exuberant subculture more intimately than you'd perhaps expect.
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Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
Darkon works as a fascinating and colorful documentary about an endearingly bizarre game and as a "can't wait to see who wins" sports film. (And as a nifty little comedy, too, actually.)
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Eric Campos, Film Threat
It's an epic fantasy adventure with loads of laughs, starring a bunch of people who, believe it or not, you wish you were.
Read all 15 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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Somewhere there is a Trekkie Dentist who feels really good about themselves.
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An average doc about the world of LARPing. I would have liked it to cover more of the world of LARPing but it sticks to just one group and it's struggles. There are a few people covered but one more than the others. You get interested in the story but I would have liked to see… More
An average doc about the world of LARPing. I would have liked it to cover more of the world of LARPing but it sticks to just one group and it's struggles. There are a few people covered but one more than the others. You get interested in the story but I would have liked to see more of the others.
They do get a little carried away but I think the whole thing looks fun and I wouldn't mind trying it out.
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I did not know this culture existed and this film provides a very interesting glimpse into the world of outcasts shunned by other outcasts. Check out the HULU page discussions on this for a thorough exploration of the piece.
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It's startling to actually see the amount of creativity, time, effort and preparation that these men and women put into their hobby. The way that these people totally commit to something that most adults would look down on requires an odd type of courage that many of the… More
It's startling to actually see the amount of creativity, time, effort and preparation that these men and women put into their hobby. The way that these people totally commit to something that most adults would look down on requires an odd type of courage that many of the rest of us probably lack.
Some of the participants view role-playing as an enjoyable diversion, while others draw courage and catharsis from their alter-egos. Each of these groups are handled well and fairly by the documentary makers, and I never felt like they were being exploited or mocked. Watching them practice their swordplay or listening to how they feel more comfortable in the fantasy world than in the real one never felt uncomfortable or embarrassing. It's a good thing that these people have the world of Darkon, where each of them can be who they really want to be, even if it's only for a weekend at a time.
This is a great film for anyone who is curious about LARPing, or who simply would like to watch a novel and entertaining documentary.
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On one hand, fleshes out the characters and shows how their hobbies have helped them as individuals in the real world. On the other hand, there was a part of my brain that couldn't stop screaming NEERRDDSSS.
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Documentary about a medieval war-gaming club where the members spend their weekends battling each other with forsooths and swords. It was a strange mixture; I really liked the people who got involved, and their perfectly valid reasons why they preferred it to real life, but I found… More
Documentary about a medieval war-gaming club where the members spend their weekends battling each other with forsooths and swords. It was a strange mixture; I really liked the people who got involved, and their perfectly valid reasons why they preferred it to real life, but I found the whole battly dungeons and dragonsy dressing up thing incomprehensible. I loved the fact that they were doing it, but I couldn't understand the appeal AT ALL. "I challenge thee to a battle for an imaginary piece of playground", what's all that about?
Horses for courses.
<img src="http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/photos/30/45/30_45_darkon1_z.jpg">
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Hmmm... I was interested in the motivations of why these guys dress up and play real life D & D, but every time they cut to them standing around speaking in ye old english with complete sincerity, all I could think of was this is the nerdiest shit I've ever seen. So I did a… More
Hmmm... I was interested in the motivations of why these guys dress up and play real life D & D, but every time they cut to them standing around speaking in ye old english with complete sincerity, all I could think of was this is the nerdiest shit I've ever seen. So I did a lot of cringing.
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Very interesting look into the world of LARPing (Live Action Role Playing). Darkon seems to be taken quite seriously by most of it's participants and this documentary takes us into the lives of these people - inside and out of the Darkon world.
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who doesn't want to dress up as Aragon and role play in the woods. I know I do....entertaining documentary
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A fasinating look inside LARPing (live action role playing). The film very adpetly shows reality and the reality that is Darkon. Highly recommend.
Read all 10 featured audience ratings
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