Danny Roane: First Time Director (2006)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fresh and Exciting

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

"Written and directed by Andy Dick". No 6 words have ever more precisely described a film. If you know who Andy Dick is, you already know from those 6 words if you'll love or hate this movie. If you don't know who he is, why would you ever bother with Danny Roane: First Time Director? What, your internet was down and your local video store was out of everything, including the first season of "She's The Sheriff"? In case you're reading this review and don't know Dick, he's a comic actor who had a run at minor league stardom on the show "Newsradio" only to see his life consumed by his addictions and asinine behavior. This film is mockumentary following Danny Roane (Andy Dick), a former TV star whose career was destroyed by his alcoholism, as he tries to resurrect himself by writing and directing a movie about his painful journey. It starts with Danny's spectacularly inept efforts as a filmmaker and quickly sees him relapse into booze and spiral out of control while everybody else either stands around or does their own bits of shtick.About 50% of Danny Roane: First Time Director is an obvious attempt to mimic the awkwardness-as-humor style of "The Office", with Danny alternating between a slightly more self-aware Michael Scott and a drunken Dwight Schrute. About 25% is Dick flailing around on screen in a desperate attempt to provoke laughter. The final 25% is inspired lunacy like a music video starring Adolph Hitler and James Van Der Beek getting his ass shaved. While much of the comedy, both the subtle and willfully offensive, falls flat, there's enough laugh-out-loud funny stuff here to keep this 83 minute long film going…well, not exactly strong. Let's say that every time you start to slip into boredom, Danny Roane tickles your balls just enough to keep you interested.Unfortunately, while Andy Dick is a far better filmmaker than his alter ego, he's still not much of a storyteller. There's no plot here except "Line 10 - Danny does something stupid. Line 20 - Go to line 10". Other than Danny having an obese best friend, a suck up assistant director and an arbitrary conflict with his film's set designer, there's little reality, rhyme or reason to any of the characters or their relationships. The script also has several roles which appear to be leftovers from previous drafts. The characters were kept but 90% of what they were supposed to do in the story appears to have been cut out.To his credit, though, Dick does generate some honest humor. It ranges from a malfunctioning vomit machine and the revelation of what happens to the butthole of a hardcore drinker when they stop cold turkey to a naked Danny passing out on the lawn of the beautiful Maura Tierney and a music video that combines 80s fashions, beach volleyball and AIDS. I've sat through a lot of supposedly hilarious indy films that left me stone faced. I laughed quite a few times at Danny Roane: First Time Director.If you never understood why people found Andy Dick funny, you won't find any answers here. If you've enjoyed his work in the past, you'll like this movie even more. If you've never heard of Andy Dick, I'm sure you can find an episode of "It's Your Move" floating around on the web.

In most circles, if you bring up the name of Andy Dick, controversy arises. You either love him or hate him. However, in this dark mockumentary of Hollywood and perhaps himself, he shows his true acting and comedic skills. The film is always catching you off-guard with unexpected twists, surprise cameo appearances with today's top stars, and offending almost every human subgroup known, while taking you down that dark road similar to Spinal Tap, BORAT, or any Christopher Guest movie...it hits true to home and doesn't need to force humor out of already very funny situations. I highly recommend this film to anyone who loves to watch raw, un-sanitized off the wall humor and can laugh at themselves too.

Please, let's not get into a battle of the films here. "Bondage" and "Danny Roane" are two separate pieces of work. They were each made for different reasons and both deserve to be judged on their own merits.There is an art form to getting a reaction from an audience, especially one that is controversial - meaning that it possibly has people confused, upset, enraged, etc. Oscar Wilde once said (in the preface to "A Portrait of Dorian Gray") that all criticism is in fact a form of autobiography.I saw "Danny Roane: First Time Director" while at South By Southwest. The audience had a strong reaction to the film. And just like anything else in the world or in this country, their reaction was not all the same. Liking or disliking someone's artistic expression is only one form, in a vast array of forms, in which one can evaluate a piece of work. If we are to remove "like" or "dislike" as the simple-minded binary means in which we look at this film, there is a lot there that cannot be denied. Undeniability is one of the hardest things to achieve in any art form.Andy Dick, whether consciously or not (although I suspect consciously) blurs the lines between fiction and reality - an art within itself. He shows the audience the baffling and overwhelming power of not only alcoholism per se, but what happens to a person when they are in the grips of a spiritual crisis.Everyone thought it was funny when we read in the press that Chris Penn got drunk at the Sky Bar and got into a fight with a midget, throwing him into the pool and getting tossed out himself. Now he is dead at 40.There is something tragically haunting about Andy Dick's film. It is hard to watch, I agree. But I wouldn't dismiss it so quickly for that reason. If you look at his resume, Andy Dick has made a zillion movies and television appearances. His has a certain mastery over his craft, which is to say that he knows what he is doing. You may or may not "like" it, but clearly a lot of insight into his personal, real life struggles went into creating the film.Regardless of your opinion of it, this is a movie that cannot be dismissed or ignored - just like Andy Dick himself. There are people who will like it for the wrong reasons, and there are people who will dislike it for the wrong reasons. But either way, there is no denying it. This movie, or this phenomenon rather (as Andy blurred the lines between the movie and real life afterward) clearly demonstrates that there is intelligence in the meltdown - a general dissatisfaction. And when one is courageous enough to face the dissatisfaction, intelligence is no longer restrained.

I was at SXSW also. I saw both Danny Roane and Bondage. Bondage is a brilliant film that isn't supposed to make you laugh so hard beer comes out your nose. Bondage has very funny moments and doesn't have to resort to the lowest level of comedy known to humankind. Danny Roane is disjointed, fragmented and unapologetically offensive. It is a surreal mess of images, gross humor, & terrible dialog. Yes, there are some rather funny moments. But not enough to ever sit through it again. This time, once may have been too much. On a personal note, Eric Allen Bell is a very nice person. Eric did a fantastic job with his movie(Bondage)and Andy was very funny. The train wreck that followed the screening of Danny Roane was appalling at best.