Driver 23/Atlas Moth

Rating:
Summary: I laughed, I cried, I rocked
Review: Do yourself a favor and buy this incredible documentary on Driver Dan, the crazed metal rocker and deliver van driver from Minneapolis. His struggle to succeed as a Prozac-drenched heavy metal musician coupled with his "Unique" personality and creative madness are a marvel to behold!

Rating:
Summary: Will success spoil Dan Cleveland?
Review: I bought this based on the good reviews posted here, and I can say that I wasn't disappointed. In Driver 23/Atlas Moth, a window is provided into the world of Dan Cleveland, and what a strange world it is...one filled with delusions of grandeur and unfulfilled dreams. I knew a guy exactly like Dan, someone who was involved in so many projects, who had big dreams, but was never quite able to grab that brass ring. What's so endearing about Dan is his eternally optimistic outlook, the 'never say die' attitude. No matter what roadblocks are placed before him, he tries to go over them, around them, or even under them and continue to plod along. While endearing, this attitude can be harmful. Most people know when to quit, change gears, and focus their energies towards more fruitful ventures, but Dan seems determined to ride it out, regardless of the consequences, even if it means losing everything. Sorry to say my friend passed away sometime ago, but I feel like I got to spend a little more time with him in watching Dan and his travails.

Driver 23 is a movie about Dan, a delivery driver by day, and the lead singer of a Minneapolis-based rock band called Dark Horse. Dan suffers from a myriad of problems that he takes medication for, but none of that seems to slow him down. Half of his band quits, and he keeps going....his wife moves across the country to take a job, and he keeps going. A man truly determined to fly into the face of logic regardless. And I swear, that guy must always have a roll of duct tape with him, and he's quite liberal with its uses. Oh yeah, I also loved when Dan built his own recording studio in his basement. It looked so creepy and funky as he used whatever materials he had handy, cinder blocks, pieces of wood, etc.

In Atlas Moth, we get to see a continuance to where Driver 23 left off. Dan, now that his wife has left for good, lives a somewhat squalid apartment, but is still pressing on, despite his faculties sometimes being hamstringed by various medications (seems like he is taking more than before). After seven long years, we find that the Dark Horse CD is nearing completion. Being the perfectionist he is, Dan is taking an extra long time in postproduction, and his fellow band members are getting a little antsy. No real conclusions here, but another very intimate, uncensored glimpse into one man's life, duct taped slippers and all. At the very least, no one can say he did try to follow his dreams. Can we say the same about ourselves?

Rating:
Summary: Will success spoil Dan Cleveland?
Review: I bought this based on the good reviews posted here, and I can say that I wasn't disappointed. In Driver 23/Atlas Moth, a window is provided into the world of Dan Cleveland, and what a strange world it is...one filled with delusions of grandeur and unfulfilled dreams. I knew a guy exactly like Dan, someone who was involved in so many projects, who had big dreams, but was never quite able to grab that brass ring. What's so endearing about Dan is his eternally optimistic outlook, the 'never say die' attitude. No matter what roadblocks are placed before him, he tries to go over them, around them, or even under them and continue to plod along. While endearing, this attitude can be harmful. Most people know when to quit, change gears, and focus their energies towards more fruitful ventures, but Dan seems determined to ride it out, regardless of the consequences, even if it means losing everything. Sorry to say my friend passed away sometime ago, but I feel like I got to spend a little more time with him in watching Dan and his travails.

Driver 23 is a movie about Dan, a delivery driver by day, and the lead singer of a Minneapolis-based rock band called Dark Horse. Dan suffers from a myriad of problems that he takes medication for, but none of that seems to slow him down. Half of his band quits, and he keeps going....his wife moves across the country to take a job, and he keeps going. A man truly determined to fly into the face of logic regardless. And I swear, that guy must always have a roll of duct tape with him, and he's quite liberal with its uses. Oh yeah, I also loved when Dan built his own recording studio in his basement. It looked so creepy and funky as he used whatever materials he had handy, cinder blocks, pieces of wood, etc.

In Atlas Moth, we get to see a continuance to where Driver 23 left off. Dan, now that his wife has left for good, lives a somewhat squalid apartment, but is still pressing on, despite his faculties sometimes being hamstringed by various medications (seems like he is taking more than before). After seven long years, we find that the Dark Horse CD is nearing completion. Being the perfectionist he is, Dan is taking an extra long time in postproduction, and his fellow band members are getting a little antsy. No real conclusions here, but another very intimate, uncensored glimpse into one man's life, duct taped slippers and all. At the very least, no one can say he did try to follow his dreams. Can we say the same about ourselves?

Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: If you've seen these on the Sundance channel and liked them, then you owe it to yourself to buy this DVD. The films themselves are great but when you watch them with the audio commentaries, you get a whole new layer of understanding about what's going on behind the scenes, and they answer alot of the burning questions I had about some of the relationships between the "characters". Also they cover some of the technical aspects like what cameras were used.
Cool of the filmmaker to included both films on one DVD; the DVD is dual-layer, so they don't skimp on image quality (although the films were shot on video).
Some reviews have called this a real-life "Spinal Tap" but that is really not accurate. In style it's really closer to the Maysles' "Great Gardens" for its sympathetic character studies than as a lampoon of its subject.
Thanks Dan, Thanks Rolf, Thanks Jeff. Thanks Jacque.

Rating:
Summary: love those duct-tape slippers!
Review: Oh happy day! I have been trying to track down "Driver 23" for -- literally -- years, and to finally find it released on DVD, in a double-feature with its sequel, for an affordable price ... it just made my week.

"Driver 23" is absolutely hysterical; parts of it left me gasping for breath. Some parts of it seem so over-the-top you keep having to remind yourself that this is real life, and that the director was taking the project seriously. He wasn't trying to portray Dan Cleveland as a nutcase, which makes you wonder how extreme the film would've gotten had he been so inclined.

As a documentary, "The Atlas Moth" is technically a better piece of work, but it's not nearly as amusing as its predecessor. It's still worth seeing, to find out how things progress with Dan's career and aspirations, but it doesn't provide much closure.

The DVD is pretty no-frills, but special features are overrated anyway.

Rating:
Summary: love those duct-tape slippers!
Review: Oh happy day! I have been trying to track down "Driver 23" for -- literally -- years, and to finally find it released on DVD, in a double-feature with its sequel, for an affordable price ... it just made my week.

"Driver 23" is absolutely hysterical; parts of it left me gasping for breath. Some parts of it seem so over-the-top you keep having to remind yourself that this is real life, and that the director was taking the project seriously. He wasn't trying to portray Dan Cleveland as a nutcase, which makes you wonder how extreme the film would've gotten had he been so inclined.

As a documentary, "The Atlas Moth" is technically a better piece of work, but it's not nearly as amusing as its predecessor. It's still worth seeing, to find out how things progress with Dan's career and aspirations, but it doesn't provide much closure.

The DVD is pretty no-frills, but special features are overrated anyway.

Rating:
Summary: 2 for the price of one!
Review: This DVD has 2 amazing/award winning films on it. As an antidote for the bloated, manufactured rock stars of the MTV generation, these films are packed with stranger-than-fiction human comedy and down-to-earth realism. Driver 23 (72 min.) and The Atlas Moth (75 min.) document 7 years in the life of Dan Cleveland, a Minneapolis-based rock guitarist/deliveryman and his band Dark Horse. In spite of, or because of, a complex obsessive compulsive disorder Dan is driven by an existential need to simply accomplish. An intense optimist, he meets all obstacles to his musical ambitions with uncanny determination, amazing perseverance, and strange "inventions" which visualize frustrations and make tangible the workings of his mind. Often compared to a real life "Spinal Tap", these films have won 9 national/international awards! This DVD is a must have...

...

Rating:
Summary: American C.D. ?
Review: When I first saw 'Driver 23' on Sundance my impression was, Oh, someone's trying to do 'American Movie' with an inept metal head and his band! I'm not sure if there was any direct inspiration or influence, but comparisons are unavoidable. 'Driver 23' deals, as does 'American Movie' with a marginally talented guy trying to get his dream project off the ground while plagued by lack of funding, bad luck, and inability to keep people interested in participating in his peculiar artistic visions. However, we've already seen this whole hard luck-hard rock band bit done better in fictional movies like 'This is Spinal Tap,' 'Almost Famous,' 'Rock Star,' and even on the real-life Osbournes T.V. show. There are a few really funny moments, like when the band leader attempts to rationalize his band's demise: "We're not broken up -- we're just a studio band now that's lacking a few members..." The main problem is, just as in fictional movies, the keys to great documentaries (even concert movies) are colorful characters, engaging dialogue, interesting individual scenes, suspense, plot twists, and an emotional climax. 'Driver 23' tends to be lacking in all of these elements. Aside from some funny dialogue, you get lots of fairly boring scenes of studio construction, recording, and make-up application by the main character's wife, and then the whole thing just kind of winds down with the wife leaving for a job in another town. I haven't seen the second part, but my recommendation would be don't run out and buy this based on the reviews here. Try to catch it on t.v., or see if you can rent it first.

Rating:
Summary: American C.D. ?
Review: When I first saw 'Driver 23' on Sundance my impression was, Oh, someone's trying to do 'American Movie' with an inept metal head and his band! I'm not sure if there was any direct inspiration or influence, but comparisons are unavoidable. 'Driver 23' deals, as does 'American Movie' with a marginally talented guy trying to get his dream project off the ground while plagued by lack of funding, bad luck, and inability to keep people interested in participating in his peculiar artistic visions. However, we've already seen this whole hard luck-hard rock band bit done better in fictional movies like 'This is Spinal Tap,' 'Almost Famous,' 'Rock Star,' and even on the real-life Osbournes T.V. show. There are a few really funny moments, like when the band leader attempts to rationalize his band's demise: "We're not broken up -- we're just a studio band now that's lacking a few members..." The main problem is, just as in fictional movies, the keys to great documentaries (even concert movies) are colorful characters, engaging dialogue, interesting individual scenes, suspense, plot twists, and an emotional climax. 'Driver 23' tends to be lacking in all of these elements. Aside from some funny dialogue, you get lots of fairly boring scenes of studio construction, recording, and make-up application by the main character's wife, and then the whole thing just kind of winds down with the wife leaving for a job in another town. I haven't seen the second part, but my recommendation would be don't run out and buy this based on the reviews here. Try to catch it on t.v., or see if you can rent it first.