Don Peyote is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Dan Fogler and Michael Canzoniero. It stars Fogler as a slacker who has a spiritual awakening and becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories.
Don Peyote | |
---|---|
![]() DVD cover | |
Directed by |
|
Written by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Cinematography | John Inwood |
Edited by | Dan Bush |
Music by | Ben Lovett |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | XLrator |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Warren (Dan Fogler) is an unemployed artist and pot head who has crazy dreams. That is the only remarkable thing about him until a day comes when a crazy homeless man confronts him on the street. From that day on, Warren descends into himself, insanity and a confusion of mind and body, spurred on by drugs, along with Doomsday and conspiracy theories.
Fogler recruited the large cast of cameos in part by allowing them to co-write their characters and improvise. The film was shot between 2010 and 2013.[1]
XLrator gave Don Peyote a limited release on May 16, 2014,[2] and released it on DVD on July 8, 2014.[3]
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that only one of thirteen surveyed critics (8%) gave the film a positive rating; the average rating was 3.5/10.[4] Metacritic rated it 14/100 based on eight reviews.[5] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "To call Don Peyote a mess would be putting too fine a point on it. The hallucinatory odyssey of a conspiracy-theory-obsessed New Yorker is a bad trip, destination nowhere."[6] Daniel M. Gold of The New York Times called it "a cautionary tale of drug-fueled decline" that may not have been realized by its creators.[7] Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times called it "a tedious, incoherent look at a paranoid stoner's emotional and spiritual unraveling".[8] Calum Marsh of The Village Voice wrote that the film becomes increasingly incomprehensible as time goes on.[9] Christopher Schobert of Indiewire rated it D and wrote, "Perhaps in the hands of a Charlie Kaufman or Michel Gondry, this story could move beyond the unexceptional, but in Fogler's hands, Don Peyote is a slow-moving dirge."[10] Vadim Rizov of The Dissolve rated it 0/5 stars and wrote, "In practice, Dan Fogler's sophomore directorial effort (co-directed/written by Michael Canzoniero) is merely execrable, segueing incoherently from one stand-alone fragment of a terrible movie to another."[11] Matt Donato of We Got This Covered rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote, "Don Peyote is a delusional, hallucinogenic journey into the mind of an apocalypse obsessed lunatic – a jumbled puzzle of ideas missing a few crucial connections."[12]