Director Report Card: Destin Daniel Cretton (2006)

Alright, I'm doing this again. Once more, Disney has plucked an up-and-coming indie director out of (relative) obscurity to helm another one of their superhero franchise launchers. This time, Destin Daniel Cretton has been hired to bring an actual Asian-American perspective on a character created in the seventies by a pair of white guys. I've never actually seen one of Cretton's films before. This'll be the fourth time I've decided to cover a director I'm not familiar with because of my interest in superhero cinema. The results have been mixed so far but Cretton's work sounds interesting enough for me to try this one more time.  

1. Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey

Co-directed with Lowell Frank

Destin Daniel Cretton grew up in Haiku, Hawaii. As a teenager, he moved to San Diego and started to make short films as a hobby. Most of these shorts were co-directed with another young filmmaker named Lowell Frank. The two made four projects together: “Longbranch: A Suburban Parable” is an overally quirky comedy about four seemingly unrelated people being thrown together by fate. “Bartholomew's Song” was another very twee, if more disciplined, sci-fi allegory about society, art, and free will. “Deacon's Mondays” had a similarly quirky tone but told a more emotional story, the best of the lot. Of these collaborations, one would be a seventy-two minute long documentary. That would make “Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey” Destin Daniel Cretton's debut feature. 

So what is the very oddly entitled “Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey” about? The film follows twelve year old Colin Taylor, an awkward and nerdy fourteen year old living in California. Colin's intense fascinations include video games, pottery, poetry, country music, dragons, and growing up to be a knight. On the weekends, Colin and his older brother, Corwyn, travel to a local Renaissance Fair. There, they take part in an elaborate fantasy built around the imaginary medieval kingdom of Adria. In Adria, Colin is known as Drakmar and trains in archery and sword fighting. He operates as a vassal for his knight, whom he looks up to as a father-like figure. That's because Colin and Corwyn have a distant relationship with their own father, who walked out of their lives when they were babies. As Adria prepares for a grand mock-war, Colin and Corwyn search for their own dad.

There's not much behind-the-scenes information on this film but one can easily imagine how “Drakmar” came to be. Cretton and Lowell probably wanted to make a film about the world of medieval re-enactors. When they met Colin, they decided he was probably a more interesting topic. It's true that the young boy has a certain charm about him. He talks in a voice that is almost monotone but also very expressive. Combined with his intense fixation on the topics that interest him, you wonder if he isn't somewhere on the autism spectrum. Either way, his blunt honesty and awkward mannerism is funny and charming. When he describes his ideal girlfriend – who would have an interest in well-known mythological creatures – or ask if he's blowing the interviewers' minds, you can't help but laugh. 

While one might be tempted to assume that “Drakmar” is making fun of its very nerdy subjects, I think the directors' fascination was much more sincere. The film is an honest portrayal of a socially awkward kid trying to navigate the world. While I can only suspect if Colin is autistic, we are told that he has ADHD. He often finds the pressures of middle school overwhelming, hiding in a quiet room in the art teacher's office. His emotional difficulties are described. A rude comment from someone at the Adria camp leads him to an off-screen crying fit, which Colin later does his best to disguise. As someone who has grappled with ADHD and its associated emotional disregulation my entire life, I see a lot of myself in Colin. I understand exactly how he feels.

As much as “Drakmar” is about Colin and his family's personal struggles, the movie definitely is fascinated with the alternate reality the medieval re-enactors create. The fictional nation of Adria comes with an elaborate history of its own. It is based in a time period described as "Western Europe from the Norman conquest through to the death of Queen Elizabeth." The world is governed by a number of archaic rules that its inhabitants are expected to follow. They dress in medieval clothing and dot their speech with faux Olde English phrases. When later describing his love of video games, Colin talks about how it provides an escape from the real world. Adria obviously serves a similar purpose as well, its inhabitants leaving the dull concerns of reality behind to live in another time and place for a little while.

It makes sense why Colin would be so willing to participate in this fantasy world. Monday through Friday, he's a nerdy kid who gets bullied at school. On the weekends, he's training to be a knight, knows how to shoot a bow, and sometimes participates in sword fights of his own. The same goes for the “knight” he's training under. The man owns a goldsmith shop, which he sometimes uses to make trinkets and tools for his medieval alter-ego. He wears heavy armor and leather underclothing in hot weather. He and the other knights of Adria swings swords and weapons at each other. Nobody gets killed but people do get bloodied sometimes. These people are devoted to their hobby and take it seriously, which helps distinguish them from casual Renn Faire fans or live-action role players of other fantasy-based realms. 

Yet “Drakmar” is not really so much about Adria and its enthusiastic re-enactors or even Colin's participation in it. Instead, the film is more about father figures. Colin looks up to his knight, openly referring to him as a surrogate dad. And it's easy to see why the boy would need someone like that. He resents his actual father, for walking away from his mom when he was only six days old. It's clear that his mom has told the boy every unflattering truth about his father. When Corwyn expresses interest in reconnecting with their dad, Colin talks openly about how he hates his dad. Yet that all changes when they meet again, the boy ultimately welcoming the man back into his life. In the end, Colin accepts having two father figures. Because, as much as disaffected boys like that say they resent their dads, more often than not a father's guidance is exactly what they want. I can relate all too well to that too.

Documentaries like “Drakmar” are interesting to me because they shine a light on normal people. The characters in this film do not look like movie stars. The boys have bad acne and Corwyn dresses in black t-shirts, JNCO jeans, and wallet chains. His girlfriend also looks like anyone you could pass in the street. Yet the two are deeply in love and have small victories in their own lives. Colin and Corwyn's mom is similarly unassuming, though it's pretty funny how she reacts to seeing her boys dress-up and get hit with sticks. Similarly amusing is his dad's new wife, who also has an interest in dragons... Though Colin quickly schools her in all the different types of dragons, which is funny. I think there's value in just dropping a camera into the lives of totally ordinary people.

Interestingly, Cretton and Frank are not afraid to get involved in the subject's lives themselves. When Corwyn asks for help finding their dad, the directors start the search themselves. We see Cretton, while suffering from a bad sore throat, make the various awkward phone calls as he attempts to track the guy down. A few clips of them calling wrong numbers are even included, for extra verisimilitude. As a movie, the filmmakers' techniques are obviously pretty rough. The handheld footage of the cosplayers dueling on the fields is quite shaky. The entire film supposedly cost 200 dollars, which explains why the documentary feels so close to reality. The filmmakers foreground Colin's reunion with his dad as the movie's proper conclusion. They do this by moving Adria's war to the middle of the story, before tracking backwards to show the reunion. Which is an interesting choice. 

“Drakmar: A Vassal's Journey” did not exactly shoot Cretton and Frank into the stratosphere. The movie was shown on HBO Family, before being released on DVD. (Which is now hopelessly out-of-print.) It received few reviews, though most reactions were quite positive. The film was released around the same time as “Darkon,” a similar documentary about live-action role players. So clearly this was a topic people were interested in at the time. I don't know what the subjects are up to these days. If you look up ”Drakmar's” trailer on Youtube, you see an eleven year old update from someone who claims to be Colin. If these decade-old comments and his other Youtube activity is any indication, he's still interested in medieval roleplay, video games, and country music. While its seventy minute run time only leaves so much room to explore these lives, “Drakmar” still proves to be a charming, funny, and touching documentary. [Grade: B]