Dreamer: The Movie

Never heard of this film? Don’t worry. I wouldn’t have heard of it either if first-time writer/director/editor/producer George A. Johnson hadn’t contacted me directly to see if I would like a screener copy. Not expecting much, I told him sure; I’d take a look at it.

When the DVD arrived, I had to smile as I read the first line of the back cover copy: “What do you get when a first-time director assembles a no-name cast to shoot a low-budget movie in an unknown location, using a script that is considered too risky for Hollywood?� I don’t know about you, but the first few responses that came to my cynical mind were, “A piece of crap? The worst movie ever made? Something whose silliness is matched only by its sincerity?� Nevertheless, I popped the DVD into the machine for a look-see. It was one of those rare nights when my wife and I had put the kids to bed early and didn’t have too much on our agenda. As we settled down on the couch, I’m ashamed to say that I was all set for 90 minutes of unintentionally funny moments.

What we got instead—I’m happy to say—is something far different and far better than I imagined. Sure, the production values aren’t exactly breathtaking. But the movie isn’t terrible either. As Johnson says in an interview on the DVD, what he tried to do with this film was take regular consumer equipment and push it as far as it could go. Shot for a mere $23,500 over a three-and-one-half month period, the result is actually rather astounding.

Dreamer is, appropriately enough, about a young guy named Kevin Russell who is determined to make a low budget, non-Hollywood movie. That means no guns, no drugs, no killing, no illicit sex, just good, wholesome entertainment. Kevin feels audiences are hungering for that sort of thing, and he is just the person to give it to them. So, using an old video camera purloined from his grandfather, Kevin sets out on a journey that will pit him against virtually everyone—his family, the filmmaking community, even his friends and cast members. But Kevin soldiers on, facing down all sorts of spiritual, physical, and mental obstacles along the way. Some of these obstacles appear in the form of dream sequences, one of which (involving a school janitor) is so genuinely creepy that for a moment, I forgot this was a low budget film.

Ultimately, this is a movie with a message, and a not so subtle one at that: pursue your dreams, even when it seems like everything and everyone is against you. Fair enough. But tucked away within the film are all sorts of other intriguing metaphors and messages that viewers will enjoy discovering for themselves. Allegory Pictures, the aptly named company that produced this film, even has a “hidden stories challenge� on its web site that helps bring some of these buried treasures to light.

To Johnson’s credit, this film is not only inspiring, it also serves as a good reminder that even wide-eyed visionaries like me can become jaded cynics if we allow our dreams to fester for too long. Rather than wait for the ideal opportunity to present itself, better to follow Kevin and George’s example and work with what you have to create that opportunity instead.
To learn more about Dreamer or to purchase a copy on DVD, visit http://www.allegorypictures.com/.