The last year in movies was pretty good to mind-altering drugs, what with Sebastián Silva’s Crystal Fairy and Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England offering up some of the trippiest sequences of the year. And 2014 is lifting off to good heights with the upcoming comedy Don Peyote from Dan Fogler and Michael Canzoniero, who both co-wrote and co-directed the feature.
I’m admittedly not a big fan of Fogler’s, as he tends to star in lackluster movies, but this is apparently something of a passion project written specifically to showcase his talents as an actor. If that involves some insanely over the top sequences involving giant waves and mental asylum fake-outs, then I’m definitely committing myself. This is the kind of trailer (which comes to us via Yahoo! Movies) that you have to take a step back from after watching, only to put it on again immediately to see if you missed something.
Fogler plays Warren Allman, an ordinary Jewish-turning-Buddhist man engaged to a woman played by Kelly Hutchinson. His life gets turned upside-down and inside-out once a droplet of homeless person sweat (presumably tainted with hallucinogens) goes into Warren’s skin. All of a sudden he’s interested in figuring out how the world really works by trying to uncover mythical conspiracies and identifying society’s real leaders. As you can imagine, this involves taking a lot more drugs, which apparently lands him in a mental asylum at one point as his life starts to fall apart.
While the story itself isn’t the most groundbreaking, the trailer makes the film look like a refreshingly original take on the subject - though I wonder if it’s leaning a little too hard on celebrity cameos. Admittedly, the appearances look pretty fun and I don’t think they’ll derail the narrative. It’s not often viewers get the feeling of being headbutted by Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway, after all. Don Peyote also sees appearances from Wallace Shawn, Topher Grace, Jay Baruchel, Josh Duhamel (donning his Scenic Route Mohawk), Dean Winters, psychedelic writer Daniel Pinchbeck, famed miniature artist Joe Coleman and even Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara, as seen below.
All story elements aside, I’m super interested to see some of the zanier sequences this film has to offer, as hinted at in the trailer. We’ve got giant microwaves and choreographed dance numbers to look forward to. The best combination ever? We’ll see.
Don Peyote will be getting a limited release this May from XLrator Media. Are you guys interested in this too, or am I the only one that drank the shroom tea?
