In the Realms of the Unreal Review

If you’re any kind of fan of documentaries or artists that defy classification, you won’t to miss “In the Realms of the Unreal”, filmmaker Jessica Yu’s affectionate exploration of the work of Henry Darger. If you’re asking who Henry Darger is, and why he’s deserving of your attention, well, that’s the central issue Yu attempts to unravel.

Darger died in 1973, just another quiet and reclusive old man, as far as anyone else knew. He lived very much alone and in poverty for most of his life in Chicago. But inside his small apartment, Darger had meticulously constructed a vivid fantasy world replete with characters and places echoing some of the more traumatic parts of his life. This whimsical but also dangerous world was depicted in hundreds of original breathtaking paintings, as well as a monumentally epic 15,000 page, single-spaced typed novel, “In the Realms of the Unreal”.

The subjects of this cross-media life’s work are the heroic young Vivian girls, a group of nearly identical sweetly depicted sisters who find themselves caught up in a devastating war against the evil Glandelinian army. Using what few resources are at her disposal, Yu manages to connect the puzzle pieces of people, places, and events of Darger’s little known real life to his vast and unwieldy narrative art starring the young girls. Combining typical talking-head interviews of the few who personally knew the artist with newly created animation, which seemingly brings his storybook tale to life, this documentary manages to break new ground creatively while packing massive loads of information in under ninety minutes. The end result is at once both a bit surreal and sobering.

One of the more surreal elements is Darger’s re-occurring illustrations of the Vivian girls in the nude and with penises. Yu’s tendency to portray the artist in anything other than a semi-admirable light does the film a disservice in refusing to explore elements such as this one. Only briefly is the question of the characters anatomies broached, and even then the consensus seems to be that Darger, having been alone all his life, probably never knew any better. While this conclusion may be conceivable, it is certainly not altogether believable. The apparent gender confusion, when grouped with his obsessive nature and inability to let go of negative association with individuals and places that wronged him in his youth, point to potentially bigger issues regarding Darger’s mental state. Unfortunately, it would probably prove next to impossible to get any real answers on such things, but the documentary refuses to even speculate on these topics. What we do know is that Darger’s own Catholic faith was a major spiritual influence on his work, and that it was only within the physical confines of his apartment and the secret, unreal confines of his work did he ever truly live.

Setting the reluctance to embrace potential controversy aside, “In the Realms of the Unreal” does a good job of unspooling the facts of Darger’s life. Set to the appropriate narration of Dakota Fanning (“Man on Fire”, “The Cat in the Hat”) and Larry Pine (“The Royal Tenenbaums”), and closing on the perfect Tom Waits song, Yu has put together a brisk and compelling look into the artist, his life, and his work. “In the Realms of the Unreal”, with its experimental flair and imaginative luster, effortlessly bridges the abyss between storybook fantasy world and cold hard reality. It is one of the more finely crafted documentaries I’ve seen in a while.

- Jim Tudor