Driver 23 & Atlas Moth (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this based on the good reviews posted here, and I can say that I wasn't disappointed. In Driver 23/Atlas Moth, a window is provided into the world of Dan Cleveland, and what a strange world it is...one filled with delusions of grandeur and unfulfilled dreams. I knew a guy exactly like Dan, someone who was involved in so many projects, who had big dreams, but was never quite able to grab that brass ring. What's so endearing about Dan is his eternally optimistic outlook, the 'never say die' attitude. No matter what roadblocks are placed before him, he tries to go over them, around them, or even under them and continue to plod along. While endearing, this attitude can be harmful. Most people know when to quit, change gears, and focus their energies towards more fruitful ventures, but Dan seems determined to ride it out, regardless of the consequences, even if it means losing everything. Sorry to say my friend passed away sometime ago, but I feel like I got to spend a little more time with him in watching Dan and his travails.
Driver 23 is a movie about Dan, a delivery driver by day, and the lead singer of a Minneapolis-based rock band called Dark Horse. Dan suffers from a myriad of problems that he takes medication for, but none of that seems to slow him down. Half of his band quits, and he keeps going....his wife moves across the country to take a job, and he keeps going. A man truly determined to fly into the face of logic regardless. And I swear, that guy must always have a roll of duct tape with him, and he's quite liberal with its uses. Oh yeah, I also loved when Dan built his own recording studio in his basement. It looked so creepy and funky as he used whatever materials he had handy, cinder blocks, pieces of wood, etc.
In Atlas Moth, we get to see a continuance to where Driver 23 left off. Dan, now that his wife has left for good, lives a somewhat squalid apartment, but is still pressing on, despite his faculties sometimes being hamstringed by various medications (seems like he is taking more than before). After seven long years, we find that the Dark Horse CD is nearing completion. Being the perfectionist he is, Dan is taking an extra long time in postproduction, and his fellow band members are getting a little antsy. No real conclusions here, but another very intimate, uncensored glimpse into one man's life, duct taped slippers and all. At the very least, no one can say he did try to follow his dreams. Can we say the same about ourselves?

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As an antidote for the bloated, manufactured rock stars of the MTVgeneration, these films are packed with stranger-than-fiction human comedy and down toearth realism. Driver 23 and The Atlas Moth document seven years in the life of DanCleveland, a Minneapolis-based rock guitarist/deliveryman and his band, Dark Horse. Inspite of (or because of) a complex obsessive compulsive disorder, Dan is driven by anexistential need to simply accomplish. An intense optimist, he meets all obstacles to hismusical ambitions with uncanny determination, amazing perseverance, and strange"inventions" which visualize frustrations and make tangible the workings of his mind.Winner of 9 National/International Film Awards.

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