DAREDREAMER

 

Front cover of my official ex-rental big box VHS videocassette of Daredreamer (© Barry Caillier/Futuristic Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Earlier tonight, I watched in VHS videocassette format a really obscure oddity of a fantasy/musical movie – Daredreamer.

Directed by Barry Caillier and released in 1990, Daredreamer was the debut movie of Tim Noah, with all songs in it written and performed by him too. Its fantastical, Billy Liar-reminiscent storyline focuses upon a hopeless high school college student named Winston (played by Noah), who spends far too much of his time living out his fantasies of being liked and successful in daydreams, instead of attending to his studies – daydreams so vivid and all-consuming, moreover, that they often result in Winston causing all manner of mayhem, havoc, and chaos at school.

Unsurprisingly, this leads to the despair of his only friend, Max (Adam Eastwood), as well as to the derision of his trio of personal nemeses – three leather-jacketed cool dudes led by quiff-wielding Dante (Billy Burke, also making his movie debut) and dubbed The Three Ds (as in Dante, Donny, and Dicky), not to mention all of his other classmates too.

All except one, that is – a creative girl called Jennie (Alyce LaTourelle), who yearns to become a writer, and who also daydreams, albeit in a much more controlled, non-disruptive manner! One day, Winston and Jennie accidentally discover that they can actually enter one another's daydreams and interact in them together. As a result, Winston and Jennie become strongly attracted to each other in real life too, because each has finally found someone who understands them.

Winston's daydreams are presented as 1980s music videos (Jennie's are not shown except for one in which hers and one of Winston's coalesce). In fact, the entire movie is little more than a framework upon which to hang a succession of these videos. Consequently, it wasn't long before my interest and attention began to wane, especially as, having been written and produced specifically for this movie, none of the songs and videos were in any way familiar to me, although they were all typical of their genre.

The thrust of Daredreamer is the undeniably noble, positive message that it's okay to dream, because who knows what real-life successes those dreams may inspire? This message is given full rein via the movie's uplifting climactic scene, in which the shy Winston finally comes out of his shell and sings his self-composed song 'Dare To Dream' in front of the whole class in real life, not in a daydream – and, in so doing, finally wins their acclaim and acceptance of him, as well as even the grudging approval of The Three Ds!

This scene – and song (which deserved to have been a hit in the singles charts but wasn't) – also redeems what for me was an otherwise somewhat pedestrian albeit quirky film, the music video/daydream components not being sufficiently strong or memorable enough in my opinion to elevate the movie as a whole. Nevertheless, Daredreamer is among those one-off novelty flicks that I'm glad to have seen, even if only once.

If you'd like to watch a clip from Daredreamer featuring its climactic scene and the song 'Dare To Dream', click here.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!