''Don Peyote'' is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by

Dan Fogler Daniel Kevin Fogler (born October 20, 1976) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He had his breakout in theatre, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as William Barfée in the Broadway production of '' ...

and Michael Canzoniero. It stars Fogler as a slacker who has a spiritual awakening and becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories.

Plot

Warren (Dan Fogler) is an unemployed artist and pot head who has crazy dreams. That is the only remarkable thing about him until a day comes when a crazy homeless man confronts him on the street. From that day on, Warren descends into himself, insanity and a confusion of mind and body, spurred on by drugs, along with Doomsday and conspiracy theories.

Cast

as Warren Allman *

Josh Duhamel Joshua David Duhamel ( ; born November 14, 1972) is an American actor. After various modeling work, he made his acting debut as Leo du Pres on the ABC daytime soap opera ''All My Children'' for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award and later starr ...

as Transient *

Jay Baruchel Jonathan Adam Saunders Baruchel (; born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actor and director. He is best known for his voice role as Hiccup Haddock in the ''How to Train Your Dragon'' franchise (2010–2019), and for his lead roles in the comedies ' ...

as Bates *

Wallace Shawn Wallace Michael Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an American actor, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter. He is known for playing Vizzini in '' The Princess Bride'' (1987), Mr. Hall in '' Clueless'' (1995), Dr. John Sturgis in '' Young Sheldo ...

as Psychotherapist * Kelly Hutchinson as Karen * Yang Miller as Balance *

Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime ...

as Agent of TRUTH *

Topher Grace Christopher John Grace ( ; born July 12, 1978), known professionally as Topher Grace, is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Eric Forman in the teen sitcom ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2005) and Eddie Brock / Venom in Sam Raimi's s ...

as Glavin Culpepper *

Annabella Sciorra Annabella Gloria Sciorra ( , ; born March 29, 1960) is an American actress. She came to prominence with her film debut in '' True Love'' (1989) and worked steadily throughout the 1990s in films such as ''Jungle Fever'' (1991), '' The Hard Way'' ...

as Giulietta *

Abel Ferrara Abel Ferrara (; born July 19, 1951) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for the provocative and often controversial content in his movies and his use and redefinition of neo-noir imagery. A long-time independent filmmaker, some of his best ...

as Taxi cab driver *

Daniel Pinchbeck Daniel Pinchbeck is an American author and journalist. His books include '' Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism'', the New York Times best seller ''2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl'', ''Notes f ...

as himself *

William Leroy William Leroy (born in Amiens, France), also known as Billy Leroy, is an American reality television personality, actor, businessman and appraiser. He was the owner of store "Billy's Antiques and Props" on the Lower East Side of New York City. In ...

as Nazi Sex Addict *

Gavin Octavien Gavin is a Celtic male given name. It is the Scottish variation of the medieval Welsh name Gawain, meaning 'God send' or 'white hawk/falcon'. Sir Gawain is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is an epic poem ...

as Extra

Production

Fogler recruited the large cast of cameos in part by allowing them to co-write their characters and improvise. The film was shot between 2010 and 2013.

Release

XLrator gave ''Don Peyote'' a limited release on May 16, 2014, and released it on DVD on July 8, 2014.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

, reports that only one of thirteen surveyed critics (8%) gave the film a positive rating; the average rating was 3.5/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

rated it 14/100 based on eight reviews. Sheri Linden of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote, "To call Don Peyote a mess would be putting too fine a point on it. The hallucinatory odyssey of a conspiracy-theory-obsessed New Yorker is a bad trip, destination nowhere." Daniel M. Gold of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called it "a cautionary tale of drug-fueled decline" that may not have been realized by its creators. Gary Goldstein of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' called it "a tedious, incoherent look at a paranoid stoner's emotional and spiritual unraveling". Calum Marsh of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' wrote that the film becomes increasingly incomprehensible as time goes on. Christopher Schobert of Indiewire rated it D and wrote, "Perhaps in the hands of a Charlie Kaufman or Michel Gondry, this story could move beyond the unexceptional, but in Fogler's hands, ''Don Peyote'' is a slow-moving dirge." Vadim Rizov of

The Dissolve ''The Dissolve'' was a film review, news, and commentary website which was operated by Pitchfork and based in Chicago, Illinois. The site was focused on reviews, commentary, interviews, and news about contemporary and classic films.{{cite web, url ...

rated it 0/5 stars and wrote, "In practice, Dan Fogler's sophomore directorial effort (co-directed/written by Michael Canzoniero) is merely execrable, segueing incoherently from one stand-alone fragment of a terrible movie to another."

References

External links

* * * {{Metacritic film 2014 films 2014 comedy films American comedy films American films about cannabis Films about conspiracy theories 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language comedy films Films scored by Ben Lovett