In the Realms of the Unreal

"The Mystery of Henry Darger"

2004 1h 21m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

🍅

69%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.3

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 42🍅69%Rotten Tomatoes●74Metacritic★7.3IMDB · 2,273

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.

“The Mystery of Henry Darger”

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Cast

Henry Darger
Himself
Larry Pine
Henry Darger (Voice)
Dakota Fanning
Narrator/Vivian Girls (Voice)
Frier McCollister
Voice
Wally Wingert
Voice
Mary O'Donnell
Herself (Neighbor)
Kiyoko Lerner
Herself (Landlady)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jessica Yu
Writers: Jessica Yu
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

81 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 22 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Jeff Beal. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Henry Darger and Larry Pine and Dakota Fanning carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The Mystery of Henry Darger".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0390123 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 42 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jessica Yu directs. Jeff Beal scores. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

181 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Released 22 years ago.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Original score by Jeff Beal. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Henry Darger and Larry Pine and Dakota Fanning carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "The Mystery of Henry Darger".
7IMDB entry: tt0390123 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 42 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Original score: Jeff Beal
Runtime: 81 min · 1h 21m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
Rotten Tomatoes: 69% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 74/100
IMDB rating: 7.3/10 · 2,273 votes
MPAA: Unrated
US box office: $417,120

Awards

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. 2 wins & 6 nominations total

Also by

Jessica Yu

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CRCulver2018-09-14
★ 7/10
This is a 2004 documentary film by Jessica Yu introducing the life and work of Henry Darger. A major figure of "outsider art", Darger's work was only discovered after his death when his landlords found thousands of pages of text and paintings in his room. Through his long life, he was known to his few friends and associates only as a janitor in a local hospital. Secretly, he wrote a massive manuscript chronicling the rebellion of girl slaves in a fantasy world, painted with watercolors of the heroines and battles. Yu has chosen three main narrators for the documentary. A little girl (Dakota Fanning, even) narrates Darger's biographical facts, while excerpts from Darger's autobiography are reads by an old man (Larry Pine), and texts from his fantasy epic are read by some fellow with a radio play delivery. In addition, we find interviews with people who knew Darger. Kiyoko Lerner, his landlady and now the caretaker of his legacy, is of course featured, as are some of his neighbours and an altar boy from his church. While everyone reports him to be an odd fellow, Yu avoids the controversial issue of Darger's mental health, preserving the ambiguity of whether he was mad or a mere eccentric. Similarly, the relation of Darger's work to sexual frustrations or the possibility of sexual abuse as a child are left out. But this is a mere introduction, and it's reasonable to expect the viewer to move on to other sources for contentious matters. My only real complaint is that Yu is not always content to let Darger's paintings speak for themselves. Rather, she has animated certain of Darger's scenes, which I feel distorts the paintings to a degree. While I think the film does not deserve a one-star rating for this as another reviewer awarded it, it is troubling. Nonetheless, all in all this is a fine presentation of a remarkable figure. And if Darger's intrigues you, I'd recommend also discovering Adolf Wolfli, a Swiss madman whose life and work resembles Darger in several years.

Production companies