terrible... so disappointed.

Crappy film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Was battling depression at the time i came across this film by Toby Aimes. I decided to watch it purely because of the title and cover photo, i didn't even read the description.I knew INSTANTLY that this would be an amazing film....the first minute or so showed me the artsy side of this film and I was immediately hooked.Drako, whom this film is about, had an outlook that was so genuine it helped me find ways to rid myself of this ugly depressed state i had been in for the three years prior...Everything Drako said, did and wore (clothing) made me realize that my depression was unnecessary and irrelevant to my life. Since having watched this film, i have reopened my eyes to the world, stepped completely out of my comfort zones, regained friendships, and am no longer battling any depressed thoughts and feelings. I owe a great thank you to Toby for seeing something in this man that was so great he felt inspired to create a film about him. I absolutely recommend this to anyone with an open mind. Close minded people might not understand the values this film has to offer.

Director TOBY AMIES has created a fascinating portrait of a survivor. But not the predictable, poor-poor-me survivor that one would encounter in most documentaries."THE MAN WHOSE MIND EXPLODED" does not dwell in the past, nor does it wallow in a parade of sordid sob stories and tragedies. DRAKO, the seventy five year old eccentric subject of the film is not a victim. He is a vibrant individual who lives in the now. By his own rules. Wildly. Colorfully. Unabashedly. With no guilt or shame (or short term memory, for that matter).Having lived through the 60's as a jazz ballet dancer and one time model for Salvador Dali, he was a performance artist BEFORE there were performance artists. Heavily tattooed, pierced and with a Dali-esque waxed mustache, he is a a kind of S&M version of Quentin Crisp. Although experiencing 2 suicide attempts, a number of brain injuries, a few near death experiences and a series of nervous breakdowns---too many to count, he remains positive, and firmly in the present. Living life as Art --- with the world as his Theater.The Director doesn't handle him with kid gloves, but as an equal. And that is why this film is so magical and REAL. A bold portrait of a man whose mind exploded, but his personality and outlook on life remained strangely intact . . . positive . . . looking to the future!To quote the tattoo on his wrist: "TRUST ABSOLUTE UNCONDITIONAL"

A singular documentary, Filmmaker Tobey Amies befriended a truly odd and unique person and decided to make a film about him; an ailing, obese man in his 70s who has dubbed himself Drako Oho Zarhazar. Drako is a colorful character who once was a handsome dancer, a sexy motorcycle kid who knew Salvador Dali, and drank and glowered and ran on the dark side. Now, heavy and bald, covered in tattoos, he wears a Dali-esque wax mustache along with tons of playful make up; a flamboyantly gay man surrounded by photos everywhere of young men with giant erections, a hoarder, and most importantly a man who has survived two serious accidents, both of which left him in a coma. Since those incidents he suffers from anterograde amnesia, leaving him with little short to mid term memory. He tells the same stories over and over. He forgets who people are, including our story-teller, he can be heartbreaking, stubborn, and embarrassing in his weird exhibitionism. And yet, as sad a character as he is, there is also something unique and joyful. Deprived of a past, he lives in the moment, each face, each exchange, each experience something new. He can get confused or depressed but in the end his attitude is one of loving each moment. He repeats a mantra over and over again. He has it tattooed into his arm: "Trust. Absolute. Unconditional". He may be impossible to 'save' or even to help much, but maybe in different ways ways so are the rest of us.To love and be accepting and kind is a lesson he gave to those who knew him. And - thanks to this rough hewn film - to us. That's not a bad legacy.

I loved this film, it is an extremely touching and funny piece of work.I related strongly with the relationship between Drako and the filmmaker Toby Amies. I am also a filmmaker that works closely with adults with a variety of disabilities, including people with short term memory loss due to a coma, same as Drako. It would have been easy for someone to make an exploitative film with this subject matter, but here it is certainly not the case. Toby Amies has made a genuinely humane, affectionate and original piece of work. A film as good as this deserves a larger cinematic release.