Daredreamer is a heavily obscure musical fantasy-comedy movie directed and co-written by Barry Caillier and Pat and Patricia Royce. It was completed in 1989 after a multi-year filming process. The film was largely made as a vehicle for its star, children's entertainer Tim Noah, who helped with the script and wrote and composed the songs.
Winston (Tim Noah) is a daydreamer to the max; in his mind's eye he can be anything from a rock star to a hard-boiled cop. His wild fantasies go beyond mere imagination to actively interfering in his high school life and earning him taunts and jabs from the local bullies. Winston soon learns that class romantic Jennie (Alyce LaTourelle) shares his daydreaming habits, but when the administration finally has enough of his antics, Winston is expelled from school. With the help of his friends, including the saxophone-playing janitor Zach (Michael A. Jackson), he might just be able to turn his lofty dreams into reality.
Despite being completed and screening at film festivals, the film failed to find a distributor and was never officially released in the US on VHS or DVD, though it did get a VHS release in the UK. A print with permission from the director can be seen here
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This film contains examples of:
- Almighty Janitor: When not cleaning up after Winston's messes, Zach plays the saxophone, watches over the kids, and shares Winston and Jennie's daydreaming abilities.
- Alpha Bitch: Beautiful, popular Cindy is initially a target of Winston's affections, but she spends her time making fun of him behind his back before cruelly turning him down in public.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Zach appears early on after Winston's daydream episodes and gives knowing smiles to the camera before becoming important later on.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Winston's friend Max is the normal one of their duo and tries to help him function in the everyday when all Winston can think about is daydreaming and not doing his schoolwork.
- Daydream Surprise: Winston's vivid fantasies end with snaps back to cold, hard reality.
- Delinquents: The Three-Ds gang causes mayhem around school and are frequently seen rollerskating to class.
- Dream Sue: Winston and Jennie's dream selves are idealized versions of themselves, with Winston as a huge rock star and Jennie as a bestselling novelist and career woman.
- Explosive Results: In chemistry class, Winston's daydreams lead him to blow up the lab by accidentally mixing oxidizers and nitrates while distracted.
- Genre Roulette: Winston and Jennie's daydreams run the gamut from a punk-rock robot apocalypse to a gentle ballet, with the filming style shifting to accommodate the different genres.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Defied according to this article about the movie’s creation. Originally the script did have censored language, but the kids playing the students found it unbelievable and insisted on swearing, as that was how they actually spoke.
- How We Got Here: The movie starts with Winston narrating to Zach about his time at school, his friends, and how he got expelled, which occurs near the end of the film.
- Left Hanging: Winston's expulsion from school is never addressed at the end of the film, nor are his daydreaming issues that caused all the trouble in the first place.
- Magical Negro: Zach's main role is to share wisdom with Winston, recover Jennie's writing, and encourage Winston to share his daydreams with the class. It's a more literal example than normal, as he also appears in the dream world to give advice.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's implied, but never confirmed, that the daydream worlds are 'real' to some extent given how vivid they are and how Winston and Jennie can not only interact in them, but change the dream.
- Mr. Imagination: Winston is a highly imaginative kid whose daydreams are so vivid the viewer sees them as really happening. This is deconstructed in that they're so realistic he has trouble with his schoolwork and classmates, while Jennie, who shares the compulsion, is much more high-functioning.
- The Musical: The film contains many insert songs to score the daydreaming scenes, which tend to be filmed as music videos.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: When called on to give a report, Winston dreams that he's not wearing any clothes and everyone, the teacher included, laughs in his face.
- Performance Anxiety: Winston is reluctant to share his songs and dreams with his friends despite carrying his guitar case around on the regular. Early on, he dreams about being naked and fainting from embarrassment when called on to give a report.
- Random Events Plot: The one constant of Winston's daydreams is being a famous rock star, but everything else he dreams up tends to be completely random and only tangentially related to whatever's going on around him.
- Reality Warper: Inside the shared dream, Winston and Jennie force a character to flip back and forth between their preferred version of him.
- Romantic False Lead: Winston is initially infatuated with Cindy, who couldn't care less about him, before striking up a genuine romance with Jennie.
- Shared Dream: Winston and Jennie find that they share and can interact in the same daydreams and alter the dream worlds to their wants.
- Tragic Dropout: After being held back for years because of his daydreaming tendencies, the school system has enough of Winston and expels him, forcing him to shape up and face reality.
