Harmontown

I caught this movie at SxSW. I had almost no expectations for this movie. I confused Dan Harmon with the guy who created Scrubs and Cougartown. I was wrong Dan Harmon most recently was the creator of Community, one of my favorite TV shows. It's public knowledge that he got fired from Community. What I did not know was that Dan Harmon did a live comedy show with Jeff Davis (of Whose Line is it Anyways). So this documentary is about a 30 show road tour that these guys did across the United States. It turns out that the very "out there" comedy that comes out in Community is the result of very "out there" thinking by Dan Harmon and his comedy show is more of a "watch us have fun" kind of show rather than the traditional stand up comedy where a comedian presents his pre-written bits to the audience. The live show Harmon presents (called Harmontown, also a podcast) is very organic and spontaneous. It was a compelling and entertaining documentary. Worth catching.

I loved community and Dan Harmon before watching this.. and don't take my rating the wrong way i loved this documentary but Dan Harmon i just a whiny bitch, this documentary shows how he creates all of his own problems and whines about them..and the people that look up to him are people with real problems. I don't see how any network would ever work with him again after seeing this..

what a sad waste of a brilliant mind.. he could do a lot of good for a lot of people that look up to him.. but i think its evident he's too narcissistic and selfish to ever be someone who really makes people happy like he says in this documentary.. it fells more like the tour is for himself not the fans..

This is probably something that every huge Community fan is going to want to see. Sadly, it's not a documentary on Community itself, and I wish it had more to do in this. Still, this is pretty much everything one would expect from Dan Harmon, what he's like, his strategy, his goals. It's not a great film by any means, and for a documentary it's sort of aimless, but it's fun for the most part. It's interesting to really see the good in everyone even when it shows scenes that show Harmon being a jerk. This is probably going to feel like essential viewing for many, and in some ways it just may be. This is recommended, with reservations

Documentary charting a 2012 podcasting tour undertaken by Dan Harman, the showrunner of cult sitcom hit Community, following his sacking from the show, a show he created.

I wish I hadn't watched this as I now dislike Community and Harman less than prior to watching. He's a horrible man, a drunk and a bully and, frankly, the series of Community he didn't work on is at least as good as, if not better than, the series' that preceded and proceeded it. Fair play for allowing the film to be warts'n'all.

Very noble.

But that doesn't make Harman any less of a jerk.

An intimate behind-the-scenes documentary covering Dan Harmon (creator of Community, co-creator of Rick and Morty) and his short tour of seat-of-the-pants live podcasts in the winter of 2012. It dangles precariously between worshiping the man (via dozens of high-profile testimonials) and vilifying him (the same talking heads almost unanimously have a bad story to tell about his self-destructive nature) which makes for a difficult, conflicted narrative. Especially as he seems to have no interest in seriously changing his ways, even after breaking down and confessing to his many sins. Harmon's connection with his audience, and with his small cast of cobbled-together costars, is special and real, the kind of rapport that thousands of wannabe cult productions chase to their last breath. Maybe his shortcomings as a human fuel that fire in ways that a more composed creative wouldn't, but it still begs a question: how much more prolific could this guy be if he'd ever get his act together? Even his most passionate fans seem to realize that he can be a real dick at times, most notably when he airs the dirty laundry of a late-night fight with his long-suffering girlfriend right there on one show. The same fans who lined up at the door to hear what he'll do or say next agree almost unanimously that he was in the wrong, leaving him to awkwardly eat a little crow. The documentary itself is a bit long, especially in getting to a conclusion, but otherwise does a nice job of mixing laugh-out-loud moments from the stage with heartfelt confessions and closed-door implosions away from the public eye. Great if you're already a fan, but a little narrow and long-winded if you're not.