''Danny Says'' is a 2015 documentary film on the life and times of

Danny Fields Danny Fields (born Daniel Feinberg; November 13, 1939) is an American music manager, publicist, journalist and author. As a music industry executive from the 1960s to the 1980s, he was one of the most influential figures in the history of punk r ...

. The film is directed by Brendan Toller and produced by Pamela Lubell.

Magnolia Pictures Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Mag ...

acquired the worldwide rights in January 2016. In 2015, ''Danny Says'' was featured on "The Year in

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

" with the headline "a filmmaker discovered a piece of rock & roll history." The headline cites an unearthed audio tape of

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

listening to the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...

for the first time.

Release

''Danny Says'' had its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

on March 18, 2015.

Critical response

''Danny Says'' has received mixed reviews from critics.

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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gives the film an approval rating of 74%, based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 6.52/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 64 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''Variety'' named the film one of the "13 Breakout Films of SXSW," writing, "Rock

gadfly Gadfly most commonly refers to: * Horse-fly or Botfly * Gadfly (philosophy and social science), a person who upsets the status quo Gadfly may also refer to: Entertainment * ''The Gadfly'', an 1897 novel by Ethel Lilian Voynich ** ''The Gadfly'' ...

Danny Fields reminiscences of the 1960s and 1970s are pure gold in Brendan Toller's documentary... Assembly is first-rate, with mix of sterling archival materials and starry talking heads echoing the subject's gossipy, profane, impudent manner. Several lively animated sequences further diversify the package. The soundtrack, needless to say, is a mix tape dream."

Box office

Continuing on the festival circuit, ''Danny Says'' was selected as the Opening Night Film of the

Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center until 2019,Aridi, Sara (April 28, 2019).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019. is a film society based in New York City, United States. Fo ...

's Sound + Vision Festival. The screening sold out in three days. The film had a limited theatrical release by

beginning September 30, 2016.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 4485246 American documentary films Documentary films about the music industry Documentary films about gay men American LGBT-related films 2015 LGBT-related films 2015 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films