PLOT: The true story of comedian Dane Cook who, at the height of his fame, realized that his brother, who was also his business manager, had stolen virtually all the money he’d made during his career.
REVIEW: About twenty years ago, there was no bigger stand-up comic in the world than Dane Cook. The guy was everywhere, achieving an almost unheard-of level of fame for a stand-up, headlining arena tours that were more customary for a rock star, while he also headlined a bunch of movies like Good Luck Chuck and Employee of the Month. But, as so often happens, you can only capture the zeitgeist for so long, and while Cook remains a solid draw, his moment at the top eventually ended—but he made so much money he should have been set for life.
Now, put yourself in Cook’s shoes and imagine that you believe you have a net worth in the tens of millions, only to discover that, in reality, you’re virtually penniless and actually owe millions to the IRS because your very own brother, whom you supported for years, took everything. That’s exactly what happened, and Cook documents the stunning betrayal in his new documentary, Dane Cook: Funny Money, which should be compelling to anyone interested in the true crime genre, whatever your feelings about Cook’s comedy may be.
In the film, directed by Bret Harvey, Cook opens up about the stunning betrayal in a truly heartbreaking way. While he was naive to give his brother power of attorney, he admits that he loved his brother more than anyone in the world and trusted him with his life. The same, clearly, was not true for his brother Daryl, whose resentment of Cook’s fame gave him a sense of truly sociopathic entitlement.
It’s a fairly riveting story thanks in large part to the fact that Cook, even though he’s now on solid ground financially and has recovered a portion of his fortune, is still like a raw nerve when he talks about it. You can see in the interviews how the pain of the betrayal has not diminished over the years, with him perhaps most hurt not by the missing money, but by the fact that someone he loved seemingly had nothing but contempt for him.
The film does try to explain why Dane let Daryl have such extraordinary access to his finances, explaining that they were the product of a difficult home life and had different fathers. Daryl’s dad was absent, and he looked at Dane’s as his true father—which is where some of the resentment might have started. But even still, Dane’s dad could be difficult, with him being an alcoholic who, while loving one moment, could become violent the next. Their mother held things together, but she died young, and Daryl, by this point, seemingly viewed his brother as just a limitless bank account.
While Harvey’s movie runs a little long at two hours and spends a little too much time documenting Cook’s fame at the height of his career (it briefly becomes a little too much of a career retrospective), when it centres on the crime aspect, it’s striking. The best part of the movie is an incredible interview Harvey was able to get with Daryl’s ex-wife, Erika, who went to jail for being his accomplice. She comes off as truly deranged, unwilling to take any responsibility for her role, with the entitlement she displays quite unsettling. Harvey allows her to hang herself with her own words, constantly catching her in lies as she changes her story on a dime over and over again. It got to the point that I wondered how they were ever able to convince her to go on camera, but it’s made clear that her participation was secured by Cook releasing her from the millions she owes him in restitution.
What’s especially heartbreaking is how, despite him recovering a lot of money, you can tell Cook doesn’t feel like anything has really been resolved and that the crime will haunt him for the rest of his life. The betrayal at the movie’s heart and the complete lack of remorse by all involved are enough to really make you empathize with Cook, and should be relatable to anyone who’s ever been crossed by someone they trusted—which I suppose is all of us.
Dane Cook: Funny Money is now available on all on-demand VOD platforms.
The post Dane Cook: Funny Money Review: A Surprisingly Wrenching True Crime Tale appeared first on JoBlo.