The Guy: The Brian Donahue Story
2019 · 19m
Directed by E.J. McLeavey-Fisher
Genres: biography, documentary, sports
Tones: contemplative, surreal
Stuntman, actor, UPS employee, former pro wrestler, Disney World performer and ex-NFL nose tackle — Brian Donahue has done it all, and this documentary chronicles his surreal balancing act between paying the rent and chasing the elusive Hollywood spotlight.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the surreal résumé gimmick to be the joke, but McLeavey-Fisher refuses to punch down — instead treating Brian's chaos as genuinely contemplative, which is exactly the kind of inversion that makes consensus scouts uncomfortable.
A formally restrained portrait that resists the temptation toward montage excess; the film's measured pacing and refusal to sensationalize its subject situate it within the observational documentary lineage of the Maysles, prioritizing witness over spectacle.
The entire film hinges on one formal choice — the decision to hold on Brian's face in quiet moments rather than cut to the next absurd credential — and that restraint transforms what could've been a curiosity into something genuinely moving about American striving.