Darling Darling

like a modern day equus, we can feel the internal struggles and deep hurting of the main character through his eloquently displayed subtle performance. the movie is about power. the power of love. and the power of music. you can tell, through the sincerity of the stunning lensing of this celluloidal triumph, how close the director is to his subject. is it art imitating life, or life imitating art? this is a question we may never know the answer to. all I know is that life is short, but not as short as this film (unless you only live to be 13 minutes old, which at that point, you would never have enough time to learn how to read or surf the web to find this review). BRAVO!!!!

I saw this short before a main feature at The Coolidge Corner Movie House in Brookline, MA and was completely unprepared for what I saw. It's a surreal story involving a teenage boy coming to pick up his date and having to wait with her father while she finishes getting ready. This very surreal, yet good natured film is like the flip side to "Eraserhead"-an outward manifestation of the protagonist's inner anxiety. Only instead of bleak and dark, the situations are absurd and benign (the film is well lit in warm sunny tones, which add to the otherworldliness of the events). The parents of his date are more than a little bit strange, yet well intentioned and genuinely friendly towards the boy-and completely oblivious to the non sequiturs and general weirdness that abounds. No sense of malice, just a series of random events, surreal set pieces, and one very unsettled boy. I really enjoyed this short film and feel fortunate to have seen it on the big screen. If you get a chance to catch it, do so-it is as unique a film going experience as one is likely to see and a genuine pleasure.

Darling Darling is a thirteen minute roller coaster of life with a little insanity thrown into the mix. Michael Cera's popular acting style coincides wonderfully with the script written by Matthew Lessner. The film is an explosion of well pieced nuances of adolescent life! The film creates all the tension of a real life situation between a boyfriend (Michael Cera) and his date's father, combined with Director/producer Matthew Lessner's quirky sense of humor.

thanks for sharing this with the world. It leaves me to believe creativity still exists in a plastic world.

Best of luck to you Matthew Lessner. A job well done!

I look forward to seeing this film played at the NW film festival

I had the extreme pleasure of seeing Darling Darling for the second time at the 2005 Palm Springs Film Festival, and let me tell you, the absolute absurdity of Darling Darling had me nearly on the floor from laughing so hard. I haven't seen absurdity this funny since Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life", although that description won't prepare you for what happens in this film. It also contains one of the most original and hilarious guitar solos ever put to celluloid. Period. Michael Cera's straight performance had me sold the whole time, and Mr. Darling is priceless. I certainly hope to see more from Matthew in the future. A great and truly unique short all around!

i'm not exactly sure what to say about this film. it's stiflingly original, seething with subtle uproariousness, next descriptive adjective. one thing about this film i can say for sure, it jolted and altered me. it introduced me to a brand of comedy i had been all to unfamiliar with. mr. darling gave me hope in a girlfriends father, maybe someday father in law, that isn't a brutal judge of character, but rather an genuinely interesting subversion with the inner workings of a unbiased saint. this film has been an inspiration to me as a film viewer and as a human being. i expect many good things to come of young writer/director matthew lessner.