Donald Cried

I don't think I've ever watched a movie that resonated as much as this one.

I have a Donald in my life. One of my best friends in high school. Now 10 years out he still lives with his mom, works a dead end job, smokes weed, and hangs out with the same dead beat friends. Snags a girl, only to have it all fall apart.

I'll come into town once every few years and we catch up. It's just like Donald Cried. Drive around, see old faces that have not gone anywhere, have a few fun moments like the old days. Then by the end of it all, reality returns and I go back to my life and he stay right where he is in his.

This movie made me laugh,

It made me smile,

And it broke my heart.

Most movies sell "magic". The happy ending. The guy we like bettering himself and his life. The loser/underdog coming out on top. Not this one. No, this movie is as close to reality as it gets. And it hurts. I still feel like there's an arrow in my heart.

This movie will never be popular. Reality sucks. And people don't go to the movies for "reality", they want magic. Reality is a hard sell. Never the less, I'm glad I saw Donald Cried and I recommend it.

I don't think I'll ever forget this movie.

Poor Peter. Years after successfully escaping his small-town for the big city, the dapper financier is forced to return to collect his grandmother's ashes. This leads to a very uncomfortable reunion. Peter has obviously moved on, literally and figuratively, but not his old neighbor pal Donald. Nope. Donald is still the same old high school hoser, super keen to rekindle the good old days.

It's a classic premise, that works well on a cringe, comedic level, as Peter, the desperate, reluctant hostage tries valiantly to escape the eager clutches of the oblivious Donald, who seems to be dealing with some disturbing baggage.

"Donald Cries" twists that old formula just enough to explore several deeper issues, and the film grows fuller as the characters reveal themselves.

Writer, director, star Kris Avedisian is quite the talent, and his take on the wide-eyed, gung ho man-child Donald is a character for the ages.

'DONALD CRIED': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

An indie comedy, that I first heard about on Instagram (when they kept liking all of my pictures), directed by debut feature filmmaker Kristopher Avedisian. Avedisian also stars in the movie, as the title role, and he co-wrote the screenplay as well, with Kyle Espeleta and Jesse Wakeman (all debut feature screenwriters). The film costars Wakeman, Louisa Krause and Ted Arcidi. It tells the story of a man, named Peter, who returns to his small hometown when his grandmother dies, and runs into his old (very awkward) childhood friend Donald. The two spend the day together, when Donald agrees to do Peter a favor, and they recollect on many old memories together. The film premiered at the 2016 South by Southwest film festival, and it's now available for viewing on Netflix. I found it to be extremely awkward, and uncomfortable to watch, but it's also oddly true to life, and somewhat moving.

Peter Latang (Wakeman) returns to his hometown, after being gone for many years, when his grandmother passes away. He's eager to take care of the funeral arrangements for her, and then leave town as quickly as possible. Peter realizes that he doesn't have access to any cash though. So he visits his old long lost childhood friend Donald (Wakeman), and asks him for help. Donald has been obsessively waiting for Peter to return, since he left, and he'll do anything to spend more time with him. So Peter reluctantly gets dragged around by Donald, for the entire day, being forced to revisit old memories that he desperately wants to forget.

The movie is so awkward that it's painful to sit through at times. Donald is a very unique, quirky and sometimes very annoying character, but he's also an extremely sympathetic one too. We can tell that Peter used to be a pretty big jerk to Donald, at least at times, but Donald still cherished their friendship together (that Peter obviously didn't think very highly of). This is something I can really relate to, with some of my friends. In a lot of ways I can really relate to the Donald character in this movie, but I'd definitely say he's a far more exaggerated version of myself (at the very least). This is why I really liked this film. The two lead performances are fantastic, and they seem like genuine real people (as exaggerated as they might seem at times even). It's a really well made movie in that way, but it's perhaps just a little too dark, awkward and depressing at times too.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/SXjABrLbV7A

This is sheer brilliance. Every one of us knows a Donald, and Avedisian utterly nails this one. The banal and insistent mutterings, the swing between unrealistically content to sad, the brooding underlying hurt, and the absolute killer line "I just want you to respect me." That's what all Donalds want. To be liked and respected. I keep reading that it's low budget and it probably was but I'm not sure you can tell other than it's not a mainstream Hollywood film. The story is great, the screenplay fantastic, the acting from Avedisian is sheer brilliance, so good that at first I wanted to turn it off because he was so dam annoying! There wasn't a single badly acted part from anyone, there wasn't a line of dialogue out of place or unnecessary, there wasn't a scene that wasn't believable. I'll remember this for a long time and it's my first 9 star rating in a very, very long time.

I hadn't seen the trailer for this one or read much about it, so I didn't really know what to expect when I turned the movie on, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Despite the obviously low budget, the acting is extremely good. I might even say it's some of the best I've seen, which is very rare and something that's hardly ever seen in movies with such low budgets.

The story is about two high school friends who meet up again twenty years later. One has moved away and moved on with his life and the other is still a child. They reconnect after one of the friend returns home following the death of a relative, kind of like in Garden State. As a matter of fact, the guy who plays the Zach Braff character in this film even looks a lot like Braff. The guy who plays the Peter Sarsgaard character is much less cool than Sarsgaard but much more interesting. Like in Garden State, the two go on a day-long adventure around town together, but the similarities stop there.

After watching this movie, I read a couple other reviews online and was surprised to find out that many people disliked it. Someone said it felt like the filmmakers were trying to make a movie like one of Adam McKay's, but failed because it wasn't funny enough. I don't know how they came up with that comparison, but Adam McKay is known for his dumb comedies, and this is something much more than that. Although very funny (even hysterical) at times, it doesn't go after cheap laughs or laugh-out-loud ridiculousness. It goes for authenticity, and it definitely succeeds in that realm. No matter what anyone went into this film expecting, it becomes pretty obvious in the first five or ten minutes that it is not just another dumb comedy. Not by a long shot.

Another reviewer blamed the low-key nature of the film on the small budget. I don't think he knew what he was talking about. The only thing I can think of is that these viewers are of below average intelligence and just don't understand life. They certainly don't understand this film, and perhaps find it hard to believe that these types of characters can exist in the real world. But they can, and they do. I've met many of them. And I found myself identifying and sympathizing with both of the two main characters at different points throughout the film.

But I guess for some, they think these guys would be better off in a dumb comedy with little substance and big dumb jokes that really aren't that funny anyway. I guess if you fall into that category I would recommend you watch a different film such as Mr. Woodcock or Homegrown, both starring Billy Bob Thornton, rather than this one. You may find those more to your liking.

The characters, and particularly the title character Donald, who is played by the film's director, are very complex and well-written. Their odd behavior would feel over-the-top and ridiculous and fake, except that the filmmakers somehow found that perfect sweet spot where instead they feel totally real. They're not the kinds of characters you normally see in movies, but they're then kind of people who exist in real life, with all their strange quirks and awkwardness. They feel almost like characters out of a John Cassavetes film.

The story also feels very real. Everything about it feels real as we spend time with the characters and learn about their lives. There are a lot of questions that don't get answered, and often the characters say so much by not saying anything at all. The story is sentimental and has a moral to it, but it doesn't try to trick the viewer at any point (at least I don't think it does!), which I like. It tells its story and its message by showing us a couple of days in the life of real, ordinary people.

So often characters in films are two dimensional, and that's how we see a lot of people in real life, too. You never really know someone. They keep their secrets to themselves. But this film shows us the lives of two real, complex people, which can help teach us something about those around us and blah blah blah.

The story here unfolds naturally and realistically, but it's never predictable. It is in no way contrived and it feels totally raw and authentic. If ever there was a perfect example of filmmakers doing the best they could with what little they had to work with, this is it.

It's the type of story that many of us could easily see happening in our own lives, and which we'd forget about it in two days as we get caught up in the next thing, being only mildly significant but totally relevant. But here, captured on film, it somehow seems profound and completely unforgettable. Although, to be fair, I did just watch it today, so it's possible that I'll forget the whole thing in two days as well. But I have a feeling it will stick with me for at least a little longer than that.

So no big laughs, no big story, but that's what is good about it. It's a story about people. You don't love them and you sometimes hate them, but you feel for them. Oh yeah, I should also say that even the minor characters, like the boss at the bowling alley, were really well done and fun to watch.

Anyway, I enjoyed this movie very much for a lot of reasons and I very much look forward to seeing what these filmmakers come up with next. This was their first feature film and they knocked it out of the park so I bet they can come up with something even better next time! Hopefully they don't screw it up.