With sudden passing of his grandmother, Peter Latang returns to his hometown and encounters his long lost, childhood friend, Donald Treebeck. What begins as a simple favor, turns into a long... Read allWith sudden passing of his grandmother, Peter Latang returns to his hometown and encounters his long lost, childhood friend, Donald Treebeck. What begins as a simple favor, turns into a long day's journey into the past.With sudden passing of his grandmother, Peter Latang returns to his hometown and encounters his long lost, childhood friend, Donald Treebeck. What begins as a simple favor, turns into a long day's journey into the past.
- Awards
- 10 wins & 9 nominations total
- Taxi Driver
- (as William Billington Sr)
- Shaun
- (as Matthew Anthony)
Featured reviews
Shot almost entirely hand-held, in a documentary style; the colours and image quality for the video are surprisingly lush given the budget constraints. The framing of the local amenities and spots set in deep snow are also alluring. It may sound facetious, yet as a Brit, I found locations and atmosphere of Warwick, R.I, fascinating, even exotic. The film is reminiscent of other indie classics such as Buffalo '66 and Garden State, in that in makes the everyday and mundane seem architectural and beautiful. The excellent use of non- actors (friends and family) on screen, brings Cassavetes to mind again.
Admittedly, at times, some of the camera work is shoddy and a bit amateur; yet it doesn't distract from the narrative which is engrossing throughout. What's most astounding about the film, is the 'almost too real' dynamics between the central characters. In 85-mins, we, as the viewer endure many all the tensions and emotions you'd experience between old friends. Its clear that Avedisian and Wakeman have known each other for a long time, and they brilliantly capitialise on their relationship in the film.
'If the audience knew what they wanted then they wouldn't be the audience, they would be the artist.'
There is space for the art in-amongst the endless Star Wars and Transformers reboots and sequels; alongside conscientious and personal films like these. It's our job as an audience to remind film cinema chains, film producers and studios executives of this; then we should leave the artists to do theirs.
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.
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.
Couple of comments: this movie is nothing short of a labor of love for Kris Avedisian, as he writes, directs, stars (as Donald) and produces (on a shoe-string budget, and funded in part through Kickstarter). The 2016 feature-length is based on the 2012 short film of the same name, and also starring Avedisian and Jesse Wakeman (as Peter). The subject matter is on the one hand the uncomfortable feeling Peter has returning to the place where he couldn't wait to escape from 20 years ago after high school, and on the other hand the unresolved emotion toll the high school years have taken on Donald (for whom time seemingly has stood still the last 20 years). I must tell you, I was quite uncomfortable myself watching the first half of the movie and almost decided to cut bait, but then an interesting thing happened: I became emotionally invested in these flawed characters, and I needed to find out how all of this would be resolved. The movie reminds in some ways of last year's outstanding "Krisha", from actor-writer-director-producer Trey Edward Shults. Plus anyone that has the guts to place a song from the so-uncool-they're-cool-again-NOT! Milli Vanilli ("Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" plays over the movie's end credits) gets extra brownie point in my book!
"Donald Cried" showed up this past weekend out of the blue and without any pre-release ads or hype at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Tuesday evening screening where I saw this at was surprisingly well attended, given to low-to-no profile this movie has gotten. I didn't know much of the film and took a flyer on it. Glad I did. This movie is definitely "off center" and probably not for everyone, but as already mentioned I ultimately found myself invested in it. If you've seen "Krisha" and liked that, I'd readily recommend you seek this out as well, be it in the theater, or eventually on VOD (no idea if this will ever make it to DVD/Blu-ray).
Did you know
- TriviaActors Ted Arcidi (Corey) and Patrick Languzzi (Barry) had a friendship that dated back to 1986 where they trained at the same gym in Waltham, Mass. Arcidi was training for, and later set the world record for the bench press (reflected in the bowling alley office scene) making him the strongest man in the world. Languzzi was a young bodybuilder climbing the amateur ranks where he won two national amateur titles and earned professional status before going on to finish top three at the professional Mr. Universe and top five at the America.
- Quotes
Donald: Do you do social media at all?
Peter: Not really.
Donald: No? Because I found a guy, uh, Pete Latang, from Wyoming.
Peter: Okay.
Donald: And I thought it was you, so I was following for a while, and he had like a family and stuff. You know, I kept private messaging him, and eventually he told me to, you know, fuck off, 'cause it wasn't who... you know, I wasn't who he thought it was. But I thought maybe it was still you, and you just didn't wanna talk to me.
- ConnectionsReferences Volte/face (1997)
- SoundtracksJourney to Mars
Written and performed by Jan Terri
- How long is Donald Cried?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Дональд плакал
- Filming locations
- Warwick, Rhode Island, USA(Meadowbrook Lanes)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $61,406
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,977
- Mar 5, 2017
- Gross worldwide
- $61,406
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color