Donald Cried (2017)

Load of rubbish!!

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

What this movie is really about is the joy of performing. Wakeman and Avedisian play off each other as beautifully as Peter Falk and Alan Arkin in The In-Laws, Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts in Pope of Greenwich Village and Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti in Sideways. Two polar opposites are forced together for 24 hours, Avedisian presses Wakeman's buttons and the suspense is when Wakeman is going to blow. Wakeman, much like Arkin, is a great slow burner. And Avedisian pulls off the trick of being one of the biggest losers in the history of film but still remain strangely sympathetic. It's amazing to see that they've done so little else because they seem like seasoned pros at acting for the camera. What's also amazing is that they were able to film in such large quantities of snow with no continuity issues. What in the world would they have done if the temps shot up to 50 degrees and all the snow melted? In any event, somehow the snow adds something. The movie has a real lived in feel and made me laugh out loud at least a dozen times. Maybe it's just me but movies set in cold weather always seem to turn out well. Would make a great double feature with the gentler, but no less idiosyncratic or entertaining, indie flick Cold Weather.

Donald Cried is an awkward and black comedy that reinterprets the formula for buddy films. It is a film that takes risks. And sometimes you'll be scratching your head and others you will be laughing at how clever and inventive the comedy and writing is. This movie really is the definition of indie films. Overall the film comes off a bit flimsy with not much leading anywhere as most of the characters receive only little development but it is worth a watch for the boldness of the director's vision.

'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

There is a palpable sense you get while watching the quirked-out indy dramedy "Donald Cried". It is the distinct impression that this maturation-blunted misfit stoner is based on a guy, or perhaps an amalgamation of them, that Writer, Director and Co-Star Kris Avedisian knows, or knew, pretty damn well.Avedisian's take on one of life's helplessly pitiful losers is plain and simple just so very sad, sad, sad...stultifyingly sad. Some of what his oblivious and completely without filter character of Donald says and does is laugh-out-loud funny, yes. But you almost feel guilty finding folly in these moments because we see how repressively dismal and desperate this downtrodden dude's existence is, replete with an horrifically repugnant stepfath...stepCREATURE. Physically, Donald left high school some two decades ago. Emotionally and mentally, he never will. He can't, and clearly does not WANT to, break free of the caste system that defined him, and everyone else, in those carefree and couldn't care less rambunctious days of his misanthropic metalhead youth.Donald's teenage running buddy, Pete (Co-Writer Jesse Wakeman, who I just gotta say here bares a striking resemblance to a grown-up Jerry "Leave It to Beaver" Mathers), is a different animal entirely. After Pete graduated from prep school, he BOLTED out of Warwick, Rhode Island for fun and fortune as a financier in New York City with absolutely no notion of returning. Except, that is, to tend to his recently deceased grandmother's affairs. Which is what reluctantly reunites him with Donald. And, man, is there some SERIOUS latent hostility festering beneath the skin of these two, played out in not all that passive/angrily aggressive fashion during, among other interactions, a pulverizing playground football game and a furious, aim directly for the head, snowball fight. Pete is not a likable fellow. And his deplorable treatment of Donald can't instill anything in you but, once again, circling back to my fundamental premise, saturating sorrow.This is not to say that I inherently disliked "Donald Cried" at all. Avedisian and Wakeman, who have collaborated before on other small-scale projects, are by and large an engaging tandem, and they succeed in generating a real, if not real ODDBALL, chemistry as the movie progresses. And I especially appreciate the fact that this production was shot on location in the actual town of Warwick, often times amidst steady wind-whipped snowfall, which serves to accentuate the uncompromisingly bleak tone of the narrative.Considering all that we are introduced to over the course of 24 hours in this story, it hardly comes as a shock to anyone that "Donald Cried". The genuine stunner would be this: the revelation that this man doesn't weep openly and without a wisp of restraint every single day he must awaken to suffer a punishing onslaught of remorseless spirit annihilation. No different than the day preceding. And precisely as will be his fate for all the days forthcoming.Yeah, I gotcher "comic relief" right HERE, pal.