Donald Cried (2017)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Just perfect...

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

Just watched Donald Cried on Netflix and really enjoyed it! Really down to earth characters. I think we all knew a Donald type character in high school and now as a 40 something; can also relate to some of the disappointments life sometimes brings. I would definitely look forward to seeing a sequel or even a prequel featuring these characters or any other offerings these talented filmmakers bring to the screen. Great job guys!Marc

"Donald" (2016 release; 85 min.) brings the story of two guys who were best friends in high school. As the movie opens, we get to know Peter, who is returning to his home town in Rhode Island after 20 years away to deal with the passing of his grandmother. As it happens, Peter realizes he forgot or lost his wallet on the bus ride up from Manhattan, and in a pinch, decides to look up his high school buddy Donald to hopefully get some help. Donald is absolutely delighted to see Peter again after all these years. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.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).

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.