Movie Review: Donald Cried

Donald Cried *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Kristopher Avedisian.

Written by: Kristopher Avedisian and Kyle Espeleta and Jesse Wakeman. 

Starring: Jesse Wakeman (Peter), Kristopher Avedisian (Donald), Louisa Krause (Kristin).

 

If you’re going to make a film about an overgrown man child these days, I think you at least have to acknowledge how singularly sad that character really is. The man child has been at the center of American comedy for years now – it’s essentially every character Adam Sandler has ever played, and while Judd Apatow gave it so depth and insight, he also has a largely sympathetic attitude towards the archetype. The indie Donald Cried is at once a cringe inducing comedy, and a rather sad drama – with at least as much in common with something like Mike White and Miguel Arteta’s Chuck & Buck as it does with Napoleon Dynamite – which is how it may appear on the surface.

 

In the film, Peter (Jesse Wakeman) returns to his small Rhode Island hometown after the death of the grandmother who raised him. He’s approaching middle age now, and hasn’t been back to this place in 20 years, and wishes he didn’t have to come back at all. He’s only supposed to be there overnight – collect the ashes of his grandmother, put her house up for sale, etc. – and then go back to his life in Manhattan. The bad news is, he loses his wallet on the bus – and has no money to pay for anything. Out of options, he ends up going to his childhood friend Donald (writer/director Kristopher Avedisian) for help. The pair were stoner, metal head teens together – and while Peter has gotten his life together and moved on, Donald seems to want to be the same guy he was all those years ago. He immediately welcomes Peter back with open arms – and drives him around for the day. Peter cannot stand any of this, but has no choice.

 

The movie goes from one purposefully awkward scene to the next – with Donald seemingly unwilling or unable to take any social cues from anyone at any point. At first, your sympathy is completely with Peter – he seems like a normal guy, kind of dull, but a good audience surrogate – but Donald is a nightmare. Gradually though, we get a glimpse into what these two were like all those years ago in high school, and you’re in your mind, everything changes. The simmering tension between the two comes into sharper focus. It’s then you realize you’re not watching a film about an overgrown man child and his normal friend – but two, completely different, over grown man children.

 

The movie works best when it’s just the two of them onscreen – which, thankfully, is almost the entire runtime. Louisa Krause is very good as an old crush of Peter’s, now a real estate agent that he hires to sell his grandma’s house, but she cannot quite breathe life into her fairly stale plot (I would love to see her in something else though – she’s memorable). The film ends on a knowingly false, upbeat moment – the two old friends vowing to stay in touch. In this moment – the very sad last shot – you realize that Donald isn’t quite as inept at reading things as you think he is. He just doesn’t want to accept the truth.