Donald Cried's reviews
Media reviews
New York Times
A movie of intensely compressed emotions that barely misses a note, 'Donald Cried' puts you excruciatingly in the moment. You long to flee, but it's so good that you can't avert your gaze.
Variety
Avedisian?s handheld camerawork is unobtrusive and workmanlike, and a few images (such as a shot from a minivan?s backseat that accentuates the chasm between Peter and Donald, who are almost completely nudged out of the frame) have an understated expressiveness.
Indiewire
The boundaries between cringe-inducing humor and serious danger define the strange alchemy of Donald's insuppressible attitude, which deepens as the movie goes on. Small details about the duo's past reveal psychological wounds that have yet to heal, and while these ingredients risk the clichés of a buddy comedy, Avedisian wisely avoids any big sentimental takeaways, allowing the unresolved tension between the men to speak for itself.
The A.V. Club
As a director, Avedisian's approach is mostly functional, though he occasionally uses framing to good comic effect; a big speech that Donald delivers in medium close-up becomes retroactively funnier when a cut to a wide shot belatedly reveals that he?s been standing there stark naked the entire time. There are also a few wonderfully cringeworthy moments, as when Donald, watching Peter throw a handful of his grandmother's ashes into the sea, asks "Can I do one?" (Hard to think of a more appalling way to phrase that request.)
The Washington Post
Avedisian?s approach is mostly functional, though he occasionally uses framing to good comic effect: a big speech that Donald delivers in medium close-up becomes retroactively funnier when a cut to a wide shot belatedly reveals that he?s been standing there stark naked the entire time.
The Hollywood Reporter
The film succeeds in its presumed goal of keeping the viewer off-balance trying to figure out the dynamics of the relationship, with Donald acting in alternately hyper-friendly, passive-aggressive and fully hostile fashion. But little of it rings true, from the contrived plotting (does the financially savvy Peter really have no other recourse to procure funds?) to Donald?s exaggerated man-child aspects, which less resemble arrested development than the sort of comic grotesqueries that have become an indie movie staple. This feature was adapted from a previous short film, and it's not difficult to see how the character would have been easier to take in a much smaller dose.
Roger Ebert
Ultimately, 'Donald Cried' remains character-based on these tough-sell fictional beings, observing how things have and have not changed for them. Allusions are made in select dialogue about the past, regarding the stuff they did as metal-heads, and the dead parents in their histories.