I don't like to read anything about short films before I watch them; normally I'll maybe know the genre and that they come recommended so are probably not awful, but generally I want to come in with my own mind and not predetermined opinions. The same applies when it comes to writing down my thoughts – it is more interesting for me to draw m own conclusions and then see what others thought, rather than drawing on the opinions of others (intentionally or otherwise). However with LaDonna, I was at a loss for what it was trying to do – so much so that I assumed that I must be totally missing something. The title comes from the female character name (and actresses' real name), and it seems very focused on the couple, so maybe there was something there.
Reading up I learnt the couple are a real couple, and reasonably newly together, and that the point of the film was to show how older people can also have the same potential for love and joy as younger people, just that we don't see them in films so much. All of this is worthy and interesting, but even knowing that, I really think the film failed to put any of what it wanted to do on the screen in a way that works. We start the film with a sentence about the woman feeling old, then they enter what appears to be some sort of drug den, hanging out and enjoying themselves together, oblivious to the idea that a place such as this (that has a gun lying around in it) may be a dangerous place to be. Of course, as they relax more, eventually the danger comes.
I have read some say how great it is to see older people being free and relaxed in a film, and have said it like it is a badge of honor for the film – personally I think doing this, but in the frame of a good short film would have been better. As it is we really see little of the couple apart from them drifting through this space together in an ill-advised fashion; we have no real reason to be happy for them, to be worried for them, or to feel anything apart from apathy – which to be harsh, is true of the film itself. I also found it visually quite an ugly film. I speak from a position of zero knowledge (like that need to be said) but the film looked crudely filmed, grainy, and with uneven colors between scenes.
I had to read about the film to understand what the makers were trying to do, and I felt like none of it had come across to the point that I watched it again, armed with the knowledge of what I should be getting – even then I got nothing. Good to have the aims, but this film really fails to bring it to the screen, instead making a drifting piece with no core, an obvious ending, and a lack of polish in the technical delivery.
Reading up I learnt the couple are a real couple, and reasonably newly together, and that the point of the film was to show how older people can also have the same potential for love and joy as younger people, just that we don't see them in films so much. All of this is worthy and interesting, but even knowing that, I really think the film failed to put any of what it wanted to do on the screen in a way that works. We start the film with a sentence about the woman feeling old, then they enter what appears to be some sort of drug den, hanging out and enjoying themselves together, oblivious to the idea that a place such as this (that has a gun lying around in it) may be a dangerous place to be. Of course, as they relax more, eventually the danger comes.
I have read some say how great it is to see older people being free and relaxed in a film, and have said it like it is a badge of honor for the film – personally I think doing this, but in the frame of a good short film would have been better. As it is we really see little of the couple apart from them drifting through this space together in an ill-advised fashion; we have no real reason to be happy for them, to be worried for them, or to feel anything apart from apathy – which to be harsh, is true of the film itself. I also found it visually quite an ugly film. I speak from a position of zero knowledge (like that need to be said) but the film looked crudely filmed, grainy, and with uneven colors between scenes.
I had to read about the film to understand what the makers were trying to do, and I felt like none of it had come across to the point that I watched it again, armed with the knowledge of what I should be getting – even then I got nothing. Good to have the aims, but this film really fails to bring it to the screen, instead making a drifting piece with no core, an obvious ending, and a lack of polish in the technical delivery.