Donkeyhead (2022)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) Despite some light-duty family drama, there is something very likable and very approachable in Donkeyhead. Much of the story revolves around a young Canadian woman of Indian ethnicity who has given up a writing career to take care of her father. As the film starts, the rapidly deteriorating health of the older man brings home her three vastly more successful siblings, all intent on telling her what to do. While this doesn’t sound like a particularly entertaining premise, the fun starts with the characters and how they bounce off each other:  Agam Darshi (who also wrote and directed) is nothing short of adorable as the family black sheep trying to contend with accomplished siblings, but also her comfortable life-away-from-life that’s about to be upended. The family dynamics mix with the specificities of a South Asian family having assimilated to life in wintry Canada, and the result is surprisingly compelling. Everyone has a secret, and seeing some of those plays in real-time can be a lot of fun—such as when a lawyer deals carefully with the family in the hope his affair with the protagonist isn’t revealed. Donkeyhead’s earnestness manages to compensate for much of its familiar nature—troubled female characters being pushed out of the nest isn’t exactly a new thing, but seeing it done Canadian-style with non-Caucasian characters is rather fun, and Darshi manages to make it all feel far more likable than many similar films. I suspect we’re going to see much stronger material from her soon, but as a calling call, Donkeyhead is exactly what it wants to be.