{"id":169572,"date":"2021-02-03T11:31:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/first-date-struggles-to-make-the-case-for-a-second-chance\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T11:31:32","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:31:32","slug":"first-date-struggles-to-make-the-case-for-a-second-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/first-date-struggles-to-make-the-case-for-a-second-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"#&#8217;First Date&#8217; Struggles to Make the Case for a Second Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#&#8217;First Date&#8217; Struggles to Make the Case for a Second Chance<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8-->First dates can be awkward, and that\u2019s even when they don\u2019t involve dirty cops, a car filled with cocaine, and trigger-h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>y thugs wanting to cash in on the profitable powder. These are the ingredients that make up the first date at the center of <strong><em>First Date<\/em><\/strong>, but it\u2019s to the film\u2019s detriment as they\u2019re ultimately the least interesting elements here.<\/p>\n<p>Mike (<strong>Tyson Brown<\/strong>) is a quiet kid who\u2019s been crushing on his neighbor Kelsey (<strong>Shelby Duclos<\/strong>) for years. He\u2019s done nothing about it, though, but after some incessant nagging from his best friend Mike makes a move \u2014 and she says yes. With just a couple hours before he\u2019s due to pick her up he heads out to buy a used car from a shady dude, and his troubles start im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely. The car was previously stolen, it\u2019s filled with someone else\u2019s drugs, and in addition to a pair of abusive cops giving him grief Mike now has all manner of bad guys on his tail. Can he salvage the night, avoid being shot along the way, and still squeeze in a date with Kelsey? Maybe.<\/p>\n<p><em>First Date<\/em> is the feature debut from writers\/directors <strong>Manuel Crosby<\/strong> and <strong>Darren Knapp<\/strong>, and while it shows promise on the directing front it needed more work on the writing. Mike\u2019s journey is captured with energy to spare, but from his borderline frustrating character to the motley ensemble behind the incoming shenanigans, the film\u2019s script feels underbaked and too reliant on aping similar fare.<\/p>\n<p>Mike\u2019s arc from sheltered mouse to stand-up guy is a familiar one for a reason as underdogs are appealing characters, but viewers may struggle to get behind this particular example. He\u2019s entirely too passive for far too long, both in action and personality, and it forces the film to find more engaging charisma elsewhere. By the time he does come alive it\u2019s less than convincing as it feels determined more by third act necessity than actual character growth. Brown comes alive at times, but the character holds him back throughout and gives him little room to break free of that restraint.<\/p>\n<p>The assorted band of sordid villains in <em>First Date<\/em> feel even more onenote and at times cartoonish, and while the numerous performances are fine none of them manage to feel like authentic characters. Instead, they\u2019re \u201ccharacters\u201d dropped in as roadblocks with faces and quirky personalities straight out of the Coen Brothers\/Tarantino playbooks. Their threat level drops to nil as they banter and bicker about their book club \u2014 not a euphemism, an actual book club \u2014 and the result are antagonists who feel like they\u2019re speaking first draft dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a shame as the time spent with Mike and Kelsey finds strength in the pairing of his nervousness and her confidence, and the constant interference of wacky plot antics just serves to muffle those highlights. The hopeful couple seems the most real apart from all of the nonsense, but Crosby and Knapp feel uncomfortable without all of the genre dressing working to hold viewer attention. They have the chops and interest in developing characters, but they never let themselves indulge.<\/p>\n<p>Curiously, the closest they come is with a throwaway character named Chet (<strong>Brandon Kraus<\/strong>). He\u2019s a handsome, popular jock who Mike sees as his nemesis early on in his affection for Kelsey, but when she relents and gives him the time of day \u2014 due to Mike\u2019s inability to arrive on time or even call the poor girl \u2014 he\u2019s revealed to be a bit more than the cliche he appeared to be. It\u2019s an odd touch as it adds nothing to <em>First Date<\/em>\u2018s key relationship or narrative, but it\u2019s a shame the film doesn\u2019t indulge itself with similar beats elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>This all reads like negative criticism, but in actuality it\u2019s more a lack of positive thoughts. Splitting hairs, perhaps, but as it stands <em>First Date<\/em> offers a generic riff on the familiar. It\u2019s not bad, and while it\u2019s a tad too long for the content it\u2019s never dull either. It instead just feels underbaked and in need of another rewrite or three. As it stands, though, if it were an actual first date it\u2019s difficult to imagine either party returning for more.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow all of our Sundance 2021 coverage<\/em>!\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/first-date-review\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=first-date-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#&#8217;First Date&#8217; Struggles to Make the Case for a Second Chance&#8221; First dates can be awkward, and that\u2019s even when they don\u2019t involve dirty cops, a car filled with cocaine, and trigger-happy thugs wanting to cash in on the profitable powder. These are the ingredients that make up the first date at the center of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/first-date.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[91711,29332],"class_list":["post-169572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-first-date","tag-sundance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}