Like Father, Like Son (Short Film)

Smith’s Verdict: ***

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

It’s a little difficult to classify Donavon Thompson’s 4-minute short, “Like Father, Like Son.” Is it a comedy, a drama, an action film, a thriller, or all of the above? I’m not sure, but I think any film that uses finger-guns as effective weapons is doing something original.

Made as a UCA film-class project before Thompson’s undergraduate thesis film, ‘Twas the Night of the Krampus, “Like Father, Like Son” starts out as a crime thriller, with a cop (played by Thompson) angrily interrogating a suspect of his wife’s kidnapping. He and his partner (Matt Mitchell, the elf from “Krampus”) track down the other kidnappers and prepare to take them down by…extending their thumbs & forefingers and using them as guns; a cute joke.

This is a project I could tell Thompson had a fun time making, and it shows here that he’s a guy who truly loves movies. He pays homage to trademark Tarantino shots and “Lethal Weapon” (which he stated in an interview is his favorite film), among others, and it’s interesting, especially after seeing “Krampus,” to see the ambition that Thompson had as a student filmmaker about a year before putting his skills and movie-buff knowledge to somewhat greater use. I liked “Like Father, Like Son”; it’s fun, it’s quick, and the ending, though almost a little too sweet for the material, is nevertheless effective.