First Love

First Love explores the relationship of two very broken siblings and while discovering the value of family amid frustration, jealousy, and betrayal.

Now, First Love does a great job of exploring the issues. Masarof gets right in there and lays out the problems by first painting each sibling as incredibly broken people, who’s solutions both come in destroying the other. The world he’s created is dark and cynical, and no one comes out of it unscathed, even the innocent and likable delivery guy Kalil.

First Love is also dialogue-heavy, and unlike a lot of indie drama, Masarof is fantastic at creating unique characters and finding insight within the interactions of his characters rather than rolling out wisdom like fortune cookies.

“…fantastic at creating unique characters and finding insight within the interactions…”

I suppose my only issue with First Love is how he ends his film. As I just stated, Masarof is adept at laying out the problems between this brother/sister duo. We understand the issues both face and the difficulty in resolving it.

Then he leaves it at that. I’m not saying that all sad stories should have a happy ending, but all stories should have an end that pays off the investment we’re making in your characters and in the time spent with them. There is a pay off in the ending for sure, but I’m not convinced I got enough value from it. There’s a reason the experts call it a character arc. Whether it’s a regular arc or an inverted one, it still arcs. First Love feels like a stead downhill slope that just ends. It’s a beautiful ending, but it doesn’t feel like enough to cover our eighty-five minute investment.