Video Capsule: __Donnie Darko__ 9/10

[Bud_Fox]

Donnie Darko (2001)

cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze and Noah Wyle

Dark________Darkest_________Darko

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0246578/DD05.jpg


Beautifully grim, and Brilliant! are the first words that come to mind after seeing Donnie Darko for the first time. Astonishing, and Clever are the first words that come to mind after watching Donnie Darko the second time.

*minor spoilers* What do you get, when your stuck inside the mind-inside the dreams-of Stephen King right as he falls alsleep whilst reading Alice in WonderLand?

Answer:....Donnie Darko

When in the middle of the night a jet engine falls from the sky, crashing into the bedroom of Donald Darko, Donnie has only a six foot rabbit named Frank to thank for saving his life. Frank then kindly informs Donnie that the world will end in twenty-eight days. Over the course of the next month-with armegeddon inevitable- Donnie follows the bunny (a'la Alice style) through a wormhole into a tangent universe where he sleepwalks and reeks havoc on the schools water mane; falls in love; has many more creepy encounters with Frank the bunny; theorizes the true nature and existence of Smurfette; exposes a kiddie porn publishing ring; and uncovers the principles of Time Travel.

Without getting bogged down in details of the synopsis, Donnie Darko simply put is: pure feat in filmaking. Never before has a film noir been able to capture and convey such raw beauty. Never before has such a dark and grim premise been so cleverly told:
through painingly-pretty blue skies, descriptive and creative random blurbs of literature, genuine and concise dialogue, and an ending that brings us back to the beginning, which we quickly learn is the beginning...of the end.

http://ruinedeye.com/cd/cap87.jpg


One of the highlights for me was the use of music, including an awesome and refreshing alternative to the cliche' part of a movie where we meet all the characters, and a group of characters meet for the first time- exchanging dry, predictable, formal dialogue. Instead the creators chose to pan from afar, mute-out all sound, and play-from very beginning to end- the appropriately symbolic song, "Everybody wants to Rule the World." Throughout Donnie Darko the device of music is carefully and purposely implented to create a genuine feel of the late eighties era. The soundtrack is so deftly used, it sort-of becomes its own living character.

It is a rare feat when a movie remains even from opening scene to the closing credits. Donnie Darko accomplishes this rarely reached goal though consistently superb cinematography, descriptive prose delivered by colourful characters, dashes of humour, splashes of romance and a huge cerebral heaping of the Philosophy of Time Travel- coupled with the fear of knowing "that every living being on this planet...dies alone."


Fear------------------Love


Cellar Door


Donnie Darko 9.99/10

[The Professional]

yessss! donnie darko is amazing. it looked like some retarded teen movie until i rented it and it was amazingly insane. i bought the dvd the next day. 9/10

[Ashail]

I had no idea what to expect when I got this, but it is now one of my favorite movies. Very well done.

[PackBacker]

Great review Bud_Fox. I saw the film two days ago and am still working my way through it all in my head. Beautifully grim is dead on. I'm not up to brilliant yet but may be with my second viewing.

I think this is a film you can appreciate on a couple different levels. The narrative in and of itself is intriguing and deep enough to stand alone. The more symbolic nature of the film can be appreciated on a deeper level (David Lynch should take notes).

Gyllenhaal struck me as a psychotic Tobey Maguire. He had that goof-ball good guy look but he could appear as dark and sinister as Hannibal Lecter at times. Terrific performance. I think what stood out most for me, however, was that fucking rabbit! Disturbing, malevolent, and oddly beautiful all at the same time.

While the resolution still has me wondering in a couple places, I appreciate the fact that it isn't all laid out for us. It leaves it open to interpretation while beautifully cinching shut the story. Good for that post-film discussion at the bar.

This one is truly worth checking out.

[Bud_Fox]

^bump^

Saw Donnie Darko again last night, and every time I see this film it gets better and better, and better. Very few movies are able to display so many angles, tackle so many topics and not allow itself to fall within a single genre--I mean Donnie Darko is it's own creative and original genre. How many movies are a coming of age, dark comedy, suspense/sci-fi/psycological thriller, analyzing-epitomizing the cultural end of the era which was the 80's, while questioning if God exists in a universe where time travel is possible and the only way you know that is because a monstrous six-foot rabbit saved your life.

After watching movie, after movie, after movie I can't think of a film, in the last two years that can equal Donnie Darko in creativity or originality.

I hereby officially change my rating:

Donnie_Darko_10/10


p.s. kudos to Drew Barrymorw for taking a risk, on a worthwile film. This film is also proof that amazing movings, with amazing actors and visual-effects don't always need amazingly big budgets-- Donnie Darko budget: 4.5 million.



[This message has been edited by Bud_Fox (edited 09-11-2002).]

[notchreturns]

Donnie Darko

I enjoyed it, 8/10, but I didn't think it was a great film...

Gyllenhaal was pretty darn good in the lead role. He carried the film for me and that isn't a easy thing for a young actor to accomplish. The rest of the cast, excluding Drew Barrymore who had no place in the film, were solid, but nothing to call nome about. Kelly is without a doubt a really talented dude. He creates great tension and his style was re-freashing. Gotta love the whip-pans and steadicam shots! The music rocked, so did the bunny. It was an interesting story, but it didn't real do much for me and, in the end, I didn't really feel much. Was that the point? LOL...

Anywho, a rock solid film. Gyllenhaal was very good in the lead, Barrymore shouldn't have been in the film, the music rocked, Kelly is a very talented young director, but I wasn't entirely blown away by the story in the end.

8/10

[couchpotato head]

10/10, ****, A+ (A+? lol)
Donnie Darko is simply amazing. That whole joke about telling the teacher to shove the lifeline up her anus was one of the funniest lines I've ever seen in a movie. It is my 5th favorate film. If you're expecting a horror movie. You'll be seriously dissapointed. it's a lot more like a sci-fi film. I thought the characters were very likeable and Donnie Darko is probably one of the best characters to ever be in a movie. But if you see the special features, you'll see they left a whole plot thread (it's only two or three deleted scenes but still cool) about Donnie and Gretchen's whole relationship falling part. But the best deleted scene (I think) was a tie between the scene with Donnie's parents eating dinner together and the lengthened version of the Holiday Inn scene. So deffinatly buy it on DVD. Don't bother with VHS.
Oh, and have you guys and gals checked out the original version of Mad World (the song that was played near the end)? It's got a much faster and wierder rythem. Bet you can't imagine that.

[AppleHuntr]

Is it just me or is this movie irritating as hell? It is interesting but it doesnt know what to do with itself, and the ending just sucks. Its also too pretensious and the performances arent the greatest. Very overrated but it gets credit for ambitiousness.

A letdown. 5/10.

[Kim_EZ]

Okame!

[Bud_Fox]

<bump> He made me bump it. Frank told me to. He's my freind, and he saved my life, so I have to do what he says.

[El Bracamonti]

this is one of the best movies that i've seen this year. i wasn't bored for one second while watching it, and i think it's a true masterpiece.

[SAI]

This review is taken from my website.

Donnie Darko is a puzzling film, perhaps the most original of the year. The best way to describe it is probably to suggest that you imagine what it might be like if David Lynch (Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr.) made a teen movie. The film starts brilliantly, with a fantastic opening set to the first of many well chosen songs. After this sequence though it goes off the rails a little, the first scene with the Darko family is the biggest mis-step in the film as little of the dialogue sounds real ("You can go suck a fuck"). But soon Richard Kelly finds his feet with a stunning montage at Donnie's school introducing most of the main characters it's beautifully shot and all the more admirable given that this is Kelly's first feature. At this moment Kelly had sucked me in to the world of the movie and he held my attention from here until the credits rolled.

I'm not going to talk much about the plot of the film. It is very important that you go into this film cold, the twists and turns that it holds are best left for an audience to discover alone. There is, however, a lot that can be said about the performances. Jake Gyllenhaal is wonderful as Donnie, his performance veers from creepy to funny, sometimes within a single scene, but is never less than convincing. His performance could, if the academy even remember the film (it came out in the US very early this year) attract an Oscar nomination, it certainly deserves one, if only for the moment he berates a teacher over a ridiculous exercise involving the fear/love lifeline. Gyllenhaal is one of the most interesting young actors I've seen in a long time, he was equally good in the rather average Lovely And Amazing and has been attracting good reviews for The Good Girl.

I had only seen Jena Malone as the young Jodie Foster in Contact so I really didn't know what to expect from her here. It was a pleasant surprise, she doesn't have a big showy part like Gyllenhall, or Patrick Swayze. Her role seems to be to anchor the film in reality, she's the most straightforward person in the film and Malone gives a charming performance that thoroughly endears us to Gretchen, giving the events of the last two reels real power.

The other dark horse that could emerge from this film to enter the oscar race is Patrick Swayze (for the other 99 sentences you never thought you'd type buy my forthcoming book). His performance as Jim Cunningham is nothing short of a revelation, providing much comedy and, just as you suspect he is merely comic relief, an extra, unexpected darkness. It goes without saying that this is his best work in years and it could well revitalise his career.

Casting Jake Gyllenhaal's real older sister Maggie as Donnie's sister was a stroke of genius, it gives their scenes (besides that awkward opening) a real believability. It's obvious from this performance (small though the role is) that Maggie Gyllenhaal is a talented actress and a name to watch in the future (she too has got good reviews for a film yet to be released here called Secretary).

But the casting isn't entirely perfect, executive producer Drew Barrymore pops up as Donnie's English teacher and delivers another performance in the montonic, emotionless style which is more or less her trademark these days. The script does offer her a decent role and I think, as a producer she'd have been wiser to find a more gifted dramatic actress than herself for the role.

Richard Kelly. Remember that name, this is the best debut film by any director since 1999, which brought both Tim Roth's The War Zone and Sam Mendes' American Beauty. What makes it doubly amazing is that Kelly is just 26 years old. The script is funny, creepy and massively original, it's not often that I walk out of a film saying that I've never seen anything like that before, but in this case it's true. Of all the great moments in the script perhaps the best is Miss Farmers reporting of what Donnie says to her in response to the fear/love lifeline exercise: "He told me to forcibly insert the fear-love lifeline into my anus." The direction, too, is stunning, particularly given that Kelly had just 4 million dollars to spend yet even on this budget he manages to make a film that looks better than many a 100 million film and buy some excellent special effects.

Despite a few small flaws Donnie Darko draws you in with its originality and its truly involving story. All the best films of 2002 finally appear to be arrving in the last months of the year. See Donnie Darko, even if you don't like it you'll never have seen anything else quite like it.

4/5 (No 5 on my top 5 of 2002)

[MickeyKnox]

(10/10) this is one hell of an amazing film i'm surprised this movie didnt get any major awards cause it deserved them!

[Bud_Fox]

bumpedy bump bump. brock made me do it;) ;) ;) ;)