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    		•

    FILMS

    Donnie Darko (2001)
  • Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Daveigh Chase, Mary McDonnell, James Duval, Arthur Taxier, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore

  • Directed by Richard Kelly

    • You probably never heard about the best movie of 2001. It didn't show up at the Academy to receive any awards. It didn't have commercials every eight-and-a-half minutes during Thursday night's "Must-See TV." In fact, it didn't even show in most regular movie theaters. Perhaps it was too strange for a large audience to get. Perhaps they just didn't have the money for marketing. Or, perhaps, no amount of advertising would ever do it justice.

    Regardless, I'm glad I had never heard of it. We reviewed it over at Science Fiction Weekly and I didn't think much of it. A friend of mine told me that he'd seen it, and still, I didn't think much of it. And then a few months passed, it came out on DVD, and I decided to pick it up. I was an English Major. I would've minored in film if I could've. I'm allowed to watch small, art-house films. This could be cool.

    I had no idea exactly how cool it'd be.

    (Fair spoiler warning: Do yourself a favor and go rent this movie before reading any more of this review. You'll thank me for stopping you. Oh, don't worry. It's OK, we'll wait for you. Go rent it .... right, finished then? Great! Now, on with the review.)

    Donnie Darko is the story of a teenage boy. He has some mental problems. He sleepwalks. He doesn't get along with his family much. He see large, scary rabbits that tell him the world will end in 28 days. He goes to therapy. He rips on his teachers at school. He does things that, in the right light, are probably bad.

    I couldn't have loved this movie more than if, while watching it, my DVD player just started spitting $100 bills at me. This film is a tight, complexly woven, moebius-strip. The plot is good and original. The characters are real and engaging. The acting is seamless.

    It may seem like I'm frothing at the mouth like a rabid fanboy, and perhaps I am, but none of what I said above isn't true. I haven't seen a movie like this before. Ever. I haven't felt this way after seeing a movie since I saw Memento. I'm not saying that everything else is crap, and Donnie Darko is the only film that should exist. Of course not.

    What I am saying is that when I went and saw Blade II I had a pretty good idea of what I was paying for. Any Star Wars film will be familiar. Most movies that come out every year have that same degree of familiarity to them. That's fine. I enjoy most movies I see. Familiarity is good. Even when familiar films are bad, it's fun to rip them apart. (Hate can be fun, so long as no one gets hurt.)

    I suppose what I'm getting at is this: It's refreshing to have the carpet pulled out from under you. I welcome any movie that does this to me. I revel in it. I watch and rewatch movies like this. I buy them so that I can own them. I crumble them up over my ice cream and eat them for dessert. Chomp!

    A friend of mine who reads these reviews recently called me out on something. He says that I tend to complain that movies are predictable. Maybe that's a fault in my viewing habits. Maybe I should just turn off my brain and let the story unfold. Sure. I can do that sometimes. Other times, I can't. Or, maybe it's just a fault with my critical writing skills. If I can't find something bad to say about a flick, hell, "it's predictable." I was unaware of these habits and will try to break myself of them. Mea culpa. Forgive me.

    Having said that: This movie is unpredictable!

    Slurp, chomp, gobble!

    Donnie Darko sounds like a superhero's name—and I'm not completely convinced Donnie isn't a superhero. Donnie does, after all, go back in time to sacrificed himself to save his girlfriend's life. What else do you have to do get labeled hero? Well, I guess someone has to be aware of your deeds. And in that, I guess poor Donnie is screwed. The only thing anyone knows is that an airplane engine fell from the sky and killed Donnie.

    My favorite moments in Donnie Darko are the few instances when Donnie attempts to make teachers and adults make sense. When he calls their bluff and uses logic he completely disarms them. Whether it's the scene where he's asked to put an "X" near "fear" or "love," or when he steps up to the mic to toss a few inquires in Patrick Swayze's direction—these scenes will be meaningful to anyone who ever felt their high-school teachers were burned out morons who could do nothing more than grab hold of the latest teaching fad and hope to high heaven that their students wouldn't question their authority.

    Kudos to the writers for giving the abused high-schooler in all of us a bit of cathartic revenge.