Donnie Darko?

I kinda loved it in high school too, and I still like it a lot, but the performances by the family and Jena Malone are what keep me attached to it. It's a rather perfect fantasy for high schoolers - petty villains in authority to fight, understanding adults, doomed romance, trippy philosophizing that actually changes/saves the world. It's a mess, and it doesn't add up, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

I feel like Kelly could probably write a fantastic straight family melodrama, if he got another cast this good. Southland Tales sounded pretty dire, though.

I'm going to go watch this again and get all "SHIIIIIT. I'll never be able to create something this moving." GOODNIGHT!

director's cut suckage reminds you that the v.o. is a pretty amazing debut -- and i say this with pretty robust and well-established views on goths.

kelly's own version of what happens is rubbish: basically a 'higher power' controls everyone in the movie so that donnie sacrifices himself and closes the hellmouth, which isn't very dramatic!

THE THEATRICAL CUT IS THE GREATEST FILM OF ALL-TIME

I refuse to watch Kelly's version.

alfred otm upthread

I identify with it because high school was fucking rotten, something "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Grease" did not successfully convey.

-- Abbott

lolol

Yea I too was a little disappointed in the director's cut, if not for other reasons then definitely because I was used to certain songs being used in certain contexts in the theatrical version. Didn't really like the different uses for Kelly's version.

alfred offtm -- more snooty bullshit as per.

the worst thing about the dircut are the pages from the time travel book superimposed over the action!!!!

yeah so tacky.

jake and maggie g. should play siblings in more movies.

MovieWeb has reported that Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal might have cameos of the twins in the live-action Justice League of America film.

that would be from here

They can work off this bit.

lol excellent.

Are you guys excited about Donnie Darko: The Play?

http://www.amrep.org/darko/

Reading this thread has made me happy that I've never seen the director's cut. My biggest problem with the movie was that there was too much of the scifi stuff, not too little.

btw, I just recently found out that "director's cut" is biz lingo for "rough draft," not "definitive version the director wants released."

with this one, he was given extra money for some effects shots, and reinserted some scenes deleted for time, and inserted these shots of pages from the book that had been on the website and dvd and 'explain' the sf aspects of the story. it's a bit like watching 'star wars' with pages from 'hero with a thousand faces' flashed up every few scenes.

but he says neither of them is definitive.

they're all terrible

says the guy who's favorite movie is Nacho Libre

OMG NO

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/darko09.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/darko02.jpg

Is that the English teacher or the therapist or what? The funniest bit in this flick is when he starts jerking it under hypnotherapy.

nacho libre is amazing. its time for a critical re-evaluation.

THOSE EGGS WERE A LIE STEVEN! THEY GIVE ME NO POWERS, THEY GIVE ME NO NUTRIENTS!

May the lord bless you with strength and nutrients

lol i love nacho libre

I think I'll stick with Lucha Libre

http://www.allesfilm.com/pics/Nacho%20Libre_Filmbild%20mit%20Hector%20Jimenez_n.jpg
I dont know why you always have to be judging me because I believe in science!

I'll stick with cuba libre

Richard Kelly's follow-up Southland Tales is finally coming out this month.

i have seen it. there is a thread. it's pretty fucked-up.

say more

I dont know why you always have to be judging me because I believe in science!

-- chaki, Friday, November 2, 2007 8:50 PM

classic line

I imagine this is Zach Braff's idea of a perfect movie. So edgy, so kooky and away from the mainstream!

I'm going to go watch this again and get all "SHIIIIIT. I'll never be able to create something this moving." GOODNIGHT!

-- Tape Store, Sunday, September 9, 2007 5:00 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Link

Beating us to the punch, I see.

I just watched this for the first time, but the DVD that I bought for $3.99 at the local used DVD emporium was damaged in some way, so it kept skipping and breaking up throughout the second half of the movie, so apparently I missed that after the party they went to Roberta Sparrow's house and the gfriend gets hit by a car and then DD goes back in time again. Oh, and there was no scene where DD sees Frank in the movie screen. But still, it seems that the version I saw was as good as the real version -- very oblique. "Mad World" was still in it.

I imagine this is Zach Braff's idea of a perfect movie. So edgy, so kooky and away from the mainstream!

-- DavidM, Saturday, 3 November 2007 10:00 (3 months ago) Bookmark Link

Nice zing!

What a shitty ass piece of crap movie. Where do I start with this? Ugh.

by admitting that you're WRONG

I havent watched this in fnyears.

one day you will wake up with a jet engine crashing into your room but in the brief millisecond before you die you will remember this movie and you will realize how poorly created, told, and developed the idiotic story was and you will whimper STEVE SHASTA WAS RITE

try comparing it to Eternal Sunshine and maybe it won't seem so bad

there's nothing idiotic about the story, it's v simple and v touching, and it's an impeccably crafted film, with the most incredible atmosphere ever--a mysterious, dark, ET-meets-Blue-Velvet vibe. maybe you accidentally watched the director's cut?

hmmm... maybe you accidentally spelled "crapped" with a "-ft-" ?

tbh i have no idea what i watched only that it was a DVD called Donnie Darko and it was the worst film I've seen since Synechedoche, NY which lemme guess you loved as well?

now that I'm older & thinking about this movie I am kind of smh @ the tenuous connections that drive the storyline (e.g. the cellar door thing??)

there are still a lot of things about this movie I like tho