Donnie Darko?

the love story between donnie and the girl was very sweet, i thought, and sad. you wanted them to find some peace with each other in the midst of that hellish high school/community but the whole time you knew it was impossible because donnie was being tormented by "frank". just wrenching. i felt this movie was emotionally authentic even it was philosophically and logistically confused (which may have been intentional)

i liked how it seemed very heavy handed but was also basically incoherent.

a pretty good description of high school.

this is a very flawed movie that is better the more incoherent it is

this is also true of southland tales which i think of as a kind of horrible masterpiece

I admire ST but also find it completely unwatchable, the intro screed alone is just the worst

The Box on the other hand I kinda love, Richard Kelly getting to do another movie on the basis of the ironclad/unfuckwithable premise, then proceeding to Richard Kelly the fuck out of it.

It's a very teen movie in every way. It's also very sweet, with lots of touching relationships. What part of the plot makes sense or is pretentious isn't really important except for how it expresses some facets of teenage angst, rebellion.

It really hit the mark in creating memorable scenes in isolation. I remember so much of this movie, so many looks and lines.

I could perhaps see people being annoyed at the hype when it was originally released, hot new director and all. But now it's just a sweet artefact of its time for people who grew up with it and young people discovering it now.

watched this tonight for the first time since 2002 or so, having seen it once in the theater and then again when the DVD came out. it's still okay with some great parts but the mystique it had the first time around has dissipated for me. i don't know if this is an effect of not being 19, or the effects having dated, or just the difference between a movie where you know where it's all headed, and one where you don't. but if i wasn't one of those who was convinced the movie had deep profound meanings i remember finding the creepy Frank parts and the 'tubes' genuinely dread-inducing and unsettling and strange. that's all kinda gone now for me. the 80s throwback wiseass teen and busybody teacher stuff all still plays well though. supporting cast in this is a lot of fun.

i think it mostly holds up... saw it in a theater last year, first time in many years (tho i kinda half-watched it with someone in 2014), and the thing that stuck out to me was how memorable & funny the dialogue is. really quotable & memorable characters. sparkle motion, chut up, why are you wearing that stupid human suit, suck a fuck, "you're bitchin'... but you're not a bitch." totally makes up for the teenager philosophy & sci-fi, which has dated a bit but still found the film moving and unsettling in the same way i did whenever i saw it in the early 00s. also should say i've never seen the 2004 director's cut which supposedly explains way too much & ruins the film.

GRETCHEN: My mom had to get a restraining order against my stepdad. He has emotional problems.
DONNIE: Oh, I have those, too. What kind of emotional problems does your dad have?
GRETCHEN: He stabbed my mom four times in the chest.
DONNIE: Oh.

wow tonight i rewatched this for the first time in forever (since high school i think? and it was prob the director’s cut then, which actively undoes pretty much everything interesting about the movie)

obv i’m one of the biggest/only richard kelly partisans here but i still think this movie is really really good. surprised how much of it i remembered, surprised i forgot how...sad it is

but i also think southland tales (theatrical cut; the draft he submitted to cannes is just a chore to sit through) and the box are both much better films

oh man I didn't know the Cannes cut of ST was "out there"

yeah! i watched it years ago but iirc there are torrents floating around. not worth seeking out imo

unless you want to spend three hours identifying with the crowd that booed it

got shown this the other day for the first time. very enjoyable!

the satirical elements hold up well

The smurf rant is also hilarious

god damn it when will he get to make another movie

Brad, you're not alone regarding being a partisan for Kelly. Love both DD and ST

anyone got any thoughts on this film now?

good practice for mulholland drive

Underrated as a comedy. Movie is consistently funny as fuck.

Seen it probably half a dozen times, most recently two years ago in a theater. Everything holds up: score is awesome, script is tight, it is legit eery and suspenseful still, whole cast is great, and the teenage philosophy / sci-fi / semi-goth end of it is balanced perfectly. Never seen the director's cut, only ever heard that it over-explains the mystery and destroys the balance.

the director's cut famously ruins every single thing that makes the movie work

hahaha, re: changing the opening song from the Killing Moon to INXS' Never Tear Us Apart (retch):

In an interview with the British music magazine NME, Ian McCulloch—the lead singer of Echo & the Bunnymen—branded Kelly a "knobhead" for making the change.

I saw the director's cut first and always preferred it, including (especially?) that musical change. The movie is set in 1988, not 1984!

flappy otm

Yup

Yep x3

The movie is set in 1988, not 1984!

🤔 no it must be set in 2004, once the Michael Andrews / Gary Jules version of Mad World had been a hit

I didn't buy a copy of Ocean Rain until around 1990; remember pre-Internet these things spread much less quickly. 1988 is about four months after 1984 in 2018 time.

OK, but "Never Tear Us Apart" instantly recalls 1988 for me because I can remember hearing it everywhere as a kid in the fall of that year, so it takes me to that setting right away. Plus, I think it works really well for that early morning bike ride in the sun and its message relates to the central theme of the movie. "The Killing Moon" doesn't do any of that for me.

Tbf, I've never liked Echo or his Bunnymen.

Anyway, that's not my only reason. I never felt like the director's cut 'over-explained' things by providing an attempt at a coherent narrative.

Also, I really like the scenes where Donnie's Dad tells him about the 'conspiracy of bullshit' and the one where Gretchen disagrees with him about Watership Down in English class.

I love INXS but I hate that song and I always have... so that's a factor. But lyrically, I can't buy that Never Tear Us Apart makes more thematic sense than the Killing Moon for Donnie Darko.

"The Killing Moon" works perfectly in that opening sequence. Now that I think about it, the only part of the director's cut I've seen is the opening with the INXS song instead, and it blows. The rhythm and mood are completely ruined. Night and day difference imo.

"I think we should buy him a moped"/"I think we should get a divorce" - is this scene in the theatrical release? Because it is also A+.

Anyway, I realize that I may be the only person who holds this opinion and I'm OK with it. The world can have its Bunnymen.

as a teenager this movie pretty much defined the feelings i had to a tee, the angst was super relatable

1988 is about four months after 1984 in 2018 time.
I dunno, it is a pretty long time in 80s pop terms, but in any case it's surely an age for a teenager; the difference between 13 and 17 (or however old Donnie is supposed to be.)

I prefer the Bunnymen song in that scene and in general, but INXS does situate it definitely in 1988 rather than 1984 and I guess that's what the director was going for. Not sure it was necessary to do that, mind.

(I just saw the Director's Cut for the first time.)

Not sure I've seen the movie at all since it was first released. Still good and I did have the weird sense of being transported back to 2001 to see it afresh just like the quote from Total Film on box promissed! This film was zeitgeisty in an actually a bit spooky way.

Donnie Darko (2001) pic.twitter.com/4j5bFLgzcA

— 🇨🇳naj (@diebymargiela) April 23, 2019

CNN had a piece on this today--the "Mad World" sequence has always stayed in my mind, so it seemed like a good time to go back for a second look.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/28/opinions/donnie-darko-20th-anniversary-halloween-stewart/index.html

Being gimmicky and cultish, and me being 20 years older, figured I'd get very little out of it this time. I think I liked it better, though. Looking past the rabbit (which doesn't really take up much screen time), the way it used Dukakis as a frame reminded me of The Ice Storm (Nixon) and 20th Century Women (Carter); it's fun to puzzle out these connections, and pretty much anything you come up with works. Also reminded me of Ordinary People, and I'll take this, gimmick and all. Jake Gyllenhaal's really good, Drew Barrymore weirdly so. Great line (which has its own YouTube clip, so evidently it's well known): "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion."

(Just read the linked piece. That the film captures something fundamental about 2021 seems a little tenuous--such anxieties have been a fact of life forever.)

I saw it again last month too. I liked it way more, or at least in a different way, this time. I'll check in with it again in another 20 years.

it remains a great movie and whenever i rewatch it i like it more too

justice 4 richard kelly

Was surprised to see Seth Rogen pop up in it. I had no idea who he was in 2001.

would like Richard Kelly to appear again, it’s been many years

(xpost)Same...Good high school film. And Katherine Ross, of course.

Showed it to my Darko-age kids recently, they were baffled but intrigued. The film has such a weird specific doomy vibe, it really sustains this building dread all through it.

Has anyone dared to watch S. Darko? It appears to be really hated going by internet scores, and it probably really *is* terrible, yet I remain intrigued.

i actually read a really good positive review of s. darko on letterboxd a few months ago but that of course doesn't say anything about the film lol

one of these days i'll watch it out of boredom