Donnie Darko?

Do you think this is alright to show to my kids?

keep in mind I teach a bunch of hardened ghetto kids who know Chapelle by heart. There's really nothing horrid in it but cursing right? Do you think they just wouldn't be into it?

I have to show a movie tomorrow and don't have anything else on VHS they haven't seen that I think would remotely interest them and i'm too lazy to go the vid store.

help pls.

school destruction: see I think they would love that. I don't know if it's possible to give them any new ideas in terms of vandalism/destruction.

but yeah . . maybe not. damn.

Rock-n-roll high school? They hate guitar music though. . .

damn brats.

The biggest hits i've had on movie day: Drumline and an 8 hr tape of the simpsons.

tried showing viva la bam and they were *so* uninterested in skating white boys

obv. I have no regard for uplifting my children as I'm wallowing in the same gutters as they.

(the school's going to six flags but the kids who can't afford it or who got in trouble are staying behind)

they would probably get pissed off.

and it isn't crap

Seriously, though, visit the website. It will shed a lot of light. And it's very eerie at 3 am.

http://www.donniedarko.com/

maybe i could make this a class assignment. . hmm.

fwiw, we are finishing up a novel about some HS kids who kill their English teacher.

hopefully my kids aren't that open to suggestion.

I don't believe (I used to be very much the opposite but that was before I really saw many movies) every question needs to be answered blatantly in a movie for a movie to succeed. Although according to the director, he did intend it to be a straight science-fiction flick, especially if you see one of the deleted scenes.

Again, I'm not so certain that's a positive thing, because it looked like it was intended to be one of those "what just happened" movies, but it explains all of the major plot points.

The one major thing I never got was the whole Chinese girl and her playing with her earmuffs. I think that was me completely paying too much attention to mundane details...I almost thought she was an alien

I like the movie better not really making sense (cf. Mulholland Dr.) and liked it much better before I ever saw the extras.

The director's cut has some good stuff, if it's the same as the deleted scenes - Jake G. on a golf course looking hungover, etc.

I liked Mulholland, too, again, if you approach that one with "linear film/linear plot" in mind, you'll be sorely disappointed, but the absolutely creepy/chilling vibe the movie gave off and themes were excellent once I got wind of what was actually going on.

One of the deleted scenes that I think would have given a little too much away was the psychiatrist admitting she gave Donnie placebo pills.

I've seen it already on VHS back in the day, but I want the dvd version of it badly.

Sam, what movies do we have to choose from?

(I love it FWIW, Ive seen it dozens of times)

(the school's going to six flags but the kids who can't afford it or who got in trouble are staying behind)

my kids range from about 13-16. they really don't know what goth means. i don't think they'd like it just b/c it'd bore them.

i don't know what i'm going to put on. maybe just another tape of the simpsons. like i said drumline went down massively last year but i can't think of another "urban" (read: black) pg movie that's come out recently.

hey, maybe i could get house party!

Wait, are we talking the Len Cariou/Angela Lansbury Broadway version that was filmed for DVD? Cause that would rule. "MORE HOT PIES!"

Since when did Dave Chapelle start posting here under a chick's name.

I'm thrilled to see Sondheim fans (or at the very least, Sweeney fans) on ILM.

I'm rich, bioooooooootch!

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

just don't watch the Director's Cut!

heres my story with this movie. I was on a trip to visit family in Ohio around like 2005 or so when it came on TV. unfortunately we had to be going somewhere so I missed the end and was thinking about it for the next couple days because I found the movie so intriguing. I told my roommate this b/c I knew he saw it and he said "oh you don't need to watch the end, it's dumb and doesn't explain anything" and I just forgot about it after that. but man it's a great movie up to that point. I should probably watch it for myself.

just don't watch the Director's Cut!

― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Monday, November 1, 2021 8:39 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's too late, i owned it in high school and have actually seen it a lot

prepared me for the text overlays in the box tho, which are awesome

Even the addition of "Voices Carry" couldn't save the Director's Cut for me.

“I'm pretty troubled and I'm pretty confused. And I'm afraid, really, really afraid, really afraid. But I think you're the fucking Antichrist.” is something I like to say to people who insult me

takes too long to develop though, they usually hit me mid-sentence

I watched the director's cut a few months ago after not seeing it in over 10 years or so - i don't hate it as much now tbh or at least I don't find it as jarring as before.

the dialogue in this is still so great and hilarious, wish teen movies these days were half as good.

Man, what a film. Yes, the Director's Cut made me very angry

is that the version that shows Donnie impaled?

that's Donkey Darko, different movie

overdosed on the original back then, to the point where now I don't think I could bare to watch again. Not seen the cut, what's the deal?

film kinda lost a little for me hwen I read the linear explanations by director of what happened in the end sequence.

iir (almost 20 years ago, details could be sketchy here) the dvd extras had the director explaining along the lines of Donnie being some kind of comic book hero. Which just didn't do it for me at all.

Can't remember details (easily looked up) apart from the opening song being different, but I (like many I guess) felt the DC was a big ol' let down and diminished what was intriguing and affecting about the film.

overdosed on the original back then, to the point where now I don't think I could bare to watch again. Not seen the cut, what's the deal?

― Chicks and Ducks and Geese better scurry (Ste), Tuesday, November 2, 2021 2:12 PM (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah I only saw it once and I was really excited, but basically all it does is add in a lot of unnecessary expository scenes which spelled-out a lot of the more mysterious stuff. Plus they swapped around a lot of the music so the awesome "Head Over Heels" opening sequence was soundtracked by a different song and it just didn't work.

what song was it? "My Ding a Ling"?

IIRC it was "Mad World" but it didn't work anywhere as close to as well as "Head Over Heels". That tracking shot was for a long time one of my favourite bits of any film because the music and the camera matched up so nicely. Opening the film with "Mad World" set a completely different tone for the movie.

They used "Mad World" a second time in the director's cut? In the original, the "Head Over Heels" sequence near the start--the camera snaking through the halls of the school, with stop-motion speeding up and slowing down at intervals--is great, but so is "Mad World" at the end, the montage after the explosion. I wouldn't want to mess with either.

The ease with which this can be discovered is going to make us look silly but I think the opener on initial release was The Killing Moon. That was swapped out for INXS - Never Tear Us Apart which was supposedly the original first choice.

I quite like The Killing Moon and Head Over Heals but the film made me a bigger fan of both.

Wasn't the opening credits song swap "The Killing Moon" (theatrical cut) for "Never Tear Us Apart?" I initially took "The Killing Moon" as a gag (Bunnymen--get it?), but Kelly claims that he had always wanted the INXS song for the opening. Really, the DC is just a bunch of examples of how Kelly didn't really seem to understand what it was that worked about his own film.

"The Killing Moon"--not a fan, but it worked fine--did open the original. INXS would be a terrible trade for almost anything.

I sure hope they didn't mess with Sparkle Motion and "Notorious," in which case I'd have to doubt their commitment.

(By the way--I think any teacher who's sat through a couple of dozen school talent shows will understand the genius of Sparkle Motion. And they're like the ultimate time capsule. I think the first year I taught, we had two or three Spice Girls routines; midway, it'd be Katy Perry; by the time I finished, Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande.)

dance routines are a huge step up from the school talent show performances I remember. it was all lip syncing. watching some poor schmuck mouth like a robot to Weird Al's "yoda", holding a yoda doll and body otherwise completely still. i've a clear and horrible memory of one kid wearing a hawaiian shirt, holding a pineapple, and singing a song that went "oh mama, let me taste the mango. oh mama, let me taste the mango. oh mama, let me taste the mango. i like to eat sweet juicy fruit."

The ease with which this can be discovered is going to make us look silly but I think the opener on initial release was The Killing Moon. That was swapped out for INXS - Never Tear Us Apart which was supposedly the original first choice.

― Noel Emits, Tuesday, November 2, 2021 3:52 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah yes, my bad. You are correct.