LogFAQs > #913589307

What I Think: The intimacy of this movie is what makes it stand out for me. When you look at my top ten, you can see that so many of the movies are about intimate concepts playing out in bizarre, science fiction fashion. The stakes of this movie seem staggering when, in reality, the playing field is just a small, unassuming community. In a lot of ways, it's a Twin Peaks-style story. There's a magic to everyday life, a hidden spark of imagination underneath mundane humanity. For me, this story and its philosophical ruminations on death, time, fate and Jakie G's creepy eyes, and it hits with impact because it doesn't try to rewrite the entirety of humanity. It remains anchored in an emotionally close proximity to the viewer. And that makes all of the difference between a big, bold movie where I can't find any emotional resonance with the characters (Interstellar) and Donnie Darko. Also I will be amazed if this isn't charon's #1." ~scarlet

"For the first half of this movie, I actually wasnt a huge fan. It seemed unnecessarily weird with the bizarre liquid tubes flowing from peoples chests and whatnot. BUT then the second half and especially the ending rolled around, and it really the tied the film together. This was a quantum time travel mindfuck of a movie, and I loved it. For starters, as weird as the PLOT was, I appreciate how diverse and interesting the cast felt as a whole. Donnie himself was a weird mixture of slacker and heroic genius all in one. His parents were likable characters, and his teachers ranged from likable underdogs (Drew Barrymore) to holy shit why are you such a bitch (you know exactly who Im fucking talking about.) So yeah, LOVED the casting.

But once you get to the meat of the time travel plotline, this movie gets REALLY interesting. Because you spend the entire movie building up this month-long plot of Donnie just going through his everyday life with a few interludes by Frank the Rabbit. Sure, he has a jet engine crash through his room, he floods the school, and he burns down Patrick Swayzes house. But his life is still relatively unphased. However, its important to note that pretty much everyone else in the cast has their life ruined in one way or another over the course of that month. Barrymore loses her job after the school flooding is linked to a box she assigned to her class. Gretchen gets run over and killed by a car, and Frank (not quite a rabbit) gets shot in the face for his troubles. Donnies mother/sister die in a plane crash because of his time travel shenanigans. So whats the only option to prevent all of this tragedy? Donnie reverts to his past and allows himself to die in the jet engine crash. Its like a smarter, better-acted version of Ashton Kutchers Butterfly Effect, and those sorts of time travel shenanigans always intrigue me." ~Inviso

"Not everything in fiction needs an origin story, or even a clear reason for being. This is the idea at the heart of the theatrical cut of Donnie Darko. An unsettling, weird impressionistic painting of a film, this cult classic (like a lot of the stuff that's high on my list) is a triumph of atmospheric strangeness. I've heard the director's cut sort of undercuts the ambiguity by explaining exactly what's going on, which is a shame that kind of thing is a pet peeve of mine. Regardless, though, this movie has held a special place in my heart for years. The Darko clan are cast just right, with actors who clearly understand the tone of the material and know how to handle it. The look of the film is also fantastic, lending the proceedings a fittingly bizarre and creepy vibe. Every time I revisit this I end up coming away with a slightly different impression of it, thanks to the lack of concrete answers about the plot. I do get why this movie isn't for everybody, but it turns out to be my favorite flavor of pretension. " ~KBM
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful