Sunday, January 22, 2006

Donnie Darko


I saw this movie for the first time this morning. Holy freaking hell! How did I not hear about this back in 2001, when it came out? I realize I was in the midst of a family crisis, but still.

Anyhow, this is the story of a mentally ill teenager who hears and sees a 6 foot tall bunny rabbit, whose instructions lead him down interesting paths, into time travel and a parallel dimension. I'm going to need to watch it over to refine my thinking about the plot. There is quite a lot to talk about regarding mental illness, loneliness, alienation, manipulation, sacrifice, redemption, destiny, and truth-seeking, and there's a killer satire on pop feel-good self-help programs. Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent as Donnie, and, on the DVD cover, he looks a bit like our gentle reader Craig the Filospher. The direction of the film keeps the viewer off-balance, just like the story itself does, and the movie makes good use of music. Very nicely done. Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm in love with this movie. So much of this movie was absolutely right on, just a nice story of a "troubled" kid. (By the way, I'm not a fan of the director's cut-- was a little clumsy and took away some of the mystery, and they changed the soundtrack a little. It's almost saved by a couple nice deleted scenes, but these are availabe as extras on the original dvd.)

--the angry m

Randy said...

Angry Dude! I didn't know you read my blog. Welcome!