Maggie Gyllenhaal Movie:

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		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Donnie Darko [Region 2] Reviews:
It's Funny and Maybe the Bunny
2009-10-29 - Fun, fresh every time, entertaining, fascinatingly odd, startling, amazing. This was a classic the first day it ran - and it ran with bizare eloquence. It will make you think as it beckons you to attempt to proceed without being underdetermined.
Logic V. Passivability. Life V. Illusion. Buy this to own it for you will watch it 2-3 times every year, or more!

Donnie Darko... Silly rabbit Time Travel is for Kids
2009-10-24 - Donnie Darko: 6 out of 10: Some movies just pass me right by. I found Amelie by the end more irritating than cute, I didn't laugh once at Rushmore, and only a hostage situation could coerce me to watch The Piano again.

Donnie Darko has a large legion of fans and I certainly understand its appeal. The acting by both Jake Gyllenhaal and Drew Barrymore is some of their best work. The rest of the cast also shines with a special kudos to Holmes Osborne as the father in what is almost always a throw away role.

The school and kids remind me of my high school from the eighties (Though this being Hollywood the music is much better than what the radio actually played in those years.) and the filmmakers certainly know how to frame a shot. I was even able to look past the Holden Caulfield and Harvey flashbacks the movie caused me to suffer.

So what went wrong the plot. Oh up until the payoff it's fine enough, in fact it is better than fine. One wonders how the filmmakers are going to pull it off. The answer is simple. They don't. If anything the end of the movie reminded me of that atrocious horror film from a few years back Soul Survivors. Like Soul Survivors the movie holds your interest with more and more implausible plot twists and coincidences then cheats at the end like a bad junior high school English essay.

Now Donnie Darko is otherwise superior to Soul Survivors and other films where the ending is a groaner (cough The Village cough), but after all that goodness the magic is gone and they couldn't pull a rabbit out of their hat. Even a six foot demonic one.



Review: Donnie Darko (2001)
2009-10-04 - Director: Richard Kelly
Writer: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle

Donnie Darko has become a modern cult classic. It is Richard Kelly's masterpiece (at least from a screen writing perspective), and easily Jake Gyllenhaal's most famous role.
The movie follows troubled teenager Donnie Darko's experiences in the weeks after a jet engine falls from a phantom plane and crashes into his room while he is out for the night. He then begins to have some odd visions and out of body experiences. He starts experiencing the world, or rather the universe, in a very different way.
For me, this movie blends many different concepts into one bizarre, very visual, sometimes disturbing, and occasionally hilarious creation. It is a tale of existential philosophy and interdimensional time travel, full of paradoxes, and has some intense, deep meanings if you care to dig enough (and see it more than once).
With the major exeptions of Jena Malone's character and Gyllenhaal's masterful performance (only his second lead role, after 1999's October Sky), the acting and directing are nothing special. The set and costume design evoke something of a Stepford Wives or Edward Scissorhands visual vibe. They both compliment this idea of a very dark story taking place in a "perfect" suburban setting. However, the real reason to watch this movie is for the story and the evolution of Gyllenhaal's character into something metaphysically aware, and possibly posthuman.

Final Score: 7/10

Great independent movie
2009-09-28 - I could watch this movie over and over and notice new things about it each time. I haven't bought a movie to keep for myself in years but I just had to have this one.

Everyone dies alone
2009-09-13 - If you're looking for something different, unique, and new, then Donnie Darko is for you. The director's cut helps explain some of the things so if you would rather let yourself be puzzled and try to figure it out yourself then check out the original version, although the director's cut is still almost as puzzling, and, completely mind bending.