Basically one post per day since last Thursday, and just started My Arcade yesterday (you can click that pretty link there if you want). So doing pretty well, last week (sort of) we had a scary movie theme going, this week we seem to be tackling science-fiction. By coincidental choice.
TITLE: Donnie Darko
DETAILS:
DIRECTOR: Richard Kelly
LEAD ACTOR: Jake Gyllenhal
ANTAGONIST LEAD: James Duval
SUMMARY:
A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.
PERSONAL CRITIQUE:
Time travel! That's what this movie is all about! That, and freaky bunny rabbit suits...and pot. But no, really, the story centers around the idea that time travel is a real thing. I guess. See we follow Donnie Darko as he struggles with some kind of mental illness and barely survives a plane engine crashing into his home. There are lots of different reasons that might explain this, but its played off at first as just good luck, as he happens to have sleepwalked (is that right) to a golf course instead of lying in his bed and getting crushed by a plane engine! I have a bad sense of time when it comes to movies, or this movie does a bad job looking like it was filmed in the 21st century, I'm not really sure, but I honestly thought this came out in the early 90s until I read up on it today to refresh myself. I actually read a majority of the screenplay online before I watched the movie too. I was, to say the least, intrigued.
Donnie Darko did not let me down either, despite what I felt was subpar cinematic appeal, the movie itself drew my rapt attention as I attempted to follow the little tidbits of detail dispersed throughout. Did I mention it's about time travel? No joke. Oh, and this guy:
Seriously, Frank the Rabbit is what nightmares are made of! Although, having watched the movie, he strikes significantly less fear in me and more intrigue, because I don't know who he is!
FUTURE SIGHT SPOILERS!!!!
By the end of the movie we do see someone remove the Frank mask, twice in fact, if I'm not mistaken. The thing is, it makes no sense for that to be the case because it would have led Frank to die if he went back in time and saved Donnie from fate. Then again, I think there was some underlying plot that if Donnie didn't die the universe was going to fall apart in a system of diluted causality or something like that. So maybe Frank was meant to be an element of chaos leading toward the end of the world. But this kind of stuff really intrigues me and is kind of why I plan on watching the movie again in the near future, because I love to see characters interacting with the past to change outcomes and trying to figure out what exactly they're attempting to achieve. I'm not sure if Frank achieved what he was aiming for anyway.
Additionally, this movie is supposed to be amazing when you're high. Not my cup of tea, but its a notable aside. Donnie gets involved in some pretty trippy scenes and there are plenty of characters to enlighten us as to the metaphysics of time-travel. (Seriously, I think I'm using all these words wrong.) It has evolved from a cinematic failure to a cult classic, so it has something going for it right?
RATING:
Nine out of Ten guys in freaky bunny costumes would give this movie Three time-travel theories out of Five.
I plan to go back and rewatch it of course, and Donnie Darko definitely captured me, but it is far from the greatest cinematic experience I've had.
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