READERS' CHOICE #35: DONNIE DARKO (2001)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, but not for a very long time. Maybe not since university, but maybe not since high school (which would have been when it was released or shortly after)

BEST SEQUENCE

When Frank appears in the movie theatre

BEST LINE

"Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?" "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

87%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Richard Kelly's debut feature Donnie Darko is a daring, original vision, packed with jarring ideas and intelligence and featuring a remarkable performance from Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled title character."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes."

DIRECTOR

Richard Kelly

MAIN CAST

Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, James Duval, Maggie Gyllenhaal

THOUGHTS

• Having not seen Donnie Darko for a long time, I remembered liking it but I didn't consider it a favourite of mine. Upon rewatch, that sentiment pretty much stands. It's worth watching but also kind of a mixed bag, and maybe not as effective as some people remember
• Frank the Rabbit is genuinely creepy and anytime he shows up there's a shiver down the spine, including a couple of pretty good jump scares. His voice is also extremely unnerving. However, he's quite a bit less scary once we learn that he is, indeed, just a guy in a Halloween rabbit suit
• Jake Gyllenhaal is really fantastic in this, one of his first starring roles (October Sky came out 2 years earlier, another movie that I quite like). As Donnie he's very likeable, while still legitimately off-putting at times. It's a tricky balance to pull off, and also somewhat similar to how I described his performance as Lou in Nightcrawler, a connection I didn't even remember until about halfway through Donnie Darko, as the two characters share some qualities but they're still very distinct performances. Unless some surprise movies get added to my list this is the last we'll see of Jake Gyllenhaal and he's had a pretty great showing in these reviews. Looking at his filmography, there are even a few other thrilling movies that may have been considered, including Zodiac, Prisoners and Source Code
• A few times during this watch I thought, "wow, they're really trying to be edgy." And while I think there's some truth to that and while I think the movie is most effective when the effort to be edgy isn't quite so obvious, it may also be fair to acknowledge that it's easy to forget that the movie is set in 1988, a fact which is even easier to forget watching the movie 20+ years after its release date in 2001. So I'll give a little bit of a concession that perhaps what I perceived as forced edginess was also intended to show the general awfulness of people in the Reagan-era 1980s
• The plot is convoluted, but in a good way, a way that intrigues instead of frustrates. When I sat down to watch it on my streaming service of choice the runtime said 2 hours and 13 minutes, and I thought there was no way that could be right. In fact, I had accidentally pulled up the Director's Cut, which is something I've had to consider a few times in this blog. I decided to forgo the Director's Cut in favour of the theatrical version, since the general consensus online is that the longer version mostly just over explains the plot and, therefore, removes some of the ambiguity and mystery. Any Director's Cut defenders out there?
• Very strange to see Seth Rogen in a tiny role with very little to do, and as a really terrible person. It was his first movie but he was also in Freaks and Geeks on TV previously (which wasn't exactly a smash hit at the time, so maybe the small part in Donnie Darko shouldn't be surprising, but still strange to see)
• Also someone who'd go on to bigger things, including the horror genre, Daveigh Chase plays Donnie's younger sister. A year later she'd play Samara in The Ring (not to mention the voice of Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, also released in 2002)
• Great soundtrack, including several songs that I will forever associate with Donnie Darko - "The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen, "Mad World" covered by Gary Jules (originally by Tears for Fears) and "Head Over Heels" also by Tears for Fears. Richard Kelly originally wanted to use "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS for the opening scene, which is funny to think about considering how appropriate it was to start the movie with a song by a band called Echo and the Bunnymen. One might even call it a little on the nose with how much we'd be seeing of a sinister-looking bunnyman
• Finally, a couple of references to other movies we'll be talking about: the movie that Donnie and Gretchen are watching in the theatre when Frank appears is The Evil Dead. Evil Dead II is #25 on the readers' list, and I might even review The Evil Dead as well when that comes along. As well, early in the movie there's a shot of Donnie's mother reading Stephen King's book IT, which I'll be reviewing...

Up next: Yep, that's right! Coincidentally, after a quick cameo in Donnie Darko, it's time to review IT (which I'll continue to spell with all capitals, since it gets incredibly confusing at times to talk about the book/movie and not just read it as a pronoun; hopefully information technology doesn't need to be discussed in the following reviews). And yes, reviews! Because that's not all, folks, we'll be looking at all the variations of IT, starting with the 1990 TV miniseries which, believe it or not, I have never seen. See you next time, when we'll all float down here!