#80 Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko (2001)
Written & Directed by Richard Kelly
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Patrick Swayze, Katharine Ross, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval & Beth Grant



First things first: Donnie Darko is a confusing movie. Its logic can seem a little warped, its themes overabundant and muddled and its tone so uncategorizable. But it's a testament to Richard Kelly's talent that he makes everything work in its own miraculously offbeat way. For lack of a better term, Donnie Darko would best be described as a "genre-bender", excelling in and improving upon some well-known film categories like science fiction, quirky comedy, teen angst, psychological thriller, and familial drama. I guess what I'm going to try and do here is discuss all five of these key elements, how they interweave in and out of each other and how they affect the movie's success.

Donnie Darko is a great sci-fi movie. There's certainly room for arguing here, but I personally think that the film is first and foremost a science fiction story. It revolves around the troubled, enigmatic teen title character (played by Jake Gyllenhaal, in his career-making role) as he enters a tangent universe, the result of a mysterious jet engine crashing into his bedroom while he's sleep-walking. The details of what really happened that night slowly unfold as the movie goes along, and repeat-viewers are really rewarded when they see how much painstaking detail was put into the movies' thought-process. Little things like a red car driving by at the beginning of the movie or a man in a red sweat-suit stalking Donnie take on a more profound meaning once you put the pieces of the puzzle together. And since sci-fis are usually made or broken by the universes they create, this one decides to just set its story in the real world, because what could be scarier or more fascinating than that?

Donnie Darko is a great quirky comedy. The filmmakers involved really lucked out when they nabbed as impressive and multi-talented a bunch of actors as they did. The entire cast seem completely in on the joke of the movie (if there really is one (?)), and tune into its particular style with ease. Not only is the movie written quite cleverly, but the actors really elevate everything. One-liner after one-liner ("Oh, please, tell me Elizabeth, how exactly does one suck a fuck?"), insta-classic scene after insta-classic scene (Cherita Chen's interpretive dance comes to mind), Donnie Darko is an incredibly funny, just primally entertaining movie.

Donnie Darko is a great teen angst movie. A good way to represent teen angst on film, I find, is to exaggerate the alienation the main character may be feeling by giving them supernatural powers or other important duties in the world (Buffy, Veronica Mars, etc.) Since Donnie is essentially some sort of comic book superhero, he definitely fits that mold. Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is a thing of beauty because he manages to do the whole normal rebellious teenage attitude/awkwardness thing while still showing the maturity and hyper-sensitivity to his surroundings that Donnie seems to have. He really carries the movies on his shoulders.

Donnie Darko is a great psychological thriller. Despite it being shot on a shoestring budget, the movie really does manage to have some truly arresting and frightening production values. The sound design in particular is pretty genius, especially when it comes to the scenes with Frank, the giant bunny rabbit. The stuff they do with Frank's voice is seriously scarier than half the stuff in anything directed by Eli Roth or Rob Zombie. And speaking of Frank the bunny rabbit, isn't that the creepiest freakin' Halloween costume ever? Anyway, the soundtrack, the visuals, the strange tone and lighting constantly imbue the movie with this dark, eerie undertone, which can be even more frightening when contrasted by some of the lighter, funnier sequences.

Donnie Darko is a great familial drama. One of the best scenes in the movie involves Donnie's parents, played by Holmes Osborne and the magnificent Mary McDonnell, chatting with his psychotherapist, played by Katharine Ross. The aching pain in McDonnell's eyes as she worries about her son's well-being makes for such a poignant moment. I just love how real the family seems, and how the movie explores how a regular, everyday unit like the Darkos would have to cope with these strange, story-book, supernatural occurrences.

Donnie Darko is a movie I've watched more times than almost any other, and yet I hesitated to have it higher on my list simply because I don't know if I've completely figured the whole thing out yet. If only I could sit down with Richard Kelly and just pick his brain, then I might be able to have confidence about how truly ingenius the movie is. Even so, it's a gorgeous, captivating, absorbing movie -I know that much is true.