Donnie Darko

 Donnie Darko 2001

• Director: Richard Kelly
• Seen by this director: The Box
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Patrick Swayze, Jolene Purdy, Beth Grant, Drew Barrymore, Katherine Ross
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jake Gyllenhaal – Life, Zodiac, Proof, Brokeback Mountain, Day after Tomorrow, Moonlight Mile, The Good Girl, October Sky
• Jena Malone – The Hunger Games 3+4, The Soloist, Into the Wild, Cold Mountain, The United States of Leland, Ellen Foster, Contact
• Mary McDonnell – Battlestar Galactica, Matewan
• Holmes Osborne – The Box, Identity, TV series
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Hysteria, The Dark Knight, Stranger than Fiction, Paris je t’aime, Sherrybaby, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaption, Riding in Cars with Boys, Waterland
• Patrick Swayze – Keeping Mum, Ghost, Dirty Dancing
• Beth Grant – The Artist, No Country for Old Men, Factory Girl, Little Miss Sunshine
• Drew Barrymore – He’s Just Not That into You, Music and Lyrics, Riding in Cars with Boys, Ella Enchanted, ET
• Katherine Ross – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Graduate, Shenandoah
• Why? Remember it as good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 13 August 2022      

       High school student Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) sleepwalks and has a scary friend he calls Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in twenty-eight days and makes Donnie do bad things.

       And that’s just one of the weird things in this jumble of a film. Time travel, concerned parents, youthful rebellion, ultraconservative politics, young love, rich white American suburbia, love messiah/anti-Christ/child pornographer.

       The film has achieved cult status and for good reason. It’s complex, enigmatic, unexplainable, and captivating.      

 

4* of 5