Not quite unfathomable.

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2018)

There should be a genre for movies like this that are so complicated that they are almost impossible to grasp on their first viewing but can be understood with the help of a textbook on them. Maybe there aren't enough of those and those that exist are too different from each other to make it be considered a genre. After reading through most of the FAQ page, I feel like I understand it a little better, but I don't find the story compelling enough to learn more. I don't think this would be regarded as a great movie if it hadn't gotten the cult following that it did, but I suppose that's what a cult following is for. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if in an alternate universe Donnie Darko was viewed in the same vein as movies like Cloud Atlas: ambitious and cool in concept, but not actually that well thought out. However, Donnie Darko does have enough substance and thought out world behind it to make it's cult status warranted.
I didn't particularly enjoy it, but it is sort of cool that it was able to get so many people interested in it. There's something to be said for your movie when it has a 36 question FAQ page, a special features part of the DVD that people actually watch, and an entire book within the movie that people wish they could read. Also, its success sort of paved the way to some degree for Christopher Nolan's movies The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar. And it boosted Jake Gyllenhaal's career, and he's since become one of my favorite actors. Even though I don't understand the way that time travel works in the movie, it seems like a cool variation of time travel that is less hacky than the time travel seen in most movies.
If you haven't seen this, it wouldn't hurt to watch it. Definitely it's a weird movie, and you might hate it as I've heard at least one person say they do, but you could just as easily love it and revere it as a masterclass in light sci-fi. At the very least, it will give you a break from the standard plots that you've probably gotten at least a little bored of. I would be willing to see it again multiple times, but I doubt I will ever like it that much. Overall Rating: 7.3/10.