Puerile Pap, Inchoate Crap

Rating: 3/10 (20 June 2004)

Donnie Darko isn't merely a bad film but a genuine stinker. It's animated by the kind of sophomoric musings contemplated by kids sitting around a dorm room smoking pot late at night.
Instead of a plot it offers merely a series of puzzles. (What's with the guy in the bunny suit? Will the world really end in 28 days? Is Donnie really schizo?). Instead of character development it offers the touchstones of adolescent angst that movies geared to teens have plumbed for generations (the school bully, the inept grownups who run the school, uncool outcasts and so on).
That IMDb users could rate it so highly is a sad commentary on the state of our culture. But then again, these are presumably the same people who think The Shawshank Redemption (#2) is a better film than say, Shadow of a Doubt (#185).
If you don't believe me when I tell you how bad this film is you could always see it for yourself and form your own opinion. But don't say I didn't warn you: You're risking an hour and 53 minutes of your life you'll never get back.