Why do you wear that stupid rabbit suit?

Rating: 10/10 (10 March 2003)

I tried to keep quiet. I thought someone else could write a better comment on this A+ film than I could. But since the current comment on the front IMDB page for this film is by someone who never even bothered to watch it.... you can't have ignorant people influencing honest, hard-working IMDB-readers like YOU.
Just go and rent Donnie Darko, and please do expect it to be a 1980's teen romance. It is and it isn't, of course... "Donnie Darko" is one of those films where describing it is kind of like describing a painting-- you'll never do it justice. I had to bribe two friends to see it with me, knowing only that it had played the film festivals, and Richard Kelly was getting rave reviews-- and that Drew Barrymore liked it so much, she helped get it made.
For me, I give it a 10 out of 10. Of my two friends, one of them despised the ending, and said it dragged on too long... but hey, there are a lot of loose ends to tie up. Mary McDonnell is the most underrated female actress of the past ten years, dating back to her nuanced performance in "Dances with Wolves." She held together "Sneakers," too, which was a really fun movie, no matter what you say.
Already I'm taking up too much space. This film is not for the mainstream-- most people, especially kids, like their movies easily describable. You can sum up any Vin Diesel movie in one sentence. "Donnie Darko" might take 500 words or more, and why shouldn't that be a GOOD thing??
"Darko" is more layered, more subtle. It takes its time. It relies on more than just the soundtrack to get an emotion across. This is what a movie should be, but I guess more people don't like to think and watch a movie at the same time. And so "Daredevil" makes $100 million, and "Donnie Darko" plays a few screens, then slips quietly off to DVD...
So do us all a favor. See the movie before you comment. If you don't understand it, that doesn't mean it stinks. That just means there's a new J.Lo movie opening that you're late for.