An incredible twist on the typical American drama

Rating: 9/10 (16 October 2019)

When watching the Donnie Darko Directors Cut for the second time, I was surprised of how much more I was getting from the second viewing. Not just does this film offer many layers and aspects, it is also just an interesting, fun to watch film.
This is why it is a film and not a movie, it mixes incredible concepts and ideas with good presentation and simple, not exaggerated visuals. In my opinion, this is what makes a film good. It presents its ideas in a way that isn't complicated and over the top, while still being entertaining.
Which leads into another well done aspect of this film: the pacing. It is exciting, but not too intense, it is slow but not too slow, it is gripping but not too massive. It uses slow, sensual piano pieces to show the innocence of Donnie, while still having tense, strange pieces during the sadistic events where Donnie is being manipulated and controlled by Frank. This helps express how the pacing is so well planned out, and what Donnie is feeling, and the darkness of Frank that is trying to control him.
Now, the big question, why didn't Donnie stay in bed in the tangent universe? My answer is that Frank was already controlling him. The film does this really well, it shows the visual of Donnie lying down in the middle of the road, so we instantly assume that he has been sleep walking and fell asleep in this spot, when really this isn't what happened. The filmmakers use the absence of seeing what Donnie sees to make you think that it was just him sleepwalking, when really, it was Frank controlling him. This is also one of the incredible ways they take advantage of how much information they give you through the film, or don't give you. While we know that Frank is going out of his way to turn Donnie into his evil puppet, we don't really know when he started to. I believe it was either a little before the plane crash, or the night that it did, as this is the only time he needed to control him.
In conclusion, this film takes advantage of the typical family drama, and flips it into a film about love, trust, hatred and crazy science fiction elements.