What a fantastic movie

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2004)

Well, as I write this, there are over 1200 comments already below mine regarding this movie. And not surprisingly,either. This one is a good one, and quite unique.
A couple of distinguishing characteristics of this movie, briefly:
1. Atmosphere: masterful, a tour de force display of creating atmosphere. This kid ought to be hired to make a movie from every Stephen King novel there is. What Stephen King does for atmosphere in his books, Kelly has done in Darko.
2. Excellent realism with an ensemble cast. He manages to humanize secondary characters in a very short time. In fact, some of the secondary characters seem almost to be there only to create a sort of verisimilitude with respect to a human environment. The movie feels more lifelike because there are secondary characters whose function seems mostly unrelated to the plot, yet who are rather well drawn and fleshed out, nonetheless. Or rather, many of the secondary characters are fleshed out in ways that have nothing to do with the plot. This movie is quite Australian, in that regard: it has a large ensemnble cast where many of the characters seem to actually live lives of their own, independent of the central plotline.