An interesting journey

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2017)

"Donnie Darko" is not a usual film. It is an example of a new regime of films that in the current day is seen quite a lot. The sort of films where the viewer actually has to think after watching it; films like this include "Enemy", "Only God Forgives" and "Under the Skin". These are usually art-house films which, unlike the current Hollywood blockbusters who render viewers into morons, actually have depth, interest and thought underneath a well made film. Donnie Darko was the first to really kick-start this and help make the films listed above.
Not only has this film got emotional and philosophical depth, but it also has a giant talking bunny rabbit, liquid cylindrical tubes coming out of people's chests and Patrick Swayze. I don't know which one scares me the most. There is no doubt that this is a well made film. It is done professionally and you feel like you're in the hands of a director that knows what he's doing and has enough creative control by the leaching studio's to pull this off. Looking into the film afterwards as well as re-watching it over and over again really helps to make this film better. Little things start to make more sense and you see how much more clever the film is than you initially thought.
The story concerns teen Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal) as mysterious circumstances start to mess around with what he sees. His character is almost schizophrenic but you don't get quite that level and the film makes sure that it is slightly ambiguous if what he's actually seeing is due to the events in the film or his mind playing tricks. Anyhow, Donnie is seeing visions of a man in a bunny costume after a jet engine falls out of the sky (seemingly from nowhere) and the bunny is telling him to commit certain acts such as burning down houses etc. I won't spoil it, but the film has a pretty nifty ending and requires some thinking time afterwards. The acting is pretty much gold with great performances from pretty much all the actors, noticeably Jake Gyllenhaal who really understood his character (which was a really hard character to portray). I also thought Jena Malone was pretty good in one of her first movie roles. Patrick Swayze doesn't really have to act much to play his role but he was definitely appropriate and I laughed out loud at those hilarious self help videos they played. I thought they were real...
The music is appropriate and the shots are well composed and thought out. Production design is fine and everything pretty much looks like the streets in 1978's Halloween. Direction is phenomenally good and brings everything together and the story is clever and interesting to watch. The film has a good blend of emotion, humour and horror and never gets tonal shifts wrong or badly times. Some of the CGI is noticeably of the 2001 era of computer animation but it didn't bug me too much as the story allowed me to get invested enough in it. The ending, for me, wasn't as powerful or shocking as I thought it would be while watching the movie. After the film ended I was in a level of "that was quite clever" which is good but not as impactful as I was hoping for. The film itself reminds me of American Beauty as the style and feel is similar. However, there are some wonderful, memorable moments in it such as Donnie threatening to stick something up his gym teacher's anus and a talk between Donnie's friends about Smurfs having a gang bang. Don't ask.
Overall, Donnie Darko is a wonderfully clever story which was well executed and is well worth your time. For me, I don't think it will go down in history as a masterpiece of cinema but it is worth noting it as an important footnote. I enjoyed it and it was nice to see a movie that makes you think for a change
7.5/10