The Best of a Bleak Year in Filmdom (so far)

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2001)

Unless Hollywood is saving every single decent movie for release after Christmas, this is the best you're gonna get for year 2001. That's not faint praise, however: this movie delivers on so many levels it's hard not to like it. If there is an AMPAS god, may he (she) bestow Oscars to Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Actor (he's that good), Richard Kelly for Best Director AND Best Original Screenplay (written at the age of 23, no less), and Best Picture to Donnie Darko...the only movie in 2001 to make me laugh, cry, and jog my intellect. In a word: WOW.