Mind bending thrilling movie

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2004)

This great movie contains a lot of philosophical elements beneath the surface, many that are the greatest of mankind, death, the existence of God, fate and free will, and are discussed by Donnie Darko as he progresses through his strange world. You get the sense that while he is having some crazy dreams, there's a sense to what he says, a basic, primal sense that cuts through all the crap most movies fling at you and gets to you on a human level. It's nice to see a film that doesn't add confusing "artistic" elements just for the sake of confusion, as many of the more artsy films that are supposedly "deep" today tend to do. Donnie Darko is about a real character who says things bluntly but truly. It's hard to refute a lot of the basic truisms he offers up during his mad scramble to figure out the world around him.