This film has just entered my top 10!

Rating: Null/10 (8 February 2003)

Remember the feeling you had the first time you read "Catcher in the Rye" or saw David Lynch's film, "Blue Velvet"? Well, this experience should be right up there!
Ultimately, this is an esoteric piece that will make you want to re-watch it the second it's over to try and figure it out - รก la "Sixth Sense". That said, it's a wonderful coming-of-age story (the likes of Salinger's "...Rye") of a cynical adolescent, Donnie Darko. Donnie is a sort of a comic book high school hero, who tells everybody where to get off in such an intelligent way, that even his parents have to congratulate him on being expelled from school.
The twist that will "knock you flat" (as Jan Stuart of Newsday put it) is almost superfluous in light of what the rest of the film has to say for itself. This is almost two films in one: a highly spiritual film about time and space; destiny versus free choice - and one that is very earth-bound about having the courage to be your own person, and about questioning everything before excepting blindly. The two themes are magnificently bound together in a visually stunning, and breathtakingly acted film. Keep an eye out for Jake Gyllenhaal - he's right up there with Toby Maguire.
One of the best films I've seen in the past few years.