Misinterpretations

Rating: 10/10 (24 October 2003)

I've been scrolling this forum a bit, and i couldn't believe how many of what i felt were misinterpretations of the movie there were.
I've seen alot of people criticize Donnie Darko for being just a jumbled mess of sci fi, romance, drama, comedy, etc. with no real point.
First of all, I'd like to say that Donnie Darko's production value alone is enough to set it apart. The cinematography was brilliant, the soundtrack was incredible, and the editing was superb. Everything fit together seemlessly.
Secondly, people criticize Donnie Darko for its whole time travel thing that it has going on, and disregard it as complete rubbish. I think however, that the time travelling scenario was just a device to get across the message that the writer was trying to convey. Many times through the film we are shown the contrast between superficiality something deeper emotionally (i.e. Sparkle Motion vs. Autumn Angel, Jim Cunningham vs Donnie Darko). Donnie
feels isolated because everybody else is so consumed by that which is right in front of them and they never take the time to take a deeper look into things. Everyone around him (save a few people) is completely apathetic towards actually thinking and analyzing something on a more philosophical and emotional level, and would just rather be amused by the obvious than become more wise from the obscure. Donnie, on the other hand, realizes that this kind of life is shallow and meaningless, but because no one will listen to him (something evident in the scene with the line seperated into the spectrums of fear and love) he is becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the world.
I'm kind of discounting the actual time travelling scenario in this rhetoric, but that is because the that scenario deals more with Donnie's fear of dying alone than the whole social commentary that I'm trying to explain.
The movie was brilliant.