One of the best films of 2001, why did nobody see it?

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2002)

Donnie Darko is a fascinating, complex movie that you could easily walk right by in the video store. Don't. The packaging is ridiculous - the movie didn't garner much attention at the movie theater, so in order to boost video sales, they've made it look like a typical teen horror movie, complete with ubercheesy tagline - "Be Afraid Of The Dark."
In reality, Donnie Darko is like what Rushmore would be if it were made by David Lynch. Set in October of 1988, for reasons I have yet to figure out, we have the protagonist, Donnie Darko, a suburban teenager who may be schizophrenic, or a time traveler. He receives messages from a man-sized demented rabbit named Frank, who tells him that there are 28 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes and 12 seconds (roughly) until the End Of The World.

There is an inspired use of 80's hipster-pop songs, but this is done sparingly, to make the scenes more memorable. One that sticks out in my mind is the day after Donnie's house (more specifically, his room) meets with a strange fate, we see a surreal, slightly eerie montage of Donnie's private high school, shot in varying speeds, accompanied by Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels".
The characters are so undeniably nuanced that it should put American Beauty's one-dimensional family to shame. We're introduced to the Darko family at dinner, when the daughter announces that she's voting for Dukakis (remember, '88). From a normal movie, we'd expect the typical conflict between uptight suburban parents and liberal college-bound daughter. Instead, the parents pretty much shrug their shoulders,and the conversation denigrates into vulgar namecalling - which amuses the parents, not horrifying them. I wanted to peg them off the bat as "typical movie Republicans", real white bread, conformist conservative types. But the movie won't let you do that. Later on there's a scene where Donnie's mom sublimely puts down a heady school teacher who wants to ban a "controversial" book. But the effect is less of triumph than of a subtle tedium with the rest of the imbeciles in the PTA.
The acting is superb and really makes the movie. Jake Gyllenhaal (sp?) has a big, open face that he uses to his advantage. He is totally believable as that most tiresome of movie stereotypes, the troubled genius. He really deserves to be a bigger star - he is very talented and I hope to see him in more movies like this one and less like Bubble Boy. He's a real cutie, too, in that antihero way that reminded me of Jason Schwartzman from Rushmore. The actress who plays his mother is amazing - it seemed like she was always holding back and I spent the entire movie really trying to figure her out.

I don't think I totally know what the movie is eventually about, but I see it as a sort of demented "It's A Wonderful Life," where Jimmy Stewart finds out that the happy Bedford Falls is really a dream and that the world really would have been better if he hadn't been born. It's an odd sort of existentialist film, and I certainly could be wrong in my interpretation, but that was what I first thought of. The darkness of the theme made me gasp in its audacity.
Maybe I'm biased. I can't help but love a movie in which Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is played in a sex scene. Beautiful.