Great mix of black humour, time travel and 80s parody.

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2006)

This film isn't for everyone, and isn't the sort of movie you can watch just once and understand. But the thing is, it's worth unravelling just so you can understand. Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the epitome of disturbed teenage angst, and many other characters directly parody stereotypes of American suburbia. While the film seems to be, at first glance, just a bit bizarre, repeated viewing will let you understand the cleverly interwoven themes of time travel and mental illness. Once you feel you know what has happened in the film, you soon realise that everything that has happened could well just be a figment of Donnie's fractured imagination. The film confronts with ideas that challenge our perceptions of normal, and that's why it's so great.