My Favorite Movie of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2010)

Donnie Darko, I actually could not believe that I have never written a review of one of my favorite movies of all time. I actually first saw this movie more than seven years ago and immediately fell in love with it. It is a movie that I proudly own and will never get tired of watching. This film has so many themes but principally teenage angst, social isolation, hallucinations/schizophrenia, time travel, metaphysics, parallel universes, and how choices that we make each day in life affect us. All set in the backdrop of a beautifully American, Virginia suburb in the heat of the 1988 presidential elections. Donnie Darko is a modern masterpiece of thought-provoking and emotionally haunting film-making.
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama/Fantasy/Horror
The Good I never really liked Jake Gyllenhall, but this is by far his best work as an actor, his role as the title character takes the cake. Donnie Darko is a boy suffering from "Schizophrenia" and he sees hallucinations of a dreary giant bunny rabbit that warns him of the end of the world. He narrowly avoids a really strange incident that starts off a chain of events that will change his life forever. The human emotion displayed by all the characters is amazing. You will relate to the whole range of emotions in this movie. Donnie Darko is someone I can relate to very well as a boy who understands the deeper meaning of the Universe yet feels lonely and spiritually isolated because no one sees life in his level. His family is your typical suburban household in which no one seems to truly understand or get along with each other, but who nevertheless love each other. Another character Donnie Darko reminded me of was Holden Caulfield from "A Catcher in the Rye" as the boy who exposes the phoniness of the adults, especially self-help guru Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze). Along the way of Donnie trying to explain his hallucinations we encounter several very deep questions such as the "philosophy" of time travel, the meaning of love, choices we make in life, predestination, parallel universes and how genuine people are. The soundtrack of this movie really stands out "The Killing Moon" is a haunting track and then Head Over Heals by Tears for Fears and Mad World by Gary Jules leaves you absolutely loving the film. The best thing about this film is that you can watch this movie over and over again and still pick out new details from the movie and storyline, and you can even interpret the ending and themes in a variety of ways. The setting is perfect as well, as the movie takes place a seemingly perfect American suburb in October 1988 amidst the heat of the Presidential elections.
The Bad: Nothing was bad about this film, except maybe the typical movie goer would find this film a tad weird or hard to understand. But this is why I love it.
The Ugly: Roberta Sparrow as the crazy old lady with wild hair who holds the secret to time travel.
Overall this is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. Some might compare this movie to "Butterfly Effect" but "Donnie Darko" did it earlier and better. Richard Kelly is an absolute genius filmmaker, I think he can officially be called a prodigy with this film. This is a movie that I can never stop watching just because it makes you think each time you watch it.