I can't praise this film highly enough........

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2003)

WARNING: THIS COMMENT CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS!!
When I first saw Donnie Darko I thought, `wow, that was good, wasn't it?' But it was subsequent viewings that made me realise just how amazing this film is. I've seen it several times and consider it to be something truly special.
You cannot categorise the film into any genre. Drama, Sci-fi, comedy, horror, religion, art house or period piece perhaps? No, this is ambitious mixture of many genres, ideas and concepts.
There is the idea of Donnie as a boy who has been chosen. There are religious parallels such as Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) as Jesus and Jim Cunnigham (Patrick Swayze) as the false prophet. There is a crossover with Donnie believing he is travelling within God's channel for him, his destiny. Does he have a choice in going back in time and changing everything? The time travel theories are boundless and are brought into focus if you read the 'Philosophy of time travel' on the DVD extras.
The cast is amazing without exception, the direction out of this world, the soundtrack score is beautiful, haunting and uplifting. The songs in the film are dark, brooding and full of nostalgia from bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears, Joy Division and The Church. Donnie Darko has introduced a lot of people to these bands and reminded others just how good they were in the first place.
The look of the picture is amazing. The film is set in the eighties, yet does not seek cheap laughs from fashion and hairstyles of the time. The editing is crisp, with no scenes outstaying their welcome, and Richard Kelley keeps us focused on the time travel/alternate reality theme through slow motion shots but never doing it as a gimmick.
I love the little details and references in the film being set in 1988 (in itself a form of time travel) which is the same speed the car goes to time travel in Back to the Future. It's interesting on Halloween The Last Temptation of Christ is showing. And of course there is the Alice in Wonderland reference of following the bunny down the rabbit hole.

I really cannot praise this film highly enough. I haven't written a comment on IMDb before, I just had to here. Donnie Darko is a film of beauty, humour and tragedy. It is a masterpiece in its own right, not just as a indie flick. Complete and perfect.
....oh, one other thing, my friend reckons that whatever Donnie does, 'sparkle motion' are doomed anyway as they will still get on the plane that crashes, along with Mrs. Farmer. But I think that if Donnie dies Samantha would be too upset to dance with sparkle motion and as she is the lead dancer, they couldn't have replaced her in time. What do you think? Who is right?
Andy