Donnie Darko:
Young Donnie Darko, a socially awkward schizophrenic in 1988, begins having visions of Frank, a dead man in a disutrbing bunny costume 9the most iconic image of the film), who warns him that the world with end in 28 days. He begins to try to cope with friends, these strange visions, his surreal home life, the discovery of time travel, and a new love interest. But, will Donnie be able to prevent this doomsday prophecy?... This film is surpirsing. It did poor at the box office, mainly due to the fact the MPAA only allowed it to be show in 58 theaters, and that was because they were pissed off at the trailer, which prominintely featured a scene in which a plane crashes. (The film was released about a month after 9/11.) The cast are excellent. A young Jake Gyllenhall plays Donnie to a tee. He's awkward, strange, intelligent, and funny. He stands up to aauthroity, but also crosses the line on occasion, and is considered a sociopath and an overall weird kid. Jena Malone plays Gretchen, Donnie's new neighbor and love interest, who is a little weird, like Donnie, and finds his outbursts at the idiotic authroity figures of the town amusing. Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osbourne plays Rose and Eddie Darko, Donnie's caring parents. They're not like most movie parents, who are oblivious to their childrens' problems. They are involved with Donnie's psychologist and genuinely care for the mental state of their fragile son. Speaking of which, Katharine Ross turns in a great performance as supporting character Dr. Thurman, whom is Donnie's uneasy psychologist, often losing hope for Donnie the more his mental state detiorates. Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jake's rela-life sister) plays Elizabeth, Donnie's sister and rival. Daveigh Chase (Lilo and Stitch, The Ring ) turns in a good supporting performance as Donnie's kid sister Sam, who got her own direct-to-DVD sequel. (S. Darko, skip it.) James Duval plays Frank, the strange imaginary friend of Donnie, who warns him of the end of the world. Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze plays opposition roles as Karen Pomeroy and Jim Cunningham, respecitvely. One is a sweet teacher who wants her students to challenge authority and ask tough questions, and Cunningham is a feel-good Christian speaker who is later found out to be a pedophile. Beth Grant plays Kitty, a local teacher and neighbor of Donnie's, who Donnie depsises for being a bitch, being blind to Cunningham's con-man act, and for being so simple-minded. Also worth a note are Alex Greenwald and Seth Rogen (back in his days of Freeks & Geeks) in small roles as some bullies. The writing and direction by Richard Kelly is fantastic. The strange hallucination scenes and the scenes of dark comedy in this surreal universe seem to blend together well. This is thanks to the fact that Kelly makes the scenes feel the same tone, and not drastically and noticeably opposite like in some movies that attempt the mixing comedy and horror thing. The music is also done well, and adds to the scenes of tension or strange visions. The special effects are below par, and minimal, with a 4.5 million budget and under a month to shoot, they had to not include so many effects, which makes the film all the more unique and cool. Donnie Darko manages to be funny, surreal, scary, thrilling, and intriguing, sometimes at once. 5/5 stars.
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