Donnie Darko

An unorthodox story about a high school “geek" is an impressive movie adorned with excellent acting, a well-written and original screenplay and a completely absorbing dense atmosphere. Despite all of this I can’t shake the feeling that from the whole movie somehow protrudes the fact that it could be a tiny bit better than it finally is. I would be very interested in seeing the twenty minutes longer Director’s Cut. If that’s good, I would definitely raise the score to five *. (03/14/2005)

This intellectually stupid trend never ceases to fascinate me. As soon as there is a movie with supernatural phenomena, told non-linearly, and, God forbid, with a conclusion without a rational explanation, the world falls into mass hysteria and this place is crawling with full-fledged ratings like ants in an anthill. If I were to see this crap again, they will probably have to take me to the hospital for boredom and lack of originality poisoning. Richard Kelly relies purely on bespectacled intellectuals, who latch on like wasps to candy, and he couldn't care less that this totally disjointed film offers absolutely no rational explanation or meaning (similarly to Lynch, for example). And it's no wonder when it feels that way. A first-class muddled mess without a point. Two stars for a well-portrayed family and Mary McDonnell's performance. (06/12/2008)

Well, by the ending I was sitting there like something poached. All it takes is one wave and you kind of freeze up – I mean, I did. I had kind of counted on how Donnie turned out, well not exactly, but I knew he would sacrifice something dear to him. Definitely an interesting film worth seeing, and I think, though I haven't seen it unfortunately, the director's cut would have been the better choice. Otherwise, I have nothing else to add. Any more words Donnie Darko has taken from me. (07/27/2009)

Hypnotic, captivating, and unclassifiable in genre. It contains sharp satire, elusive sci-fi, and playful originality, yet I cannot convey Donnie to an unfamiliar viewer. It completely deviates from the norm in scenes with the rabbit, excellently builds up the ending, and above all, shows for the first time that Jake Gyllenhaal truly has talent. An unforgettable, although far from flawless experience. (01/25/2006)

It is said that some films age like fine wine, but it is actually more appropriate to say that we appreciate them more or differently as we ourselves age. Donnie Darko is the ultimate eruptive debut and a distillation of everything that its creator had done before. Mainly, however, Kelly succeeded in presenting a multi-layered depiction of growing up through the use of sci-fi motifs and a mysterious narrative. When you’re the same age as the protagonists, you may – like the protagonists themselves – concern yourself the most with finding an unambiguous answer for the meaning, causality and internal logic of the narrative. Paradoxically, with the passing of years, you begin to appreciate the fact that the purpose of all of the fantastical motifs and WTF elements is to enable the film to deal with and expressly depict the broadest possible range of thoughts and emotions churning in the adolescent body. The title character thus attempts to find answers to the existential questions of fate, free will and predestination, he wants to destroy and create, to live and die, he is angry at everything, everyone and himself, but he wants to be loved, or at least to get laid. Kelly created a sophisticated labyrinth full of misleading alleyways that, however, help to further examine the various sides of the protagonist, who, like all teenagers, is the centre of his own world. And that offers viewers several levels of pleasure and engagement, whether as metaphor, story, construct, mystery, projection screen or mirror. Donnie Darko is thus to adolescence what Fight Club is to masculinity. (11/19/2021)