Donnie Darko (possible spoilers in this thread)

[IDBUG]

Well, no spoilers in the first post, at least.

Ok, I just finished watching Donnie Darko.

Has anyone else seen this movie?

[Kata6]

Nope, never seen it. Sorry.

[salparadise]

What the hell is Donnie Darko?

[salparadise]

....just looked it up. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 80% fresh rating (that's pretty good) and more or less describes it as a dark, bizzare cult flick featuring a lot of gloom and a mean guy ina bunny suit.

Is that pretty much it, T?

[mzdiagnosed]

"Has anyone else seen this movie?"

I saw it, P (ID). It came very highly recommended and I think that was part of the problem when I saw it. Too much hype was made about it by this person I know. To me it was kind of like a Back to the Future on prozac that's not very effectively disguising a deep and dark depression.

My favorite thing about the movie was the remake of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World." Haunting and beautiful.-- I wished the movie matched that. Maybe I was just expecting something more. That evil bunny freaked me out, though!

[IDBUG]

LOL. Last night I knew NOTHING of this movie, and I called my ex to ask if it was appropriate in any way to let the kid watch it. He said NOOO way. So I didn't let her watch it. But she caught a glimpse of Frank on the special features disc, so she later popped out at me with bunny ears on, cackling like a rubber room inhabitant. It was great.

But, I really didn't see anything wrong with the movie, at least for letting an intelligent 12 year old watch it, other than that depressive atmosphere you mentioned. Hell, X-men 3 was incredibly violent (not to mention crappy), but people think it's no big deal for a kid to watch that stuff. Still, I'm not letting her see it until I discuss it some more, and find out what her dad (and others) saw as wrong with it.

I also saw, on Rotten Tomatoes (I love that site too, Sal), that some critics were let down by the build up and hype. I knew nothing of the movie before watching it, so I liked it. After reading the Wiki entry on this movie, I understand it a lot better (but it totally gives away the plot for those of you who want to see it in the future). It's definitely interesting. Of course, I like dark stuff too (i.e. PKD, about whom I'll start a different thread later ;D).

[IDBUG]

And yeah, Back to the Future on LSD, I think. Or Paxil/Zoloft, one of those that makes you (me) insane instead of fixing you (me).

[webmistress]

I saw Donnie Darco....

[mzdiagnosed]

admin said:

I saw Donnie Darco....

I am on pins and needles WM! I wanna hear what you thought!!!!!!!

[IDBUG]

Yeah, WM, what didja think?

I can tell those that have never seen the movie how it starts, at least.

There's this kid, 16-17 years old, goes to a private school, has emotional problems. He keeps sleepwalking at night, waking up far from home. One night, he gets out of bed, starts walking around, and this rabbit starts talking to him. The rabbit tells him the world is going to end in 28+ days. Meanwhile, a jet engine falls off a plane and lands in the kid's house, right in his bedroom, in fact. The kid wakes up on the golf course the next morning, and that's about as far as I can go without spoiling it.

It's pretty interesting, but like MzD alluded to, it's better if you don't have a lot of high expectations for it. The movie is also kind of a play on all those John Hughes "teen" films we saw in the late 80s (breakfast club etc), and it very nicely (IMHO) makes fun of the school system, or at least some of the things I personally find frustrating about schools and society in general. The songs they use really underscore the mood very well, at least for me.

There's my very basic take on some of the aspects of the movie.

Someone once told me it was reflective of the experience of having been in a cult. This was in response to my assertion that The Truman Show and The Village reflected that experience. I honestly don't see that about Donnie Darko, though.

--T