Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (dir. Richard Kelly, 2004) - EveryFilmIWatch Review

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Donnie Darko is a classic ‘Ending Explained' movie, by which I mean it's utterly baffling in its logical thread and will leave you scratching your head, scrolling through blogposts and YouTube videos to find answers. I’ve seen it probably eight or nine times, and I still don't have a definitive explanation for the parallel-universe-time-warp strangeness that drives the plot. I can't really give you a synopsis, because I don’t really know what happens. It’s an immensely difficult film in that sense, and I’m certain that a sizeable percentage of viewers won't have the patience for the complexity of the story.

Broadly, it's a film about an American high school student called Donnie Darko, whose upper-middle-class suburban boredom is punctuated by nocturnal visits from Frank, a giant, scary rabbit, who prophesies the exact date and time that Donnie's world will end. As far as intriguing (or unhinged) loglines go, this is a cracker. However, in some sense, the genius of Donnie Darko doesn’t have anything to do with Frank’s apocalyptic insights and Donnie's tumultuous journey to finding the truth about his psychosis. It’s the surrounding distractions: Sparkle Magic, his little sister's dance group; his cynical and cunning older sister; the cringeworthy motivational speaker endorsed by Donnie's school; his parents' bemused indifference to the finer details of the world around them; Grandma Death the haggard, old, local legend; Donnie's own instinct-driven romance with a new schoolmate; his passionate and intelligent English teacher; the list goes on and on.

I realise, each time I watch it, that it's a film with some of the richest atmosphere of any I’ve ever seen, the spiralling melodies of Spandau Ballet guiding the audience through a perfect snapshot of late 1980s suburbia. It feels so real, so complete, that it has to be fake. The film has absolutely stunning performances in every quarter, including the child actors. And there's something brilliantly uncanny about seeing Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal bicker and fight over the dining room table as siblings.

It’s important to express here that the only version of the film worth watching is the Director's Cut- this simply isn't a vision that can withstand any sort of outside interference. The notion of a commercially palatable version of this film is a ludicrous one anyway.

Beyond that, I can't say much more other than that it's an extraordinary watch; self-absorbed, lofty but cynical and ironic, a testament to teenage angst and societal decay. A rare gem.

EveryFilmIWatch is multi-channel film review project run by Sebastian Cox, ScriptUp co-founder. Further reviews can be found on Instagram.