Donnie Darko?

Do you think this is alright to show to my kids?

keep in mind I teach a bunch of hardened ghetto kids who know Chapelle by heart. There's really nothing horrid in it but cursing right? Do you think they just wouldn't be into it?

I have to show a movie tomorrow and don't have anything else on VHS they haven't seen that I think would remotely interest them and i'm too lazy to go the vid store.

help pls.

school destruction: see I think they would love that. I don't know if it's possible to give them any new ideas in terms of vandalism/destruction.

but yeah . . maybe not. damn.

Rock-n-roll high school? They hate guitar music though. . .

damn brats.

The biggest hits i've had on movie day: Drumline and an 8 hr tape of the simpsons.

tried showing viva la bam and they were *so* uninterested in skating white boys

obv. I have no regard for uplifting my children as I'm wallowing in the same gutters as they.

(the school's going to six flags but the kids who can't afford it or who got in trouble are staying behind)

they would probably get pissed off.

and it isn't crap

Seriously, though, visit the website. It will shed a lot of light. And it's very eerie at 3 am.

http://www.donniedarko.com/

maybe i could make this a class assignment. . hmm.

fwiw, we are finishing up a novel about some HS kids who kill their English teacher.

hopefully my kids aren't that open to suggestion.

I don't believe (I used to be very much the opposite but that was before I really saw many movies) every question needs to be answered blatantly in a movie for a movie to succeed. Although according to the director, he did intend it to be a straight science-fiction flick, especially if you see one of the deleted scenes.

Again, I'm not so certain that's a positive thing, because it looked like it was intended to be one of those "what just happened" movies, but it explains all of the major plot points.

The one major thing I never got was the whole Chinese girl and her playing with her earmuffs. I think that was me completely paying too much attention to mundane details...I almost thought she was an alien

I like the movie better not really making sense (cf. Mulholland Dr.) and liked it much better before I ever saw the extras.

The director's cut has some good stuff, if it's the same as the deleted scenes - Jake G. on a golf course looking hungover, etc.

I liked Mulholland, too, again, if you approach that one with "linear film/linear plot" in mind, you'll be sorely disappointed, but the absolutely creepy/chilling vibe the movie gave off and themes were excellent once I got wind of what was actually going on.

One of the deleted scenes that I think would have given a little too much away was the psychiatrist admitting she gave Donnie placebo pills.

I've seen it already on VHS back in the day, but I want the dvd version of it badly.

Sam, what movies do we have to choose from?

(I love it FWIW, Ive seen it dozens of times)

(the school's going to six flags but the kids who can't afford it or who got in trouble are staying behind)

my kids range from about 13-16. they really don't know what goth means. i don't think they'd like it just b/c it'd bore them.

i don't know what i'm going to put on. maybe just another tape of the simpsons. like i said drumline went down massively last year but i can't think of another "urban" (read: black) pg movie that's come out recently.

hey, maybe i could get house party!

Wait, are we talking the Len Cariou/Angela Lansbury Broadway version that was filmed for DVD? Cause that would rule. "MORE HOT PIES!"

Since when did Dave Chapelle start posting here under a chick's name.

I'm thrilled to see Sondheim fans (or at the very least, Sweeney fans) on ILM.

I'm rich, bioooooooootch!

As far as "pretentious" goes, I think this word gets tossed around too liberally. I didn't see much pretense in Darko. Yea, it was one of those "artsy" films, but gimme a break, it didn't approach David Lynch or others in terms of bombast at all. (not that I'm knocking Lynch at all.) It was more on the level.

Make them watch pink floyd's the wall or the rocky horror picture show - encourage the crossdressing/nipple shaving demographic in your class.

Dave, you're right that would've been great. As it is I didn't make it to the vid store (as I supsected I wouldn't) as I was too busy bouzing it up. (world's greatest teacher! woohooo!) Instead I brought my tape of Simpsons and a tape of Space Ghost/Sifl & Olly. Hopefully with that and my deck of Uno cards the heathens will be soothed.

Yeah they'd love Friday but I don't think I could get away with showing that in school. They aren't quite HS age (have quite a few 15 & 16 yr olds but average age is prolly 14) but I don't think that'd matter. I just don't think they'd like Darko period. I dunno. . .

Anyway, my vote is for Fear of a Black Hat.

The director's cut is supposed to be released pretty soon.

a) I don't understand you, you smart-arse bastard.

b) You've heard both the first two Cure albums? Yeah, I'm a big fan of Classical Literature meself.

http://www.gamebooks.org/gallery/cjr40.jpg

FUCK DONNNY DARKO

Some of us was playin' first editions of "Warlock of Firetop Mountain".

Why does every thread I start/revive end up overrun by googling morans?

I'm sorry my dear Ilx, truly I am.

God, I just watched this again tonight...I cried a lot. Along with Inland Empire, this is my favorite film of the millenium. Is the director's cut worth it? I'm not into the sci-fi part of the film AT ALL, and based on the IMDB boards, it sounds like Kelly added a lot more of those elements. But obviously I like the scenes that make me cry. So, uh, verdict?

the movie blows

Emo vs. cynic in a fight to the death

I win

This is one of three films I use as a litmus test to determine companionship probability.

I use Salo.

companionship probability = compatibility

I GENIUS

BTW, according to IMDB, teenpop flava of the month Ashley Tisdale was in this?!?!?!

This is one of three films I use as a litmus test to determine companionship probability.

-- Tape Store

ME TOO!

director's cut is worth watching. i never really "got" the movie - not in any straightforward kinda way. but that's part of what makes it so great; you don't need to fully understand every theme or subtext to really enjoy it.

"why don't you take off that stupid rabbit suit"
"why don't you take off that stupid man suit"

watching jake use the same tics he used in donnie darko later on in zodiac was truly annoying

get more acting skills

have you noticed how brad pitt is the same? i thought he was great in kalifornia, but he does the same head/hand/eye shit in all his roles.

Sexy Beast (2000) Vs Donnie Darko (2001)
http://www.bruner.net/blog/img/rabbit-sexybeast.jpg http://entimg.msn.com/i/parents_teens/DonnieDarko_150x208.jpg

Except for the scene where Donnie has a talk with his dad, the director's cut is awful. They replaced Echo and the Bunnymen with INXS, guh.

yeah, the INXS replacement was just dumb - the e & b song was so PERFECT for that scene. i still don't get why he did that.

I liked the INXS actually - Echo goes somewhere else now. Replaced it because he couldn't get the rights to the song originally.

I love that Sexy Beast comparison. Something I haven't heard before.

Made me cry, too, but just the scene where him & the girl are presenting their invention and the two rednecks make stabbing gestures at her. Oh god, the tears.

This is one of those movies (like Lost in Translation and Fight Club) that I loved the shit out of for a couple years during high school, but watched again recently and now find kinda ridic.

No aspersions cast on yall, though. Enjoy.

The main thing this influenced in my life was my first mushroom trip. And, that's all.

I identify with this film as much because it is set in 1988 which was my final year of high school so it really feels like "my time", I guess.

I identify with it because high school was fucking rotten, something "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Grease" did not successfully convey.

This is one of those movies that I loved the shit out of for a couple years during high school, but watched again recently and now find kinda ridic.

otFm

so?

I identify with it because high school was fucking rotten, something "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Grease" did not successfully convey.

-- Abbott

^^^exactly how i feel.

I might not connect with DD as much in five years (because of the obvious teenage isolationist aspects), but I bet it will still make me cry (mostly because it deals with death..."Every living creature dies alone" etc.).

so deep, man

Did I call it deep? Oh, I didn't? Huh, interesting.

I dont think I ever thought it was "deep", just really arresting and mesmerisingly strange and touching, in so many places.

And I had great fun working out the back story, but I do that sort of thing.

Trayce OTM!

and touching, in so many places.

And I have just realised how unfortunately I worded this. Heh.

This movie is horseshit, but quite watchable. I like how the cybernetic/New Age overtones -- none of which are worth a second thought -- adduced the film's teen angst.

I like how a lot of my friends got bummed when the director's cut made it clear that the movie was supposed to make sense in a shitty sci-fi way. Killed that teenage beauty for them a bit, bwah ha ha.

hahahaha otm. despite everything i like this movie. the directors cut blows, though.

Eh, I knew about the additional backstory even having not seen the directors cut, and it didnt spoil it for me at all.

I'm really pissed that I haven't been allowed to see Southland Tales yet.

It's always bothered me that the love interest, at the end, appears to be all of 12 years old (corduroy overalls + bike, right?).

Who Gretchen? Surely her and Donnie were both in final year high school (and thus 16-17?)

It's actually a strength that Richard Kelly's tonal control never wavers. If he ever winked at the material, it'd be a total disaster.

Jake's pretty good, but the perf that I most remember is Mary McDonnell's.

I kinda loved it in high school too, and I still like it a lot, but the performances by the family and Jena Malone are what keep me attached to it. It's a rather perfect fantasy for high schoolers - petty villains in authority to fight, understanding adults, doomed romance, trippy philosophizing that actually changes/saves the world. It's a mess, and it doesn't add up, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

I feel like Kelly could probably write a fantastic straight family melodrama, if he got another cast this good. Southland Tales sounded pretty dire, though.

I'm going to go watch this again and get all "SHIIIIIT. I'll never be able to create something this moving." GOODNIGHT!

director's cut suckage reminds you that the v.o. is a pretty amazing debut -- and i say this with pretty robust and well-established views on goths.

kelly's own version of what happens is rubbish: basically a 'higher power' controls everyone in the movie so that donnie sacrifices himself and closes the hellmouth, which isn't very dramatic!

THE THEATRICAL CUT IS THE GREATEST FILM OF ALL-TIME

I refuse to watch Kelly's version.

alfred otm upthread

I identify with it because high school was fucking rotten, something "Rock 'n' Roll High School" and "Grease" did not successfully convey.

-- Abbott

lolol

Yea I too was a little disappointed in the director's cut, if not for other reasons then definitely because I was used to certain songs being used in certain contexts in the theatrical version. Didn't really like the different uses for Kelly's version.

alfred offtm -- more snooty bullshit as per.

the worst thing about the dircut are the pages from the time travel book superimposed over the action!!!!

yeah so tacky.

jake and maggie g. should play siblings in more movies.

MovieWeb has reported that Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal might have cameos of the twins in the live-action Justice League of America film.

that would be from here

They can work off this bit.

lol excellent.

Are you guys excited about Donnie Darko: The Play?

http://www.amrep.org/darko/

Reading this thread has made me happy that I've never seen the director's cut. My biggest problem with the movie was that there was too much of the scifi stuff, not too little.

btw, I just recently found out that "director's cut" is biz lingo for "rough draft," not "definitive version the director wants released."

with this one, he was given extra money for some effects shots, and reinserted some scenes deleted for time, and inserted these shots of pages from the book that had been on the website and dvd and 'explain' the sf aspects of the story. it's a bit like watching 'star wars' with pages from 'hero with a thousand faces' flashed up every few scenes.

but he says neither of them is definitive.

they're all terrible

says the guy who's favorite movie is Nacho Libre

OMG NO

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/darko09.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/tapestore/darko02.jpg

Is that the English teacher or the therapist or what? The funniest bit in this flick is when he starts jerking it under hypnotherapy.

nacho libre is amazing. its time for a critical re-evaluation.

THOSE EGGS WERE A LIE STEVEN! THEY GIVE ME NO POWERS, THEY GIVE ME NO NUTRIENTS!

May the lord bless you with strength and nutrients

lol i love nacho libre

I think I'll stick with Lucha Libre

http://www.allesfilm.com/pics/Nacho%20Libre_Filmbild%20mit%20Hector%20Jimenez_n.jpg
I dont know why you always have to be judging me because I believe in science!

I'll stick with cuba libre

Richard Kelly's follow-up Southland Tales is finally coming out this month.

i have seen it. there is a thread. it's pretty fucked-up.

say more

I dont know why you always have to be judging me because I believe in science!

-- chaki, Friday, November 2, 2007 8:50 PM

classic line

I imagine this is Zach Braff's idea of a perfect movie. So edgy, so kooky and away from the mainstream!

I'm going to go watch this again and get all "SHIIIIIT. I'll never be able to create something this moving." GOODNIGHT!

-- Tape Store, Sunday, September 9, 2007 5:00 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Link

Beating us to the punch, I see.

I just watched this for the first time, but the DVD that I bought for $3.99 at the local used DVD emporium was damaged in some way, so it kept skipping and breaking up throughout the second half of the movie, so apparently I missed that after the party they went to Roberta Sparrow's house and the gfriend gets hit by a car and then DD goes back in time again. Oh, and there was no scene where DD sees Frank in the movie screen. But still, it seems that the version I saw was as good as the real version -- very oblique. "Mad World" was still in it.

I imagine this is Zach Braff's idea of a perfect movie. So edgy, so kooky and away from the mainstream!

-- DavidM, Saturday, 3 November 2007 10:00 (3 months ago) Bookmark Link

Nice zing!

What a shitty ass piece of crap movie. Where do I start with this? Ugh.

by admitting that you're WRONG

I havent watched this in fnyears.

one day you will wake up with a jet engine crashing into your room but in the brief millisecond before you die you will remember this movie and you will realize how poorly created, told, and developed the idiotic story was and you will whimper STEVE SHASTA WAS RITE

try comparing it to Eternal Sunshine and maybe it won't seem so bad

there's nothing idiotic about the story, it's v simple and v touching, and it's an impeccably crafted film, with the most incredible atmosphere ever--a mysterious, dark, ET-meets-Blue-Velvet vibe. maybe you accidentally watched the director's cut?

hmmm... maybe you accidentally spelled "crapped" with a "-ft-" ?

tbh i have no idea what i watched only that it was a DVD called Donnie Darko and it was the worst film I've seen since Synechedoche, NY which lemme guess you loved as well?

now that I'm older & thinking about this movie I am kind of smh @ the tenuous connections that drive the storyline (e.g. the cellar door thing??)

there are still a lot of things about this movie I like tho

sorry, i hope this doesn't offend you, but are you getting old?

I personally don't have anything against this movie (however I do think the ending sucks big time) but I do have to say that Donnie Darko ruined a couple good songs "Under The Milky Way" and "Killing Moon" by reviving them and making them popular amongst teenagers - bummer EMO kids in particular

It's really Eternal Sunshine that bugs me the most but I already mentioned it upthread

perhaps i am old enough to see through jr hs fantasy scripts pawned off on the bedwetting mouthbreathing wikipedia generation, so yes??? this is not Blue Velvet meets ET, it's American Beauty meets Battlefield Earth dir by MNightShamwow.

I was in my mid 30s when it came out and I liked it plenty. But I'm not cynical type.

curtis, i think one of the things you have to do w/ this movie is reconcile the differences between richard kelly's DONNIE DARKO and your own DONNIE DARKO. like, he's all about the stupid-ass sci-fi elements (the way time travel works) and he actually thinks 'cellar door' is crucial shit (these things are v clear if you've seen SOUTHLAND TALES and THE BOX, which both feature some great elements but A LOT more of the tenuous sci-fi and literary references), but if you think of the whole movie as something happening in donnie's head, him going through the motions of justifying his own death (reinventing a life where he's a hero in school, the cool rebel), all of those superfluous things work because they're a part of donnie's mind, he's a naive teenager who thinks those things are "cool"

(and fwiw Im no fan of Shamalama ding dong)

xp, yeah when i heard Kelly's 'version' of this film i was totally shocked and like "wtf that's totally NOT what this movie is about, i don't care if you're the director"

I must admit he did over-explain it way too much.

this movie is amazing and getting pissed off about the poorly developed story = lol u old

but if you think of the whole movie as something happening in donnie's head, him going through the motions of justifying his own death (reinventing a life where he's a hero in school, the cool rebel), all of those superfluous things work because they're a part of donnie's mind, he's a naive teenager who thinks those things are "cool"

This is how I understood it too, probably through wishful thinking though (it makes for a better film than any of the other explanations). He makes the villains of the film very easy to rebel against, and as if they weren't easy enough one of them turns out to be a paedophile too. Then he turns himself into a saviour promising a better life for the overweight girl and so on. He's a complete dick to his family for the first 10 minutes of the film, the cool rebel stuff only starts after the jet engine falls onto his house (which is when the fantasy starts, I'm guessing)

This is the film I hate the most.

this movie (which i love) is one of the few dvds ill watch again and again just because its so aesthetically pretty. same reason i keep watching virgin suicides.

otm! Sometimes, films are great simply cos you can immerse yrself in the atmpsphere it creates. Be it 2001, Donnie Darko, Lost in Translation, whatever.

Oh my god. Did you two find Tim Burton's Alice an immersive aesthetic experience too???

Mordy you clearly don't understand what an atmosphere is if you think Burton films have them :)

haha, shasta filling the void while whiney is sidelined
Dreadful, twee horseshit marketed to "indie" types that fratboys watch to look smart and housewives watch to look hip

I'm no fan of Burton I have to admit.

Burton is as immersive as Donnie Darko. Seriously paint-by-the-numbers suburban goth-kid alienation. If it weren't a slight anachronism I'd call it Hot Topic.

Oh my god. Did you two find Tim Burton's Alice an immersive aesthetic experience too???

― Mordy, Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:24 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark

i dont even lknow what this is

and this makes no sense to me at all

Burton is as immersive as Donnie Darko. Seriously paint-by-the-numbers suburban goth-kid alienation. If it weren't a slight anachronism I'd call it Hot Topic.

― Mordy, Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:42 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

i kind of meant the blue and the yellow but okay.

iirc Drew Barrymore's culottes were a colorful world unto themselves.

Mordy, I know this is off-topic but I would love to hear your opinion on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind if you have seen that movie

I liked Eternal Sunshine, tho it's not my favorite Kaufman or my favorite flick. tbh, I should just stay off this thread. I have this inexplicable hatred for Donnie Darko. I find it aesthetically ridiculous, I find the plot inane, the characters totally repulsive, and the cult following for it completely incomprehensible. I think Southland Tales is a better flick. Now, def some of my hate is from reading the director's notes on the film and realizing that it's just a masturbatory sci-fi thing for Kelly, but I only sought out the director's notes because I felt like I had just seen a bunch of stuff that promised really deep meaning but left me feeling totally empty. It was like reading high school poetry where the images are really heavy-handed and it's super emo, but when you probe it you realize that its just very poorly expressed. (Look, a guy in a creepy rabbit costume! The most iconic image in the flick. That must mean something, right? Nope, it's just what the dude was wearing on Halloween when he was shot.)

Donnie Darko ruined a couple good songs "Under The Milky Way" and "Killing Moon" by reviving them and making them popular amongst teenagers - bummer EMO kids in particular

songs don't get "ruined" by this

i watched this tonight for the first time since high school. i liked how it seemed very heavy handed but was also basically incoherent. what was it trying to say, if anything, about time, god, guilt, destiny, or any of the big themes it brings up? the lack of closure is unsettling and, i think, a strength of the movie. (maybe there would be closure if i studied fan analyses of the wormhole stuff but i don't plan to do that.)

the love story between donnie and the girl was very sweet, i thought, and sad. you wanted them to find some peace with each other in the midst of that hellish high school/community but the whole time you knew it was impossible because donnie was being tormented by "frank". just wrenching. i felt this movie was emotionally authentic even it was philosophically and logistically confused (which may have been intentional)

i liked how it seemed very heavy handed but was also basically incoherent.

a pretty good description of high school.

this is a very flawed movie that is better the more incoherent it is

this is also true of southland tales which i think of as a kind of horrible masterpiece

I admire ST but also find it completely unwatchable, the intro screed alone is just the worst

The Box on the other hand I kinda love, Richard Kelly getting to do another movie on the basis of the ironclad/unfuckwithable premise, then proceeding to Richard Kelly the fuck out of it.

It's a very teen movie in every way. It's also very sweet, with lots of touching relationships. What part of the plot makes sense or is pretentious isn't really important except for how it expresses some facets of teenage angst, rebellion.

It really hit the mark in creating memorable scenes in isolation. I remember so much of this movie, so many looks and lines.

I could perhaps see people being annoyed at the hype when it was originally released, hot new director and all. But now it's just a sweet artefact of its time for people who grew up with it and young people discovering it now.

watched this tonight for the first time since 2002 or so, having seen it once in the theater and then again when the DVD came out. it's still okay with some great parts but the mystique it had the first time around has dissipated for me. i don't know if this is an effect of not being 19, or the effects having dated, or just the difference between a movie where you know where it's all headed, and one where you don't. but if i wasn't one of those who was convinced the movie had deep profound meanings i remember finding the creepy Frank parts and the 'tubes' genuinely dread-inducing and unsettling and strange. that's all kinda gone now for me. the 80s throwback wiseass teen and busybody teacher stuff all still plays well though. supporting cast in this is a lot of fun.

i think it mostly holds up... saw it in a theater last year, first time in many years (tho i kinda half-watched it with someone in 2014), and the thing that stuck out to me was how memorable & funny the dialogue is. really quotable & memorable characters. sparkle motion, chut up, why are you wearing that stupid human suit, suck a fuck, "you're bitchin'... but you're not a bitch." totally makes up for the teenager philosophy & sci-fi, which has dated a bit but still found the film moving and unsettling in the same way i did whenever i saw it in the early 00s. also should say i've never seen the 2004 director's cut which supposedly explains way too much & ruins the film.

GRETCHEN: My mom had to get a restraining order against my stepdad. He has emotional problems.
DONNIE: Oh, I have those, too. What kind of emotional problems does your dad have?
GRETCHEN: He stabbed my mom four times in the chest.
DONNIE: Oh.

wow tonight i rewatched this for the first time in forever (since high school i think? and it was prob the director’s cut then, which actively undoes pretty much everything interesting about the movie)

obv i’m one of the biggest/only richard kelly partisans here but i still think this movie is really really good. surprised how much of it i remembered, surprised i forgot how...sad it is

but i also think southland tales (theatrical cut; the draft he submitted to cannes is just a chore to sit through) and the box are both much better films

oh man I didn't know the Cannes cut of ST was "out there"

yeah! i watched it years ago but iirc there are torrents floating around. not worth seeking out imo

unless you want to spend three hours identifying with the crowd that booed it

got shown this the other day for the first time. very enjoyable!

the satirical elements hold up well

The smurf rant is also hilarious

god damn it when will he get to make another movie

Brad, you're not alone regarding being a partisan for Kelly. Love both DD and ST

anyone got any thoughts on this film now?

good practice for mulholland drive

Underrated as a comedy. Movie is consistently funny as fuck.

Seen it probably half a dozen times, most recently two years ago in a theater. Everything holds up: score is awesome, script is tight, it is legit eery and suspenseful still, whole cast is great, and the teenage philosophy / sci-fi / semi-goth end of it is balanced perfectly. Never seen the director's cut, only ever heard that it over-explains the mystery and destroys the balance.

the director's cut famously ruins every single thing that makes the movie work

hahaha, re: changing the opening song from the Killing Moon to INXS' Never Tear Us Apart (retch):

In an interview with the British music magazine NME, Ian McCulloch—the lead singer of Echo & the Bunnymen—branded Kelly a "knobhead" for making the change.

I saw the director's cut first and always preferred it, including (especially?) that musical change. The movie is set in 1988, not 1984!

flappy otm

Yup

Yep x3

The movie is set in 1988, not 1984!

🤔 no it must be set in 2004, once the Michael Andrews / Gary Jules version of Mad World had been a hit

I didn't buy a copy of Ocean Rain until around 1990; remember pre-Internet these things spread much less quickly. 1988 is about four months after 1984 in 2018 time.

OK, but "Never Tear Us Apart" instantly recalls 1988 for me because I can remember hearing it everywhere as a kid in the fall of that year, so it takes me to that setting right away. Plus, I think it works really well for that early morning bike ride in the sun and its message relates to the central theme of the movie. "The Killing Moon" doesn't do any of that for me.

Tbf, I've never liked Echo or his Bunnymen.

Anyway, that's not my only reason. I never felt like the director's cut 'over-explained' things by providing an attempt at a coherent narrative.

Also, I really like the scenes where Donnie's Dad tells him about the 'conspiracy of bullshit' and the one where Gretchen disagrees with him about Watership Down in English class.

I love INXS but I hate that song and I always have... so that's a factor. But lyrically, I can't buy that Never Tear Us Apart makes more thematic sense than the Killing Moon for Donnie Darko.

"The Killing Moon" works perfectly in that opening sequence. Now that I think about it, the only part of the director's cut I've seen is the opening with the INXS song instead, and it blows. The rhythm and mood are completely ruined. Night and day difference imo.

"I think we should buy him a moped"/"I think we should get a divorce" - is this scene in the theatrical release? Because it is also A+.

Anyway, I realize that I may be the only person who holds this opinion and I'm OK with it. The world can have its Bunnymen.

as a teenager this movie pretty much defined the feelings i had to a tee, the angst was super relatable

1988 is about four months after 1984 in 2018 time.
I dunno, it is a pretty long time in 80s pop terms, but in any case it's surely an age for a teenager; the difference between 13 and 17 (or however old Donnie is supposed to be.)

I prefer the Bunnymen song in that scene and in general, but INXS does situate it definitely in 1988 rather than 1984 and I guess that's what the director was going for. Not sure it was necessary to do that, mind.

(I just saw the Director's Cut for the first time.)

Not sure I've seen the movie at all since it was first released. Still good and I did have the weird sense of being transported back to 2001 to see it afresh just like the quote from Total Film on box promissed! This film was zeitgeisty in an actually a bit spooky way.

Donnie Darko (2001) pic.twitter.com/4j5bFLgzcA

— 🇨🇳naj (@diebymargiela) April 23, 2019

CNN had a piece on this today--the "Mad World" sequence has always stayed in my mind, so it seemed like a good time to go back for a second look.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/28/opinions/donnie-darko-20th-anniversary-halloween-stewart/index.html

Being gimmicky and cultish, and me being 20 years older, figured I'd get very little out of it this time. I think I liked it better, though. Looking past the rabbit (which doesn't really take up much screen time), the way it used Dukakis as a frame reminded me of The Ice Storm (Nixon) and 20th Century Women (Carter); it's fun to puzzle out these connections, and pretty much anything you come up with works. Also reminded me of Ordinary People, and I'll take this, gimmick and all. Jake Gyllenhaal's really good, Drew Barrymore weirdly so. Great line (which has its own YouTube clip, so evidently it's well known): "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion."

(Just read the linked piece. That the film captures something fundamental about 2021 seems a little tenuous--such anxieties have been a fact of life forever.)

I saw it again last month too. I liked it way more, or at least in a different way, this time. I'll check in with it again in another 20 years.

it remains a great movie and whenever i rewatch it i like it more too

justice 4 richard kelly

Was surprised to see Seth Rogen pop up in it. I had no idea who he was in 2001.

would like Richard Kelly to appear again, it’s been many years

(xpost)Same...Good high school film. And Katherine Ross, of course.

Showed it to my Darko-age kids recently, they were baffled but intrigued. The film has such a weird specific doomy vibe, it really sustains this building dread all through it.

Has anyone dared to watch S. Darko? It appears to be really hated going by internet scores, and it probably really *is* terrible, yet I remain intrigued.

i actually read a really good positive review of s. darko on letterboxd a few months ago but that of course doesn't say anything about the film lol

one of these days i'll watch it out of boredom

just don't watch the Director's Cut!

heres my story with this movie. I was on a trip to visit family in Ohio around like 2005 or so when it came on TV. unfortunately we had to be going somewhere so I missed the end and was thinking about it for the next couple days because I found the movie so intriguing. I told my roommate this b/c I knew he saw it and he said "oh you don't need to watch the end, it's dumb and doesn't explain anything" and I just forgot about it after that. but man it's a great movie up to that point. I should probably watch it for myself.

just don't watch the Director's Cut!

― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Monday, November 1, 2021 8:39 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's too late, i owned it in high school and have actually seen it a lot

prepared me for the text overlays in the box tho, which are awesome

Even the addition of "Voices Carry" couldn't save the Director's Cut for me.

“I'm pretty troubled and I'm pretty confused. And I'm afraid, really, really afraid, really afraid. But I think you're the fucking Antichrist.” is something I like to say to people who insult me

takes too long to develop though, they usually hit me mid-sentence

I watched the director's cut a few months ago after not seeing it in over 10 years or so - i don't hate it as much now tbh or at least I don't find it as jarring as before.

the dialogue in this is still so great and hilarious, wish teen movies these days were half as good.

Man, what a film. Yes, the Director's Cut made me very angry

is that the version that shows Donnie impaled?

that's Donkey Darko, different movie

overdosed on the original back then, to the point where now I don't think I could bare to watch again. Not seen the cut, what's the deal?

film kinda lost a little for me hwen I read the linear explanations by director of what happened in the end sequence.

iir (almost 20 years ago, details could be sketchy here) the dvd extras had the director explaining along the lines of Donnie being some kind of comic book hero. Which just didn't do it for me at all.

Can't remember details (easily looked up) apart from the opening song being different, but I (like many I guess) felt the DC was a big ol' let down and diminished what was intriguing and affecting about the film.

overdosed on the original back then, to the point where now I don't think I could bare to watch again. Not seen the cut, what's the deal?

― Chicks and Ducks and Geese better scurry (Ste), Tuesday, November 2, 2021 2:12 PM (forty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah I only saw it once and I was really excited, but basically all it does is add in a lot of unnecessary expository scenes which spelled-out a lot of the more mysterious stuff. Plus they swapped around a lot of the music so the awesome "Head Over Heels" opening sequence was soundtracked by a different song and it just didn't work.

what song was it? "My Ding a Ling"?

IIRC it was "Mad World" but it didn't work anywhere as close to as well as "Head Over Heels". That tracking shot was for a long time one of my favourite bits of any film because the music and the camera matched up so nicely. Opening the film with "Mad World" set a completely different tone for the movie.

They used "Mad World" a second time in the director's cut? In the original, the "Head Over Heels" sequence near the start--the camera snaking through the halls of the school, with stop-motion speeding up and slowing down at intervals--is great, but so is "Mad World" at the end, the montage after the explosion. I wouldn't want to mess with either.

The ease with which this can be discovered is going to make us look silly but I think the opener on initial release was The Killing Moon. That was swapped out for INXS - Never Tear Us Apart which was supposedly the original first choice.

I quite like The Killing Moon and Head Over Heals but the film made me a bigger fan of both.

Wasn't the opening credits song swap "The Killing Moon" (theatrical cut) for "Never Tear Us Apart?" I initially took "The Killing Moon" as a gag (Bunnymen--get it?), but Kelly claims that he had always wanted the INXS song for the opening. Really, the DC is just a bunch of examples of how Kelly didn't really seem to understand what it was that worked about his own film.

"The Killing Moon"--not a fan, but it worked fine--did open the original. INXS would be a terrible trade for almost anything.

I sure hope they didn't mess with Sparkle Motion and "Notorious," in which case I'd have to doubt their commitment.

(By the way--I think any teacher who's sat through a couple of dozen school talent shows will understand the genius of Sparkle Motion. And they're like the ultimate time capsule. I think the first year I taught, we had two or three Spice Girls routines; midway, it'd be Katy Perry; by the time I finished, Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande.)

dance routines are a huge step up from the school talent show performances I remember. it was all lip syncing. watching some poor schmuck mouth like a robot to Weird Al's "yoda", holding a yoda doll and body otherwise completely still. i've a clear and horrible memory of one kid wearing a hawaiian shirt, holding a pineapple, and singing a song that went "oh mama, let me taste the mango. oh mama, let me taste the mango. oh mama, let me taste the mango. i like to eat sweet juicy fruit."

The ease with which this can be discovered is going to make us look silly but I think the opener on initial release was The Killing Moon. That was swapped out for INXS - Never Tear Us Apart which was supposedly the original first choice.

― Noel Emits, Tuesday, November 2, 2021 3:52 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah yes, my bad. You are correct.