Hey, where is everyone now? Well, I would like to start a discussion about the film
Donnie Darko Spoilers, which apparently, only joker and I have seen. I personally think it was one of the best films of 2002, and surely one of the best debut feature films from an American director, Richard Kelly. The film is filled with dazzling technique and great acting, is funny, dark, intelligent, and touching (especially the interaction between Jake Gyllenhaal and Jena Malone, as well as one of the most realistic depctions of a suburban family; Donnie's conservative, Republican dad, normally a target in suburban satires, still seems to be a great father and a great guy, and his reactions to Donnie's questioning of his gym teacher and the New Age guru is hilarious). It also has perhaps one of the best soundtracks, filled with 1980s alternative music (when that actually meant something), starting with an Echo and the Bunnyman song (very ironic given the presence of Frank, but I forget the title, I think it was the "Killing Moon"), and reaching what I thought was a really effective use of the Joy Division song "Love Will Tear Us Apart" during the party sequence as Donnie and Gretchen comfort each other (a little bit of foreshadowing). I will have to watch it again, principally for two reasons, the theater where I saw it doesn't have the best sound system, and consequentially I could not always here the dialogue, and, more importantly, I would like to rexamine the ending of the film. Though the film is extremely ambitious, I'm not sure that it all hangs together thematically, and I am more than a little confused by what is going on in the end, as time seems to fold back upon itself.
Perhaps the apocalypse that Frank speaks of it a personal apocalypse; by sacrificing himself, Donnie saves his family and Gretchen?
Joker any comments, I just want to start a serious dialogue that won't get lost in the chatter.
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