The film "Donnie Darko" reviews of film critics called the terrible and extremely confusing "vinaigrette" of all the cult things of the last decade.
Forward to intellectualization!
World cinema is experiencing a visible roll in the direction of the intellectualization of film novelties. Even the most non-claimant horror stories hit into social issues and intelligence. Here is the debut picture of Richard Kelly "Donnie Darko" expert reviews dubbed one of the most accurate and original projects of the turn of the century. After all, the density of the semantic load for a minute of timing in it is enormous, from such an abundance the head begins to spin. The film is quite simple in content, but its essence is much more complicated, more pretentious than David Lynch's “Mulholland Drive”.
Plot
“Donnie Darko” is a film whose story unfolds in the vastness of provincial America on the eve of the 1988 elections. The main character - a sullen teenager-high school student Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) - has a pronounced antisocial behavior. From the obsession to burn the school he was distracted by sessions of psychoanalysis and psychotropic drugs. His family is far from perfect: his mother is a tantrum (Mary McDonnell), his father is a bore (Holmes Osbourne), two close-minded sisters, and his younger brother is a bespectacled nerd. Being under the influence of tablets, the guy becomes a sleepwalker. Once in his hallucinations there is a huge rabbit, engaging in philosophical conversations with the hero and luring Donnie out of the house. On the same night, an airplane engine falls onto the family’s house, just like the main character’s bedroom. Donnie is not very happy about saving his own life, because the rabbit informed him that in 28 days the world will end. Darko expects to start time back, he has two ways. This is the plot of the painting “Donnie Darko” without spoiler. The meaning of the film is carefully veiled by the creators and varies depending on the genre affiliation chosen by the viewer: from science fiction, psychiatric drama to horror and mysticism.
Kunstkamera characters
“Donnie Darko” is a film in which, in addition to the main character and a strange rabbit, a real Kunstkamera of characters is presented. The psychologist (Patrick Swayze), who is rather a preacher engaged in the underground distribution of child pornography, is at least surprising. The literature teacher (Drew Barrymore), who teaches her subject with not quite traditional pedagogical methods, also attracts attention. By the way, Swayze and Barrymore are as good as ever. Actors played small roles, but demonstrated aerobatics. The paranoid magic of Donnie Darko (the actors seemed to absorb the author’s idea) lifted their acting skills to the limit. One of the key is the character of a physics teacher (Noah Wile), who introduces the younger generation to the possibility of time travel. The school group touches, diligently and hilariously dancing under Duran Duran. Frightening Grandmother Death, an ex-nun, an ex-teacher, and now the crazy elderly neighbor of the protagonist. But not a single character was given the opportunity to surpass Donnie Darko's oddity. Actors who played the roles of the above heroes demonstrated remarkable talent by realizing the director’s idea.
Another kinomix
Director Richard Kelly presented film lovers with a film that is not only a character’s kunstkamera, but also an insane mix of plot motifs, ideas and genre models. But the postmodernist will have nothing to do on viewing, because the Kelly project is not a game of allusion, but a test to fit everything that worries, which is important and expensive, into the first work. All that the author managed to change his mind, revise and read in his 25 years. A true connoisseur of cinema will find in “Donnie Darko” (reviews confirm this statement) anything your heart desires: from “Alice in Wonderland” to cult horror films. A plane was taken from King’s novel, which fell into the tunnel of time, from the prologue of Magnolia - a fantastic engine fall from the sky. The atmosphere of the picture and the school weekdays of the protagonist will certainly remind of “Virgin Suicides”. The mysterious door leading to the basement, behind which, according to the protagonist, the clue is hidden, looks like a creation of Tim Burton, but the dizzying climax resembles The Sixth Sense.
Modern trends
The director’s attempt to express his position was successful. Obvious references to film works of the last decades, like pieces of a mosaic, have ideally formed a single whole, and the independent project “Donnie Darko” has turned out. Critics' reviews of parallels with other films are called not stupid borrowings, but a consequence of the fact that Kelly is in the same creative environment with the best contemporary directors. Therefore, the film should not be called a continuous hash, it is rather an accurate reflection of the spirit of our era.
The secret of persuasiveness
The secret of the credibility of “Donnie Darko”, the meaning of the film lies in the speaking surname of the main character, it is not by chance that it was put into the name (dark - gloomy, dark). The whole picture is like chaos reigning in the teenage mind on the finest, almost ghostly verge with a nervous breakdown, the plot contains all the answers to exciting questions. Everything is concentrated in the narrative: suffering, children's insults, readiness for self-sacrifice and foreboding of death. The viewer, while watching, almost physically feels the pain of the main character, whose inner world is tilting and cracking at the seams like the skin of an airplane entering a turbulence zone. Another moment - and disaster can not be avoided. It can be prevented only at a very high price. Such reviews can be heard from the audience.
Better late ...
In Russia, the film came out with a decent delay. Perhaps such a delay is only for the better, because he is clearly ahead of his time. Nobody expected the return of the fashion for Duran Duran in 2001, few were afraid of fantasies about the falling planes and certainly parodies of those who forbid books were incomprehensible. Only now comes the realization that Richard Kelly was moving in the right direction. Reviews say that the film prompts you to think, and not at all cheerful, rather scary, cleaner than the plot. For example, that in a situation of total misunderstanding for a teenager, the only right way out is to let it go by chance, by chance. Or that to think and act independently is a sure way to outrage the morals of others and disgrace the family. Not to mention the fact that the development of events chosen by Donnie on his own is unfavorable, the hero actually commits suicide. Can this be a worthy example in a society in which the number of teenage suicides is growing at an awful rate? In general, the fate of the picture is incomprehensible; Promising, as it seemed, the director was missing somewhere, there are no new projects and expensive tempting offers.
"WITH. Darko
In 2009, the controversial film “S. Darko, ”which individual filmmakers positioned as the sequel to“ Donnie. ” The director of the first episode, Richard Kelly, flatly refused to take part in the new project. "WITH. Darko ”caused a lot of criticism, many fans of the first part claimed that such a masterpiece as“ Donnie Darko ”should not be continued. Critics who evaluated the sequel noted that the replacement of the creative group - the director, screenwriters - and the complete absence of any logical connection with the original film caused a storm of indignation and a negative attitude of the viewer. No wonder the second film has an extremely low rating.