Donnie Darko (2001)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 108
Fresh: 92 | Rotten: 16
Richard Kelly's debut feature Donnie Darko is a daring, original vision, packed with jarring ideas and intelligence and featuring a remarkable performance from Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled title character.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 7
Richard Kelly's debut feature Donnie Darko is a daring, original vision, packed with jarring ideas and intelligence and featuring a remarkable performance from Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled title character.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 29,532,807
My Rating
Movie Info
Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a bright and charming high-school student who also has a dark and willfully eccentric side; he does little to mask his contempt for many of his peers and enjoys challenging the authority of the adults around him. Donnie is also visited on occasion by Frank, a monstrous six-foot rabbit that only Donnie can see who often urges him to perform dangerous and destructive pranks. Late one night, Frank leads Donnie out of his home to inform him that the world will come to an
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Cast
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Jake Gyllenhaal
Donnie Darko -
Jena Malone
Gretchen Ross -
Mary McDonnell
Rose Darko -
Holmes Osborne
Eddie Darko -
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Elizabeth Darko -
Drew Barrymore
Karen Pomeroy -
Patrick Swayze
Jim Cunningham -
Katharine Ross
Dr. Lillian Thurman -
James Duval
Frank -
Noah Wyle
Dr. Monnitoff -
Daveigh Chase
Samantha Darko -
Beth Grant
Kitty Farmer -
Arthur Taxier
Dr. Fisher -
Stuart Stone
Ronald Fisher -
David St. James
Bob Garland -
Seth Rogen
Ricky Danforth -
Gary Lundy
Sean Smith -
Ashley Tisdale
Kim -
Jolene Purdy
Cherita
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Donnie Darko Trailer & Photos
All Critics (110) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (106) | Rotten (16) | DVD (54)
Kelly is a supple and courageous storyteller, boldly free-associating as he mixes parody and satire with earnest psychodrama and coming up with plot points no one could anticipate.
Donnie Darko has plenty of problems. But most stem from a young filmmaker overswinging on his first time up to the plate and hitting a deep fly out rather than a home run.
Shows plenty of promise, but it's somewhat self-involved and won't appeal to audiences who like a straightforward -- even if fantastical -- narrative.
Excitingly original indie vision.
A stunning technical accomplishment that virtually bursts with noise, ideas and references.
First-time director-writer Richard Kelly draws on a number of intriguing elements ... without including a single, crucial gem that pulls everything together.
An incredibly fascinating, star-making film that never fails to intrigue.
Donnie Darko is a bit like a teenager: brooding, complex, rebellious, and difficult to comprehend.
The Director's Cut works too hard to explain the mystery behind what really happened to teenage misfit Donnie, while the theatrical one was more mysterious and ambiguous.
Defines itself through sustained mood, otherworldly intrigue and deep, abiding humanism.
A decidedly weird time-travel drama that puzzled viewers so much that many went back to see it again and again... Unfortunately, Kelly's extended version diminishes the film's impact.
Maybe Richard Kelly's fate is to be the cult-film circuit's Michael Cimino. He has yet to match the mood or magnitude of his debut - a collision of time-travel sci-fi, commentary on '80s malaise and teen angst that's simultaneously witty and poignant.
Winningly edgy teen-angst sci-fi tragicomedy.
A brilliant and truly incredible piece of art that deserves to be watched...
The film...asks the question: what if the universe as we live it, not just as we theorize it, really isn't as we imagine it? In making the mundane as bottomless as the cosmic, Donnie Darko has the guts to remain a riddle itself.
The drowsy surrealism and elaborate inconclusiveness of Donnie Darko will simultaneously guarantee it a rabid cult and put it way off limits to the don't-get-its.
The directors cut of Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly was screened at the Venice Film Festivals a couple of years ago, a film I missed for sure when it was released in 2001 and one of those pearls like Blade Runner that just is haunting screening after scree
Kelly captures, better than any film in recent memory other than Election, what it feels like to be in high school.
Audience Reviews for Donnie Darko
Super Reviewer
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- Donnie Darko: If God Controlled time, then the time is pre-decided
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- Donnie Darko: I just hope, that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief... because there will be so much to look forward to.
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- Kitty Farmer: I'll tell you what he said. He asked me to forcibly insert the lifeline exercise card into my anus.
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- Frank: I've been watching you. Come closer.
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- Donnie Darko: Chapter 7: The manipulated living will do anything to save themselves from oblivion.
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- Ricky Danforth: Didn't your dad like... stab your mom?
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Latest News on Donnie Darko
September 27, 2012:
Nicolas Cage Is Ready for AmicusCage is set to star in "Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly's next project.
February 17, 2011:
Richard Kelly Heads for Corpus ChristiRichard Kelly's next project will be "Corpus Christi," a thriller about "an unstable Iraq war vet...
September 21, 2010:
Six One-Hit Wonder Directors of the Modern EraDirecting a great movie is hard -- and just because you've done it once, that's no guarantee you'll...
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Top Critic
My he was really good in here.
Thought the movie was a bit messed up. It was a bit complicated for my taste.