All Critics (108)
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Top Critics (17)
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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.
If this movie ever figured out what it wanted to be when it grows up, it would be a terrific one.
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.
In its metaphysical concerns and challenging notions about personal and social responsibility, the film aims much higher than most American youth pictures.
Donnie Darko's flaws, though, are those of a young, talented filmmaker reaching beyond his current grasp. That's a more forgivable sin than soulless excess or hubris-fueled incompetence.
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