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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.
All Critics (115) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (100) | Rotten (15) | DVD (28)
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. Jun 8, 2007 | Full Review…
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.
Lisa Alspector
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. Jun 8, 2007
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.
Todd McCarthy
Excitingly original indie vision. Nov 6, 2001 | Rating: A- | Full Review…
Excitingly original indie vision.
Lisa Schwarzbaum
A stunning technical accomplishment that virtually bursts with noise, ideas and references. Oct 31, 2001
A stunning technical accomplishment that virtually bursts with noise, ideas and references.
Andrew O'Hehir
First-time director-writer Richard Kelly draws on a number of intriguing elements ... without including a single, crucial gem that pulls everything together. Oct 26, 2001
First-time director-writer Richard Kelly draws on a number of intriguing elements ... without including a single, crucial gem that pulls everything together.
Melanie McFarland
If this movie ever figured out what it wanted to be when it grows up, it would be a terrific one. Oct 26, 2001 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
If this movie ever figured out what it wanted to be when it grows up, it would be a terrific one.
Bob Graham
I certainly didn't have an emotional bond with the film. Still, I admire the risk taking and what it has to say about mental illness. Mar 6, 2019 | Rating: B | Full Review…
I certainly didn't have an emotional bond with the film. Still, I admire the risk taking and what it has to say about mental illness.
Rachel Wagner
It's ultimately the piece's surprisingly sincere, compassionate edge which transmits the most. Nov 12, 2018 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
It's ultimately the piece's surprisingly sincere, compassionate edge which transmits the most.
PJ Nabarro
[Richard] Kelly winds so many ideas, so many questions, and so much marvelously strange experience through this ambitious film that you can forgive the few loose ends and overdone caricatures amidst the richness. Dec 16, 2017 | Full Review…
[Richard] Kelly winds so many ideas, so many questions, and so much marvelously strange experience through this ambitious film that you can forgive the few loose ends and overdone caricatures amidst the richness.
Sean Axmaker
The theatrical version is some kind of compacted masterpiece, hormonal, vital, dazed, blissfully unhinged... I'm too attached to Donnie Darko to worry over its wanton weirdness, its mix of concreteness and intangibility. Apr 29, 2017 | Rating: 9/10 | Full Review…
The theatrical version is some kind of compacted masterpiece, hormonal, vital, dazed, blissfully unhinged... I'm too attached to Donnie Darko to worry over its wanton weirdness, its mix of concreteness and intangibility.
Ray Pride
It remains an aesthetically filmed blend of off-beat comedy, mind-boggling sci-fi, and subjective storytelling that serves as a singular and timeless piece of cinema. Apr 6, 2017 | Rating: 8/10 | Full Review…
It remains an aesthetically filmed blend of off-beat comedy, mind-boggling sci-fi, and subjective storytelling that serves as a singular and timeless piece of cinema.
Kyle Aaronson
Donnie Darko rightly made a star of Gyllenhaal. Jan 10, 2017 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…
Donnie Darko rightly made a star of Gyllenhaal.
Tara Brady
A smart high schooler realizes 1) that his schmarts sets him forever apart from mainstream society, 2) a society which ain't all that much to begin with and more, which hates him for his schmarts, and so 3) he concocts a plan to do something about it. A stunning debut for writer/director Richard Kelly, a poetic and apt critique of society (if obvious), as well as decent filmmaking to boot. What more do you want?
Super Reviewer
Incredible movie, completely underrated. Donnie Darko is the most unlikely hero of the small town of Middlesex in this amazing, original film. It may require more than one viewing to understand it. I highly recommend watching the director's cut.
I'm not sure what I'm supposed to come away from Donnie Darko with, I would say that this is a very clever film, or a very clueless one. ( I Think) When it begins everything that follows for the next hundred minutes has happened already. That's one way to look at it. Another way would be to see it as pure surrealism like John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness or David Lynch's Mullholland Dr. Such films are conundrums, but the question is whether or not you are capable of watching a movie that leaves you frustrated intentionally. If surrealism is your thing, you will probably have luck with Donnie Darko. It is a good one for a movie goer. Up until the climax, we are led to believe that this is a film about a young suburban middle- class boy (Donnie) who has schizophrenia and one night envisions a large satanic looking rabbit (the anti-Harvey) to tells him to do some pretty bad things if he wants to survive the end of the world in 28 days, something hours and something seconds. The people in this film are weird, though not as much so as Mulholland Dr. (In part because the acting here is more toned down, usually) One could argue though that there are too many characters. Some of the screen time that is dedicated to the supporting cast could have gone to Donnies story, which is more important. His conversations with Frank (the rabbit) are intriguing but they are too short and too few. The climax is one that takes Donnie Darko and turns it inside out. There is no literal resolution to the thriller side of Donnie Darko, only what the viewer chooses to make of it. Is it a great movie? no, but its partial originality and evocative direction are enough to make it worth a watch. 1/2 Star 1-15-2004 (Updated)
A wickedly smart, savvy supernatural thriller from the mind of one-hit wonderkid Richard Kelly about a mentally disturbed boy (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is harassed by a demonic bunny rabbit who says the end of the world is coming in 28 days. This has been heralded by many as a phenomenal film, attaining a cult following over the years, and it lives up to its reputation with a plot designed by an absolute genius of a writer and director in Kelly. Gyllenhaal's perfect performance is the major driving force behind this film, being that his character is brutally honest in addition to being severely troubled and confused, which makes him a character that is easy to empathize with. The end of the film is a head-scratcher to be sure, but once you figure out all the nitty, gritty details, it is hard not to be in awe of how creative it is. Probably one of my favorite films to watch again and gain, it is hard not to love its subversive take on 80's culture and the basic family structure in addition to its insane, ultimately brilliant storyline.
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