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[Sideways]

Now I see what the hype was about!

this was a very enjoyable movie.  Great characters, solid acting, and a really unique story, that ties-together very nicely at the end.

It does what a good movie /should/ do... it leaves you, at the end, with a lot to think about.  You have to spend a few moments going back over the events of the film, making the connections, putting the pieces together.

While it's not the best movie I've ever seen, it was definately a very good film.

[Kid Modernist]

I really really enjoyed it the first time I saw it. Frank creeped me out something fierce. The only problem with it, for me, was the second time around it lacked the creepy/weird aspect (in such great amounts). So for me it was great the first time but lacks repeatable watching-ness.

[Sideways]

SPOILER ALERT!

(click to show/hide)

The thing I've found myself wondering is; Considering he could see 'Frank' but hadn't met 'Frank', and yet there was a real person, who was shot in the eye, and wore that costume on Halloween... had he travelled back before, and just wasn't aware of it?

Maybe just an oddball theory about the movie, but perhaps he was so messed-up because he kept repeating the events, a la Groundhog Day, but unaware, until the final cycle when everything fell into place, and all these little clues were left for him to follow... so he would know how to finally break the cycle...

Sound crazy?

[TheLoweringTide]

The premise is that time moves in predestined patterns, but sometimes things go wrong and it's up to individuals with the power to alter time to fix it.

The movie itself could be open for interpretation, but if you go to the website and listen to the director's commentary, it's all pretty cut and dry.

It's an ok movie, but it's only about 65% as intellectual as it wants to be.

[Inlander]

BIG question: did you see the "Director's cut", or the (in my opinion, infinitely better) original version?

[Sideways]

No... sadly.

[Inlander]

Is that like the flipside of your proclaimed habit of answering "Yes" to a non-yes/no question?

EDIT: Oops, it was Switchblade who 'fessed up to having that habit.  In which case - huh?

[sjbrot]

What's different about the director's cut? I've seen the original (which I enjoyed), and I've seen the deleted scenes seperately.

And, TheLoweringTide, which website were you at? Because the one I saw was just one large mindfuck of a puzzle.

[Inlander]

The difference is that the deleted scenes, especially when incorporated into the Director's Cut, remove pretty much 95% of the ambiguity which made the film so fascinating in the first place.  Instead of "Huh?  Is this some weird twisted story about time-travel?  Or is it a big allegory about mental illness?  Or is it just a cool excuse to listen to a whole bunch of awesome '80s songs?"  It becomes more "Oh, so it is just some weird twisted story about time-travel."

[TheLoweringTide]

And, TheLoweringTide, which website were you at? Because the one I saw was just one large mindfuck of a puzzle.

That's it.  If you play around with it long enough you get to read some pages out of The Philosophy of Time Travel and some news reports/other things that make the plot explicitly clear.  I don't remember exactly what you have to do; it's been like 3 years since I did it.

[Daniel]

Those of you who have the Directors Cut DVD: Watch the "Darkomentary" on the second disc, about Donnie Darko's "Number One Fan".

It's horrifying.

[rive gauche]

The only reason I like that movie is because it's funny. Other than the funny parts, it's pretty cheesy.

[Bunnyman]

Saw the director's cut, which seems to be one gigantic joke, really.  I was laughing as much at the movie as I was with the movie, just because it's a teen movie peppered with utterly bollocks stabs at pretension.  I suspect that this is exactly what Richard Kelly had in mind.

Or maybe I should just see the real version.

[QC_fan]

Very strange film...but i loved watching it and couldnt stop watching it at all...you just dont know whats going to happen

If i watched it again-i dont think i would remember what would happen

[McTaggart]

For all the Aussies who are interested: SBS is showing Donnie Darko at 10:10pm on Wednesday. I think the ABC's giving us Citizen Kane on monday too. Non or semi commercial TV is awesome.

[Vitamin Q]

Frank creeped me out something fierce.

Ditto.  I normally don't get weirded out by movies, but Frank did the trick.  I was uncomfortable for the rest of the evening.  And then of course there was the idiot friend of mine who decided that he would dress up as Frank for Halloween...  Yeah, not fun.

But anywho, the movie really was good.  My only problem with it is that even though time is more or less fixed by the end, I still feel as if there wasn't full closure.  Too many questions remained in my head when the credits began to roll.  Still, I'd like to actually own it eventually.

[Bishop]

I love this movie and the directors cut clears alot up, seeing the pages from the philosophy of time travel clears it up.

[StupidityKills]

I have to admit I did not like the directors cut better at all.
I loved the deleted scenes when I first got it, but when I eventually bought the directors/collectors version (mmm hologrammy) I thought they interfered with the flow of the movie and over-explained in unecessary places.
But yes, its not without its fault but its pretty much an awesome movie. Every time I see it I think of more explainations and theories.
I like how in the commentary he (the director)  mostly focuses on how he wanted to shoot it like a comic book and doesn't bother analysing the logic and reasoning so much.

[McTaggart]

Well, I finally saw it (thankyou SBS).
If anything, I wish I could get rid of my habit of accidently finding out how stories end before experiencing them. Damn, damn, damn, damn. The fact that I already knew what would happen may have something to do with this, but I had mixed feelings about it. While it did one of the things that film, in my mind, is supposed to do: Take the audience on an emotional journey. I found it moving, even though I didn't really come to like Donnie that much.

The problem is, that I'm not sure at all whether Donnie Darko was meticulously plotted and engineered to leave it so open to interpretation or whether it just wasn't well thought out. Who the hell was Frank? Who the hell were those dudes at Grandma Death's place? What the hell did the english teacher have to do with anything? Maybe I just need to see it another twelve times.

One thing I know is that if I ever make a film I am so stealing the director's fluid camera movements and occasional odd angles.  That scene where they get off the school bus: Genius!

[Switchblade]

Is that like the flipside of your proclaimed habit of answering "Yes" to a non-yes/no question?

EDIT: Oops, it was Switchblade who 'fessed up to having that habit.  In which case - huh?

Balloon.

[Inlander]

Who the hell was Frank?

Donnie's sister's (whatsername?) boyfriend.  I think.

Who the hell were those dudes at Grandma Death's place?

The guy who held a knife to Donnie's throat was the coked-up school bully.

What the hell did the english teacher have to do with anything?

She was the film's executive producer.

[McTaggart]

She was the film's executive producer.

I know that, but she didn't seem to fit into the story much at all. Unless she was such a prominent character because she was the executive producer, then I lose a fair bit of respect for her (I forget her name, doesn't matter) and the director (I can't remember his name either, odd).

[StupidityKills]

She told him about the phrase 'cellar door' which was how Donnie got into Grandma Deaths house. Also she was dating the science teacher who helped him learn about time travel. They're all people giving him clues.

[McTaggart]

Oooooooohhh. Right. I have an old TV and it's often too dark to make out what's going on. That breaks so many movies it's not funny.

[Luke C]

I saw this film amd it sucked. Majorly sucky.

I was speaking to this girl who is a huge Donnie Darko fan who said she didnt like it when she first saw it but then read the book and then saw teh film and really liked it. So maybe I should read the book.

[mooface]

yup, frank is elizabeth's boyfriend he was with his friends on a beer run when he- [insert spoiler here].

when i first saw this movie, it was after everybody had told me how awesome it was.  usually when i go see a movie that's been hyped up, though, it lets me down.  this one didn't.  i wouldn't say it was the best movie i'd ever seen, but it did make you think.  and i loved the humor in there.  ("donnie darko?  sounds like some sort of super hero name."  "what makes you think i'm not?")

frank creeped me out, too.  for a week after seeing the movie whenever i was alone in an empty room, i constantly felt like frank was standing behind me, and would turn around constantly, expecting to see him standing there...

[Mark7]

Oooooooohhh. Right. I have an old TV and it's often too dark to make out what's going on. That breaks so many movies it's not funny.

I had the same problem with the TV I used to have.  It was even losing the ability to process greens before I finally replaced it with my lovely new one