Haven't seen it since it came out.
Donnie is instantly a bit of an annoying cliché (he even occasionally pulls a weird zoned out face because that's what crazy people do.) He's just so dark and moody isn't he? The dialogue, like with the 'go suck a fuck', around the table was juvenile and didn't fit into the average suburban setting at all. You won't find any naturalism here. A lot of the dialogue is just annoying teens being dicks. Maybe they've watched too much Tarrantino or maybe the writer of the movie did? It rambles.
So we watch flat characters wander around in this world for a while until something obviously creepy happens for the sake of it and then it's back to tarrantino light for dialogue filler. It's not especially interesting to look at either. For a movie that's apparently deep (do smurfs have dicks) not is explored within the themes or characters. Themes are replayed over and over again like the fear one. And what does it say about fear? Just that it's fear. Or maybe its more than that but... nah let's just leave it at that because Donnie had his rebellious teen rant about fear and that's what really matters. That's what this movie essentially is... a teen rant. Sometimes they talk about mom and school. Y'know deep shit. Then it'll touch on a bad science or talk about time travel to try and create some depth with the Darko theory. That's the teen science audience pleased also and the depth sorted then...
How this is considered thought provoking is truly bizzare.
Donnie apparently has daylight hallucinations. These are mild usually. Donnie is obviously a lot crazier then that. A lot. He'd never be able to control his schizophrenia like he does. Or he just happens to have episodes at the right time. And the bunny. Awful.
Feels like a contrived cult movie too. It takes elements that it knows will elevate the movie to a level of adoration and plays them out fully. Edgy kid character. Cool retro soundtrack. Trashy cool dialogue. Darkness. Pretentiousness. Being relatable to 'damaged teens'. It's a pure adolescent movie and a movie for people to put on the movie CV to look like they get it. Not scary either. I'm suprised Netflix hasn't made a Donnie Darko series yet?

A complete mind-bender of a movie that put Jake Gyllenhall on the map, introduced the creepiest rabbit costume of all time, and may make you surprisingly tear up to a remake of Tears for Fears "Mad World."

Interesting movie with several readings.

As with 2001: A Space Odissey, it is needed a reading of the actual explanation for the events to fully understand the original idea ... if you are interested in such explanation ...

***Cult flick with sophisticated themes, great cast, but meh story***

Released in 2001 and written/directed by Richard Kelly, "Donnie Darko" is a drama/fantasy starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a troubled California teen dogged by apparitions of a man in an evil rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit several crimes, after he narrowly escapes a peculiar accident concerning a jet engine falling from the sky. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays his sister, Holmes Osborne & Mary McDonnell his parents, Drew Barrymore his teacher, Katharine Ross his therapist, Jena Malone his girlfriend, Noah Wyle his science teacher and Patrick Swayze a self-help guru. Patience Cleveland is on hand as Grandma Death.

While the movie flopped at the box office, it has since become a serious cult hit. I saw it recently for the first time and went into it cold without knowing anything about the intricacies behind the plot. The only thing I knew was that the kid was harassed by an ee-vil bunny apparition. The film mildly works as a high school drama with a satirical smirk. But the story's just not engaging enough on that level. While the movie has some quality women, it fails to capitalize on their presence (Barrymore, for instance, is barely in it). But Jake is a solid protagonist, even somewhat sympathetic despite the curious things he does.

By the middle of the second act I found myself getting bored with the story and trying to figure out what was going on, but the film perks up in the last act, particularly when it reveals the truth about the scary bunny guy. After viewing, my overall impression was that the story never really took off and was burdened by perplexing ambiguities even while possessing some fascinating elements. I came up with a theory to explain the events (explained below) but, upon reflection, I realized that all the pieces didn't fit. And the movie simply wasn't entertaining enough to bang my head further trying to figure it out. I would've given the movie a mediocre 5/10 rating, but after investigating the official meaning and the alternative explanations I had to admit that the film is genius in this respect. It just needed to be attached to a more interesting story with more stimulating characters.

The film runs 113 minutes, which is the version I saw; the Director's Cut runs 20 minutes longer. It was shot in Los Angeles and surrounding areas (Angeles National Forest, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Clarita, Burbank & Calabasas).

GRADE: B-

ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY (***SPOILER ALERT*** Don't read unless you've seen the movie):

My casual interpretation turned out to be one of the alternative explanations of the movie, the so-called "Donnie Is Shown the Future" explanation, which suggests that Donne is shown the future via the future ghost of Frank and so he sacrifices himself at the end to save everyone. But, as noted above, there are too many holes in this interpretation.

A couple of other popular explanations are the banal Schizophrenia Theory, where the film shows the protagonist going through an episode of his illness, and the Dream Theory, where it was "all just a dream," which is too clichéd and idiotic to even consider.

The 'official' interpretation I would've never pieced together because it's just too sci-fi-oriented and complex: It's the Tangent Universe Theory, which suggests that time in the Primary Universe (i.e. reality) is occasionally corrupted and an unstable alternative universe is created, but it will only last a few weeks. Nevertheless, it threatens to destroy the universe. The events you see happening in the bulk of the film are this alternative reality where the universe (or God) is correcting the error to get back to the Primary Universe using an Artifact (the jet engine), The Living Receiver (Jake Gyllenhaal), a Manipulated Dead person (the bunny guy), and so on. Google it and you'll see that the Tangent Universe explanation ties up all the loose ends.