Donnie Darko (2001)

Cellar Door

When you're done watching Donnie Darko, you know you've seen something great. You may not know exactly what the hell just happened but you know you've seen a good movie about time travel, a boy who hates his parents, and a giant bunny.

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I'm not even going to attempt to explain the plot of Donnie Darko except to say that parts of it are complicated. A lot of it doesn't make a lot of sense (most of it actually) but the main plot has to do with a teenager who gets trapped in a tangent universe due to a time paradox and must help beings from the future fix the paradox and return the universe back to its primary state.

Yup...

But if that's all DD was about, it would be called Primer and people would suck the movie's dick just because they don't understand it. That's not the case here. People suck Donnie's dick because, at its core, it's about what every teenager experiences: a journey to discover one's place in the universe. Donnie's place is just a tad more complicated than most and involves a six-foot rabbit bossing him around and telling him to break water mains and expose kiddie porn rings run by Patrick Swayze.

By the way, ask any self-respecting emo kid what their favorite movie is, and it's Donnie Darko...100% of the time.

They made me do it.

There are a couple reasons this movie works beyond the complicated plot and time traveling aspects. The first is the cast. Holy shit is it good. This should be the model for every low-budget indie flick: find a main cast full of talented no-names and surround them with big names in bit parts. You've got Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, real-life siblings, filling out the ranks of the unknowns (at least at the time) and then Drew Barrymore (in her least annoying role EVER) and Patrick Swayze (as a motivational speaker secretly addicted to kiddie porn) in supporting roles in which they are fantastic. Everyone's good in this thing.

The dialogue is great, too. There are definitely some high-quality quotes sprinkled in there:

"What's the point of living if you don't have a dick?"

"Chuuuut uuuuup!"

"Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"

"How exactly does one suck a fuck?"

And if you're talking Donnie Darko, you can't forget about the music. Wow...it's good. The montage of everyone waking up after returning from the tangent universe as "Mad World" plays, it might be one of my favorite scenes in any movie. It's that damn good. What a perfect song to match the tone of the film...haunting and sad and...perfect. No song is a better companion to a movie than Donnie Darko and "Mad World." I gotta go listen to it right now!

Why It's Awesome: It's a movie that makes you think, but it doesn't just rely on being complicated. If it had nothing to do with time travel or tangent universes, it would still be good.

Best Quote:

Kitty Farmer: Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!