turtlefocker
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DONNIE DARKO (2001)
This is a thread for discussing the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko. This post is my opinion of the film it is a negative one. I am eager to hear others opinions and am open to them no matter how much they differ from mine. I hope that this thread can be a place of meaningful discussion for a film that is growing a larger following by the day.
________
If you are young and dissatisfied with your family, if you do not have too many good friends, and you are having a feeling that the whole world is stupid, evil and against you, and you are wishing that someday you will have some special scientific power to destroy all evil and save the world... Donnie Darko is the perfect movie for you. Sadly it is not the perfect movie for me. No for me it is a convoluted emo mess.
Donnie Darko is a movie that tries to deal with personality disorders, time travel, predestination, and many other things. It fails to tie any of these themes together in a coherent manner. The film feels like it is intentionally trying to be confusing and philosophical. It succeeds at being confusing.
As a rated-R movie, one would at least expect the audience could handle in-depth conversations about time travel and predestination; however, the audience is greeted to teen-angsty explanations of the two. The film's dialogue relies on '80s nostalgia and discussions of pop-culture like every other post-Tarantino indie film that can't put intelligent dialogue into its characters' mouths
The cinematography is dark and murky and the only well directed sequence was basically a Tears For Fears video.
On top of that the film is unable to stand on it's own and doesn't make sense. Here are some random points to consider next time you want to call this a masterpiece.
1) I don't see how the end of the world is prevented by the new timeline. Shouldn't there still be trouble in the universe considering that the same jet engine from the future crashes through the Darko house? How does he change anything if everybody still dies when the universe collapses?
2) The film shows that Swayze is caught after Donnie sets the blaze at his house. By choosing to let himself be killed at the end of the film, Donnie doesn't set that blaze. The "you can see by his face that he's changed man" defense just isn't good enough. That does not guarantee the safety of Donnie's community, including his little sister, who's still within that guy's reach after Donnie's death. At the end of the day, you're simply conjecturing that he gets caught after the house lights come on. As Tarantino once said, "If it isn't in the movie, it didn't happen."
Now I wont disagree that this film makes you think. I tried to contemplate what happened and this is the best I could come up with as a possible explanation:
"Everyone dreamed what happened" -Even though the timeline isn't lived out, their lives are all affected by their "dreams." Donnie Darko opens everyone's eyes through his actions and then gives them a second chance by sacrificing himself.
But then I started thinking about the engine:
3) So if the engine misses the wormhole, why does it still go back in time with Donnie? With Donnie being dead that means the same thing happens all over again, (but just without Donnie), and the same airplane is going to be in the same spot with the wormhole. Whether or not the people remember what happened last time doesn't matter because the universe is still going to end. Now you could argue that Donnie did the best he could under the circumstances, he followed all the clues, but he still failed preventing the end of the universe. Richard Kelly did not communicate what he meant to, you have to read a bunch of **** on the dvd and website. The film doesn't stand on its own.
… And, don't anybody give me that **** about it being on the website or dvd. As Tarantino once said, "If it isn't in the movie, it didn't happen."
turtlefocker
This is a thread for discussing the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko. This post is my opinion of the film it is a negative one. I am eager to hear others opinions and am open to them no matter how much they differ from mine. I hope that this thread can be a place of meaningful discussion for a film that is growing a larger following by the day.
________
If you are young and dissatisfied with your family, if you do not have too many good friends, and you are having a feeling that the whole world is stupid, evil and against you, and you are wishing that someday you will have some special scientific power to destroy all evil and save the world... Donnie Darko is the perfect movie for you. Sadly it is not the perfect movie for me. No for me it is a convoluted emo mess.
Donnie Darko is a movie that tries to deal with personality disorders, time travel, predestination, and many other things. It fails to tie any of these themes together in a coherent manner. The film feels like it is intentionally trying to be confusing and philosophical. It succeeds at being confusing.
As a rated-R movie, one would at least expect the audience could handle in-depth conversations about time travel and predestination; however, the audience is greeted to teen-angsty explanations of the two. The film's dialogue relies on '80s nostalgia and discussions of pop-culture like every other post-Tarantino indie film that can't put intelligent dialogue into its characters' mouths
The cinematography is dark and murky and the only well directed sequence was basically a Tears For Fears video.
On top of that the film is unable to stand on it's own and doesn't make sense. Here are some random points to consider next time you want to call this a masterpiece.
1) I don't see how the end of the world is prevented by the new timeline. Shouldn't there still be trouble in the universe considering that the same jet engine from the future crashes through the Darko house? How does he change anything if everybody still dies when the universe collapses?
2) The film shows that Swayze is caught after Donnie sets the blaze at his house. By choosing to let himself be killed at the end of the film, Donnie doesn't set that blaze. The "you can see by his face that he's changed man" defense just isn't good enough. That does not guarantee the safety of Donnie's community, including his little sister, who's still within that guy's reach after Donnie's death. At the end of the day, you're simply conjecturing that he gets caught after the house lights come on. As Tarantino once said, "If it isn't in the movie, it didn't happen."
Now I wont disagree that this film makes you think. I tried to contemplate what happened and this is the best I could come up with as a possible explanation:
"Everyone dreamed what happened" -Even though the timeline isn't lived out, their lives are all affected by their "dreams." Donnie Darko opens everyone's eyes through his actions and then gives them a second chance by sacrificing himself.
But then I started thinking about the engine:
3) So if the engine misses the wormhole, why does it still go back in time with Donnie? With Donnie being dead that means the same thing happens all over again, (but just without Donnie), and the same airplane is going to be in the same spot with the wormhole. Whether or not the people remember what happened last time doesn't matter because the universe is still going to end. Now you could argue that Donnie did the best he could under the circumstances, he followed all the clues, but he still failed preventing the end of the universe. Richard Kelly did not communicate what he meant to, you have to read a bunch of **** on the dvd and website. The film doesn't stand on its own.
… And, don't anybody give me that **** about it being on the website or dvd. As Tarantino once said, "If it isn't in the movie, it didn't happen."
turtlefocker
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