From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 20 16:14:26 2002 From: JoBlo Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Donnie Darko (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:52:59 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31275 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293965 X-RT-TitleID: 1110922 X-RT-SourceID: 573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1021 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31275 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 99 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!xfer02.netnews.com!news.voicenet.com!nntp.upenn.edu!news.misty.com!paradoxa.ogoense.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3119 rec.arts.sf.reviews:224 DONNIE DARKO RATING: 7/10 http://www.joblo.com/donniedarko.htm For more reviews and movie trailers, visit http://www.joblo.com/ PLOT: Donnie Darko is one messed-up kid. He sleepwalks, he has visions of a giant bunny rabbit telling him what to do and he commits crimes. Is he dreaming? Is he a nice kid who's being used by someone? Is he fucked up because he spent his previous movie shoot in a giant bubble? Many questions, few answers but mucho mystery, creepiness and clues are thrown our way in the actual film. CRITIQUE: One fee-yucked up movie. I say again...one fee-yucked up film. And gloomy, too! Cheer up, guy, life ain't so bad! Alright, alright, so that's a stupid thing to say, the movie is obviously not about a happy guy in the first place. Okay, let me get back on track here. This film is yet another journey into the very popular recent realm of "mindfuck" films. Pieces which include MEMENTO, MULLHOLLAND DRIVE and VANILLA SKY in 2001, and many others before them. Hints of THE SHINING, HEATHERS and LOST HIGHWAY also make their way into this picture, and yet, even though I am relating this film to several others, it's undoubtedly unique onto its own. If there's one thing that you'll take away from this movie, and that's whether you like it or not (it's definitely an acquired taste), is that it's an extremely creative piece of work. Everything from the camerawork, which is stylistic beyond stylistic, the acting, which is rock solid from all of the majors, the mood, which is dreamy, creepy and happy all at the same time (how does that happen?) and the story, which is certainly nothing that I've seen before, make the film stand out in the pack of generics filling most movie-houses week in and week out. Now having said that, it's to note that a film being unique does not necessarily make it great (note Gyllenhaal's other 2001 film BUBBLE BOY as an example of a movie that was certainly original in its premise, but lame in execution). This movie does a great job of sticking to its battle plan the whole way through, with a genuine sense of oncoming doom crawling into every scene (good move on the title card inserts as well...it kept the momentum going), but for me, it just didn't give me enough substance to go with all of the goodies all the way through. Sure, the film is more about textures and symbols and clues as to what it's all about, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood to tune into all of the specifics on this night, and found it a little slow and redundant at times. I was never really bored or anything, the funky 80s tunes, amazing camera tricks and visual head-games were enough to keep me going, but it was just a little too melancholic and grim for me at some points, and ultimately started getting me down. As for the ending, when it did finally come together and present us with the "solution" of the master plan, I was surprised at what was delivered, but wasn't entirely clear on how everything fit into play (it's definitely the type of movie that has to be seen twice to truly gestate). I do, however, want to send some props out to Jake Gyllenhaal who does a tremendous job as the Darko which inhabited Donnie, as well as a special kudo to Mr. Patrick Swayze, taking a small break from the straight-to-video market, with a great little role in this film. Drew Barrymore, on the other hand, had no business being cast as the "teacher", other than the fact that her production company was backing said film. I just didn't buy her in the character for one second and the movie never really did establish any reason for her character to exist in the first place. The film is definitely a great start for writer/director Richard Kelly, who seems to have ingrained many a lesson from two of the top filmmaking visionaries, in David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick (notice the hints of THE SHINING and BLUE VELVET). And how's about that creepy giant rabbit?? Yipes! Overall, I would say that this film definitely won me over with its amazing style, kept me involved to a certain extent with its mysterious story, contained some solid chops from its actors and made me think about fate, coincidences and death a whole lot (if that's what you want to ponder when you watch a movie). It's not for anyone looking for a wham-bam type of movie, because it definitely moves methodically and doesn't hand you an easy answer in its final frame, but if you're looking for a mind-trip or want to drop in on someone's semi-psychotic dream, this crazy bunny-wabbit might just be the treat for you. Where's JoBlo coming from? American Psycho (10/10) - The Cell (8/10) - Lost Highway (10/10) - Memento (10/10) - Mulholland Drive (8/10) - The Princess and the Warrior (5/10) - The Shining (9/10) - The Time Machine (3/10) - Vanilla Sky (9/10) Review Date: March 3, 2002 Director: Richard Kelly Writer: Richard Kelly Producers: Adam Fields, Sean McKittrick Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal as Donnie Darko Jena Malone as Gretchen Ross Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham Genre: Drama Year of Release: 2001 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2002 Berge Garabedian ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31275 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 293965 X-RT-TitleID: 1110922 X-RT-SourceID: 573 X-RT-AuthorID: 1021 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jun 19 14:22:14 2002 From: Dennis Schwartz Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Donnie Darko (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 19:36:15 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31827 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 313603 X-RT-TitleID: 1110922 X-RT-SourceID: 873 X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-RatingText: B+ Summary: r.a.m.r. #31827 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 102 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!logbridge.uoregon.edu!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!freenix!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3643 rec.arts.sf.reviews:277 DONNIE DARKO (director/writer: Richard Kelly; screenwriter: story "The Destructors" by Graham Greene; cinematographer: Steven B. Poster; editors: Sam Bauer/Eric Strand; music: Michael Andrews; cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), Holmes Osborne (Eddie Darko), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Elizabeth Darko), Daveigh Chase (Samantha Darko), Mary McDonnell (Rose Darko), James Duval (Frank), Arthur Taxier (Dr. Fisher), Patrick Swayze (Jim Cunningham), Katharine Ross (Dr. Thurman), Drew Barrymore (Karen Pomeroy), Beth Grant (Kittie Farmer), Jena Malone (Gretchen Ross), Jolene Purdy (Cherita Chen), Pateience Cleveland (Grandma Death/Roberta Sparrow), David Moreland (Principal Cole); Runtime: 112; Newmarket Films; 2001) "The film was weird, but I mean that as a compliment." Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz A fine debut otherworld film for 26-year-old Richard Kelly as director and writer. It's about a mentally troubled teenager in a suburban California community, Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is caught up in time travel and converses with an imaginary evil 6-foot rabbit called Frank who gives him orders to do violence. It's a creepy tale covering the horrors of getting help for him from a therapist who gives the wrong therapy, from a school that hinders instead of helps his learning process, and from his parents who are clueless. In this coming-of-age tale, satire and melodramatics are thrown together at random as the story goes all over the map. In the opening scene we are introduced to Donnie' sitcom-like family, which consists of his successful but disdainful business father, his baffled mother who takes her son's schizophrenic in a false good-natured way as her burden in life, his Dukakis voting older sister who is about to enter Harvard and loves to get under the skin of her father and brother, and his bratty younger sister who is adjusted to the pop culture world that rules suburbia. In the film's messy plot lines, a jet engine crashes in Donnie's room in early October of 1988. It's a mystery to the FBI investigators since no such engine was reported missing. It was also lucky for Donnie that he was sleepwalking once again and slept out in the golf course. The troubled youth is marking off the calendar days, as he believes the end of the world will correspond with the last day of October. Frank told him this, so it must be true. Donnie is a very bright boy and can be polite, but he has an antagonistic relationship with those he believes are intolerant. The exceptions are the following: a sympathetic English teacher (Barrymore) whose lessons are from Graham Greene's nihilistic short story "The Destructors," a story he is the only one in class to grasp; a science teacher with whom he discusses theoretical physics until the teacher curtails the conversation because he's afraid he will lose his job by talking about this controversial subject; a recluse Roberta Sparrow, whom he has nicknamed Grandma Death -- a former teacher who wrote a book called "The philosophy of Time Travel" but now only stumbles out to her mailbox waiting for mail that never comes; and, he has become smitten with a new classmate Gretchen (Malone), who comes from a dysfunctional family -- her father stabbed her mother and disappeared. The two share a sensitive nature and a dislike for the school bullies and oppressive teachers. The therapy sessions with Dr. Thurman (Ross) run into trouble when he is put under hypnosis and free associates and brings up sex, as this topic makes her nervous. Thurman prescribes pills as a way to control his detached behavior from reality, but the medication seems to make him hallucinate even more. The disturbed youngster gets hostile over an evil motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze) who is interested only in selling his books and could care less that he's feeding his school audience a pack of lies. An uptight gym teacher (Grant) who in her ignorance wants to ban a book, also teaches a lesson about Fear and Love being the only two emotions that count and has the students place an x on an imaginary lifeline as she has them read something they must respond to. Donnie gets suspended when he tells her to shove the lifeline up her ass. A politically motivated principal (Moreland) who marginalizes education and is afraid to take risks -- caters to the powers who hired him. When Frank speaks, Donnie listens. As a result he floods the school and burns down a pervert's house. Donnie is able to visualize bubbly tunnels coming out of people's midsections and therefore he's able to tune into different time periods and use these visions to do some time travel. The film moves haphazardly from comedy and social satire to being a sci-fi film, and some of these attempts add confusion. But the film makes up for that with an insightful handling of Donnie's mental problems. It could have just been another suburban troubled teen film, but it instead takes risks, offers surprises in its plot, sets a very realistically disturbing mood, and offers an ending that is so unclear that you might as well make up your own. But to ape what Gretchen says to Donnie when they first meet and she calls him weird in a complimentary way: let me say that the film was weird, but I mean that as a compliment. REVIEWED ON 5/18/2002 GRADE: B + Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ http://www.sover.net/~ozus ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31827 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 313603 X-RT-TitleID: 1110922 X-RT-SourceID: 873 X-RT-AuthorID: 1315 X-RT-RatingText: B+ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 4 16:36:49 2002 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.net.uni-c.dk!uninett.no!news.teledanmark.no!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!newsfeed.news2me.com!newsfeed-west.nntpserver.com!hub1.meganetnews.com!nntpserver.com!telocity-west!TELOCITY!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-06!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Jerry Saravia Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Donnie Darko (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 19:40:36 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 33224 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 803773 X-RT-TitleID: 1110922 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #33224 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 76 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5054 rec.arts.sf.reviews:394 DONNIE DARKO (2001) Reviewed by Jerry Saravia October 27th, 2002 RATING: Three stars and a half "Donnie Darko" is a unique delight - a fast-paced, surreal oddity likely to leave audiences with lots of questions. And to make matters more interesting, it is a teen film, but not quite a romantic comedy or some sex farce with gross-out jokes that have become du jour. This is a thinking man's John Hughes picture crossed with the cleverness of something like "Back to the Future" and with enough preternatural events and sequences to remind us of David Lynch. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko, a high-school teenager with mental problems and a supposedly schizophrenic side. He often talks to imaginary friends, and the latest is some person dressed in a bunny suit and an insect mask named Frank. Donnie's home life is normal for the most part. His parents (Holmes Osbourne, Mary McDonnell) are not the typical kind who argue and bicker at every convenience so that we are reminded they are a dysfunctional family. When Donnie curses at his sister (played by real-life sister Maggie Gyllenhaal), their mother simply says, "please stop," while the father grins. Meanwhile, every night Donnie sleepwalks and often leaves the house, ending up in hilly streets or golf courses. He takes medication, and sees a therapist (Katharine Ross) who frequently hypnotizes him. Then a strange event takes place. A fallen airplane engine crashes through Donnie's room. The plane in question minus an engine is never found. The event changes everybody. But Donnie sees this as some sign, as evidenced by Frank who tells him he has 28 days before the world will end in some sort of apocalypse. But is the bunny foretelling the future or the past? Who will listen to Donnie? His parents? His dubious physics teacher (Noah Wyle)? His English literature teacher (Drew Barrymore)? His new girlfriend (Jena Malone)? Or is the town's reclusive neighbor known as Grandma Death who has the answers? Seeing the film twice, I realized how off the mark I was initially on Jake Gyllenhaal, whom some of you may remember from the nostalgic "October Sky." My first impression was that Gyllenhaal's performance was robotic and unfeeling, sort of a droopier-eyed version of Tobey Maguire. The truth is that he does give a fine performance, along with some low-angle stares that are reminiscent of similar, angry stares from Stanley Kubrick's films. It is a restrained performance of a teenager looking for answers and questioning authority. Gyllenhaal's Donnie character is nicely balanced between angry arguments with the family and quiet, reflective moments with his therapist. Also worth noting is his bemused smile when waking up in strange places - it adds to the film's hypnotic power. This is writer-director Richard Kelly's first foray into filmmaking, and what a startling debut it is. He is a director that obviously relishes actors, in the same way that Cameron Crowe does. Kelly allows perfect use of close-ups when needed to allow us to identify with the family and especially with Donnie Darko. Mary McDonnell shows compassion with utmost sincerity as Donnie's mother, in contrast to Holmes Osbourne as Donnie's father who is detached and jocose. I also marvelled at Maggie Gyllenhaal who is as precious, sweet and sarcastic as any other sister I have seen in movies. "Donnie Darko" has a questionable climax but I think it is in keeping with the movie's theme of how unexplained events can change a person, if not a whole family, even a small town. Donnie Darko is on to something - he is searching for meaning in life and in the universe (he has an interest in time travel). His girlfriend is searching for peace and beauty in the world. It is rare in movies today to see young people engaged in such rational thoughts. That is part of what makes "Donnie Darko" so refreshing. For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html Post any comments at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/forum.shtml ========== X-RAMR-ID: 33224 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 803773 X-RT-TitleID: 1110922 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/4