2001

Director: Richard Kelly

Genre: Sci-fi Drama

I loved this movie as a teenager. 

It completely appealed to everything I liked at the time. I was getting into weird and creepy movies. I was in that teenage state of mind.

But here's the conundrum I face: the previous version of myself liked the movie, and the current version of myself did not as much. It would be much easier to review this film if I could have a conversation with my past self.

So that's what I'm going to do. 

...

(time travel sound)

Present: So, um. Past version of myself?

Past: Ahh! What the fuck!? Who are you! How did you get in here! What is happening??

Present: Whoa. Calm down. You've seen sci-fi films at this point. You should be able to figure this out.

Past: No! This isn't real! This can't- 

(The past version of myself starts to violently convulse)

Present: Uh... shit. Maybe this wasn't-

Past: (screams incomprehensibly)

Present: I think I'll just go...

(time travel sound)

...

That did not go as smoothly as planned.

Anyway, while the past version of myself was probably blown away by the weird imagery and crazy plotlines of Donnie Darko, the present version found the movie to be a neat premise, which gets needlessly convoluted and bogged down with inane, pointless moments. 

Premise: A kid is meant to die, but he is brought into a tangent universe to experience the next month of his life, before he is returned to his own universe to properly die. Seems neat, and could be a really interesting story about death and what we wish we could do if we knew our time was coming. 

But the film isn't any of the above. It really feels to me like the director started with this premise, then threw in a million other ideas about time travel and parallel universes and all these bizarre rules and guidelines this world he's created has to follow.

This is a film of moments, not scenes. Which is why it appeals so much to the teenage demographic. Teenagers are meant to quote crazy lines like "how does one suck a fuck?" to their friends, talk about the moment where Frank takes off his mask, or laugh about how Donnie explains the nature of Smurfette to his friends. 

No scene really leads into the next. There's no development of any character or idea. Suddenly Donnie can see liquid coming out of people's chests. Suddenly he and the girl are in love. Suddenly there's a plot about a man who turns out to be a pedophile. Suddenly a teacher explains why Cellar Door is the most beautiful phrase ever written. It's all just there for an audience to react.

This is certainly is a teenage fantasy story. Don't you wish you could flood your school, yell at your teacher, see the future, or have a man in a rabbit suit tell you you're special? I don't know if that last one is a common fantasy...

Basically, I feel like we should appreciate this movie for how it helped us when we were younger. 

But hopefully our adult lives carry more emotional depth and meaning. 

⭐️⭐️