Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001/2004)
A little bit of an experiment today as I’m trying to mine some of my RNZ content that was originally a radio appearance rather than text for the website.
Since late 2022, I have been appearing every Friday night at about 9.45pm on RNZ National’s Nights show to recommend stuff to watch over the weekend. (I expect you all to put a note in your diaries for my return on Friday 26 January with new host Emile Donovan.)
Back in December 2022, I chatted with then-host Karyn Hay about physical media and options for Christmas presents for those people who still love DVD and Blu-ray. We had just watched the special 20th anniversary 4K UHD edition of Richard Kelly’s debut Donnie Darko (available from Madman).
The quote below is a lightly edited version of a startlingly effective digital transcription of the conversation. That technology is getting really good!
Donnie Darko is one of the top cult films of all time, it came out in 2001, written and directed by Richard Kelly.
It was initially a flop because it opened six weeks after the 9/11 tragedy and nobody was very interested in going to the movies. And it was a complete disaster for all concerned.
But then it started to get, thanks to DVD largely, a cult following.
Four years after that, Richard Kelly, the director, produced a director’s cut, which was 20 minutes longer.
And according to him, and according to a lot of viewers, it kind of helped people understand a little bit more about what was going on.
(Because it is actually quite tricksy to follow because it’s a bit weird, frankly.)
The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal in one of his very early roles. He’s playing Donnie.
He’s a troubled teen with emotional problems and he’s pretty heavily medicated.
Or is he? When we first see him, he wakes up from a kind of sleep adventure on his bike. He’s just lying asleep on the side of the road as the sun comes up.
And the next day he returns home to find that the engine of a 747 has dropped onto his house and onto his bedroom where he should have been sleeping.
And this narcolepsy has saved his life.
He has also been getting visions of a man in a giant rabbit suit, a scary rabbit suit. Who may or may not be real, may be conjured from his imagination, or potentially a creature from another dimension.
We don’t really know.
It is freaky. You don’t know whether you’re watching science fiction, or is it a high school satire film like Heathers or something like that.
Is it a portrait of mental illness from the inside?
There’s lots going on.
It’s got a fantastic cast.
We watched this last night and we kept going, “Oh my God, they’re in it!”
Like Patrick Swayze, Jenna Malone, Drew Barrymore. Seth Rogen is in it!
And you just keep seeing all these familiar faces.
I remember seeing it when it came out and not being very impressed.
And I was much more so this time around.
So, ad lib radio is not quite as well constructed as my writing but you get the picture. If you prefer, you can listen to the segment (which also includes Jesica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes in The Forgiven and the Complete Minder box set).
We watched the original theatrical cut back then, but both versions are in the box along with a bunch of extra content from all the original home video releases.
Most of you, though, will be watching on a streamer, the details of which are below.
Where to watch Donnie Darko
Aotearoa: Streaming on Māori+ (Director’s Cut), digital rental from AroVision (theatrical cut)
Australia: Streaming on Stan
USA: Streaming on Peacock, AMC+, Roku (ads), Shudder
UK: Streaming on Arrow and Shudder
Further reading
My new release reviews have gone up in a rush at RNZ. I’ll do a decent summary of them on Friday in lieu of a new releases post but if you really can’t wait to find out what I thought of Rebel Moon*, knock yourselves out.
*”… reeks of rotting carcases of the failed Star Wars knock-offs that it feeds from.”
