Donnie Darko directed by Richard Kelly at age 25

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I finally watched Donnie Darko (directors cut) after 13 years since its release. :huh:

Interestingly enough the director Richard Kelly was only 25 when he directed this 4.5 million dollar picture and for a first film I was pretty impressed. Aside from the cult-like film transcending towards almost a comic-book feel, it was a deep movie about love and fear, and a film I could certainly tolerate watching again and again.

For any Kevin Smith fans, Kevin appears as a guest with Richard on the directors commentary track which is really worth listening to if you can get your hands on it. Kevin admits on several occasions the depth and complexity of Donnie Darko, complimenting it and often saying some of it was over his head and he likes to write more simple films.

Anyone else watch this film recently and thoughts on about it?
 
Oddly enough, Donnie Darko is one of the few films where I felt the Director's cut was inferior to the released version.
It's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't remember specifically what my issue was (I seem to remember the director's cut having more exposition).

That said - it's still a great movie, obviously.
 
Donnie Darko is a long time fav of mine, though I prefer the original cut to the director's cut. ( did not like any of the changes made in the director's cut )

FYI: The single-DVD edition of Donnie Darko was given away with copies of the British Sunday Times newspaper on February 19, 2006.
 
I saw it back when it came out on DVD, and watched it about 5 times over the course of a month.

It's a brilliant debut feature, no doubt about it. However, as we've begun to see more of Kelly's work, it makes me wonder how much of the ambiguity and dense screenplay was a result of true brilliance or of incomplete and sloppy storytelling. Southland Tales, for example, is all over the place and filled with crap that is left unexplained or undefined and it is an awful film as a result. The Box is a little more contained, but still not that great. I just noticed he wrote Domino, which was a decent flick at least.
 
refocusedmedia said:
I saw it back when it came out on DVD, and watched it about 5 times over the course of a month.

It's a brilliant debut feature, no doubt about it. However, as we've begun to see more of Kelly's work, it makes me wonder how much of the ambiguity and dense screenplay was a result of true brilliance or of incomplete and sloppy storytelling. Southland Tales, for example, is all over the place and filled with crap that is left unexplained or undefined and it is an awful film as a result. The Box is a little more contained, but still not that great. I just noticed he wrote Domino, which was a decent flick at least.
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"Domino"(2005) is one of the few films I've stopped watching in the middle... I think I'd rather watch a 24 hour Ed Wood marathon, than watch "Domino" again... I think it is due to two reasons... 1) production values, unsteady bleach by pass... 2) Kiera Knightly as a bounty hunter... now as it is the 'real life' Domino was in fact rather 'petite'... but Knightly's rail thinness just did not work... (not to mention that the 'real life' Domino was a lesbian, and so, the obligatory 'heterosexual' love interest would have not been there... and of course presenting a lesbian in full blazing color just isn't possible even in modern Hollywood...).

But I digress...
 
Richard Kelly cut both the theatrical and directors cut version from what I remember on the commentary. He said he never did a directors cut because he felt the theatrical version was inferior or didn't do the film justice, he called the new cut kind of a "re-mix" of the original with extended scenes and a few that were cut out of the original mostly due to keeping the runtime down.

The only other Kelly film I watched was The Box but for me it was just another typical hollywood cookie-cutter film, nothing as original (like or it not) as Donnie Darko.
 
Great film. As far as age goes, I still don't know how Orsen Wells pulled off Citizen Cane at 25.
 
I may go back and watch it again, now that you guys have said good things about it.

Donnie Darko has a pretty dated look and feel to it. Doesn't feel like a classic film. I ended up having jump through it a bit because I just couldn't get into, and wanted to turn it off.
 
I haven't watched this in years but I had an amazing experience seeing this in the theater. The directors cut though is so horrible, I don't know why they released it.
 
refocusedmedia said:
I saw it back when it came out on DVD, and watched it about 5 times over the course of a month.

It's a brilliant debut feature, no doubt about it. However, as we've begun to see more of Kelly's work, it makes me wonder how much of the ambiguity and dense screenplay was a result of true brilliance or of incomplete and sloppy storytelling. Southland Tales, for example, is all over the place and filled with crap that is left unexplained or undefined and it is an awful film as a result. The Box is a little more contained, but still not that great. I just noticed he wrote Domino, which was a decent flick at least.
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If I remember correctly he seemed to not be too sure why he did certain things in Donnie Darko, his commentary kinda ruined the movie a little bit for me when he made it seem like certain things were not that deliberate.
 
robmneilson said:
If I remember correctly he seemed to not be too sure why he did certain things in Donnie Darko, his commentary kinda ruined the movie a little bit for me when he made it seem like certain things were not that deliberate.
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That sounds about right. Is this is one of those times where the audience extrapolates deeper meanings and consequences than the author intended? Judging by the quality of his other work, I'm inclined to think so.
 
refocusedmedia said:
That sounds about right. Is this is one of those times where the audience extrapolates deeper meanings and consequences than the author intended? Judging by the quality of his other work, I'm inclined to think so.
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Yes, which is why the Director's Cut is so terrible. He tried to provide "explanations" for things he himself hadn't answered, and he screwed the pooch.

I consider that to be a problem in screenwriting. Even if you don't want all the answers to be up on screen (and that's an entirely legitimate feeling), you, as the writer, are the god of your storytelling universe, and you better damn well know what's going on in the outskirts of your story. Otherwise, you're just doing stuff that seems "cool" and it will reflect back that you don't actually know what's going on.
 
refocusedmedia said:
That sounds about right. Is this is one of those times where the audience extrapolates deeper meanings and consequences than the author intended? Judging by the quality of his other work, I'm inclined to think so.
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Exactly, now with David Lynch there's a ton of weird stuff in his movies...but I'd bet a dollar that he would be able to tell you EXACTLY why this weird thing is happening.
 
robmneilson said:
Exactly, now with David Lynch there's a ton of weird stuff in his movies...but I'd bet a dollar that he would be able to tell you EXACTLY why this weird thing is happening.
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He's stuff at least feels more coherent even when it's completely weird. Twin Peaks suffered, though I think his hand was forced by the network with that one.
 
robmneilson said:
If I remember correctly he seemed to not be too sure why he did certain things in Donnie Darko, his commentary kinda ruined the movie a little bit for me when he made it seem like certain things were not that deliberate.
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I didn't really get that impression, he seemed to know what specific elements represented as well as certain scenes.. he did say the film in general was about getting a second chance in life and making choices. I thought the chap was quite clever with the whole film, but perhaps he had me fooled.

Well.... I better invest another 3 hours and pop it in the DVD player and watch it again. :huh:
 
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