The film “Donnie Darko” was described by critics as terrible and extremely confusing “vinaigrette” from all the cult things of the last decade.
Go to intellectualization!
Мировой кинематограф испытывает видимый крен в the direction of intellectualization of movies. Even the most unpretentious horror stories hit the hot issues and intelligence. And this is Richard Kelly's debut film “Donnie Darko”; experts' reviews dubbed one of the most accurate and original projects at the turn of the century. After all, the density of the semantic load for a minute of timing in it is enormous, from such an abundance begins to feel dizzy. The film is quite simple in content, but the essence of it is much more complicated, more pretentious than the work of David Lynch Mulholland Drive.
Plot
«Донни Дарко» - фильм, повествование которого unfolding in the provinces of America on the eve of the 1988 election. The main character - the moody teenager, high school student Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) - has a pronounced antisocial behavior. Psychoanalysis sessions and psychotropic drugs divert him from the obsession to burn school. His family is far from perfect: the mother is hysterical (Mary McDonnell), the father is a bore (Holmes Osborne), two near sisters, the younger brother is a nerd-eyed man. Being under the influence of pills, the guy becomes a lunatic. Once in his hallucinations there is a huge rabbit, winding up with the hero of philosophical conversations and luring Donnie out of the house. On the same night, an airplane engine falls onto the family’s house, as if it were the main character’s bedroom. Saving his own life is not particularly pleasing to Donny, because the rabbit told him that in 28 days the end of the world would come. Darko expects to run time backwards, he has two ways. Such is the plot of the painting “Donnie Darko” without spoilers. The meaning of the film is carefully veiled by the creators and varies depending on the genre affiliation chosen by the viewer: from science fiction, psychiatric drama to horror and mysticism.
Kunstkamera characters
Donnie Darko is a film in which, besides the maincharacter and a strange rabbit, represented by a real Kunstkamera characters. At least the psychologist (Patrick Swayze), who is rather a preacher engaged in the underground distribution of child pornography, is amazing. The attention of the teacher of literature (Drew Barrymore), who teaches her subject is not entirely traditional pedagogical methods. By the way, Swayze and Barrymore are as good as ever. The actors played small roles, but demonstrated aerobatics. Paranoid magic "Donnie Darko" (the actors seemed to have absorbed the author's idea) lifted up their acting skills to the limit. One of the key is the character of the physics teacher (Noah Wyle), who introduces the younger generation with the possibility of time travel. Touches and school group, diligently and hilariously dancing under Duran Duran. Frightening Grandmother Death, ex-nun, ex-teacher, and now the crazy elderly neighbor of the protagonist. But no character can beat the oddity of Donnie Darko. The actors, who performed the roles of the above characters, demonstrated remarkable talent by realizing the idea of the director.
Another movie mix
Director Richard Kelly presented filmmakers to film fans,which is not only the characters' cum-chamber, but also an insane mix of plot motifs, ideas and genre models. But the postmodernist on viewing will have nothing to do, because the Kelly project is not a game of an allusion, but a trial to fit into the first job everything that worries, which is important and expensive. All that the author managed to change his mind, review and read in his 25 years. A true connoisseur of cinema will find in Donnie Darko (reviews confirm this statement) everything your heart desires: from Alice in Wonderland to cult horror movies. From the King’s novel, a plane was taken from a time-lapse tunnel; from the prologue of the Magnolia, a fantastic fall of the engine from the sky. The atmosphere of the picture and the school everyday life of the protagonist will certainly remind the “Virgin suicides”. The mysterious door leading to the basement, behind which, according to the protagonist, hides a clue, looks like a creature of Tim Burton, well, the dizzying climax recalls the “Sixth Sense”.
Trends of Modernity
The director’s attempt to express her position turned out to besuccessful Obvious references to film works of the last decades, like pieces of a mosaic, ideally formed into a single whole, and an independent project “Donnie Darko” turned out. Reviews of critics with parallels with other films are not called stupid borrowings, but because Kelly is in the same creative environment as the best directors-contemporaries. Therefore, the film should not be called a continuous mash, it is rather an exact reflection of the spirit of our age.
The secret of persuasiveness
Секрет убедительности «Донни Дарко», смысл фильма consist in the speaking surname of the main character, it was not by chance that she was taken out in the name (dark - dark, dark). The whole picture is like chaos, reigning in the teenage mind on the subtlest, almost ghostly facet with a nervous breakdown, the plot contains all the answers to the questions of concern. Absolutely everything is concentrated in the narrative: suffering, childhood offenses, readiness for self-sacrifice and a premonition of death. The viewer, while watching, almost physically feels the pain of the main character, whose inner world lurches and pops at the seams like the skin of an airplane that has entered the zone of turbulence. Another moment - and disaster can not be avoided. Prevent it can only be a very expensive price. Such reviews can be heard from the audience.
Better late ...
В России фильм вышел с приличным опозданием.Perhaps such a delay only for the better, because he clearly ahead of his time. Nobody expected in 2001 the return of fashion to Duran Duran's creativity, few people were afraid of the fallen planes, and certainly the parodies of those who forbid books were not clear. Only now comes the understanding that Richard Kelly was moving in the right direction. Reviews say that the film prompts to indulge in thinking, and not at all hilarious, rather scary, cleaner than the plot. For example, that in a situation of total misunderstanding for a teenager, the only correct way is to let everything go to chance, to chance. Or that thinking and acting independently is the surest way to resent the morals of others and disgrace the family. Not to mention that the chosen Donny’s own development of events turns out to be unfavorable, the hero actually commits suicide. Can this be a worthy example in a society where the number of teen suicides is growing at a terrible rate? In general, the fate of the picture is incomprehensible, the film was definitely underestimated, they tried to forget rather. Promising, as it seemed, the director disappeared somewhere, there are no new projects and expensive attractive offers.
"WITH. Darko
In 2009, a controversial film was released."WITH. Darko ”, which individual filmmakers have positioned as the Donny sequel. The director of the first episode, Richard Kelly, flatly refused to take part in the new project. "WITH. Darko ”caused a lot of criticism in his address, many fans of the first part argued that such a masterpiece as“ Donnie Darko ”should not have any sequels. Critics assessing the sequel, noted that the replacement of the creative team - the director, screenwriters - and the complete absence of any logical connection with the original film caused a storm of indignation and a negative viewer attitude. No wonder the second film has a very low rating.
