Donnie Darko

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Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a very troubled young man. His life on the surface seems quaint and admirable among his well-to-do middle class surroundings, but don't judge a book by it's cover. School sucks, bullies and asshole teachers and the typical bullshit of late 1980s teen angst hinder him at every turn. To make matters worse, he struggles with sleepwalking and narcolepsy and often finds himself waking up in foreign locations. When divine intervention falls from the sky and gives his existence significance beyond comprehension, his seemingly mundane and banal life is turned on it's ear...and then he meets a girl (Jenna Malone).

I had this film mentioned to me a few times by friends before I actually saw it, and it was never sold well. One day in 2002 I caught the final thirty minutes on HBO and at the end I found myself in 'what the fuck?!? I need to watch this from the beginning, NOW!' mode...and after that first start to finish viewing I knew I had just seen one of my favorite movies of all-time.

I love this movie so very much for such a long list of reasons, and it's tough to explain without spoiling anything, so I'll try to keep it to bullet points:

- Flawed protagonist with a stupidly hefty burden.

- Forth-dimension bending sci-fi that doesn't dumb it down. [Absence of ham-fisted expository dialogue]

- amazing score and usage of soundtrack

- Emotionally raw

- Best monologue about Smurfs, ever.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, I can only say this my friends - WATCH IT NOW!!!

It's an amazingly beautiful film, and will haunt you until the day you die. And I love it.

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#DonnieDarko #Review