Donnie Darko

Watched Donnie Darko last night. My verdict? Extremely weird. Megaweird. Not weird in a Tim Burton-Johnny Depp kinda way, but weird in a dark, foreboding, something-real-bad-is-gonna-happen-any-minute way. The plot is almost indescribable. Or rather, I don’t see how I can do it any justice in a 750-word post. If you know me, and know the types of movies I like, and you like them, you’ll like this. If you don’t know me, but liked The Box, for instance, check this one out.

So in lieu of a full-blown and spoiler-laden review, here are

25 Things I Liked And / Or Noted About Donnie Darko:


1. Doomsday prophecy in the first five minutes
2. A nightmare-inducing six-foot bunny
3. Time travel
4. Book #1 – The Philosophy of Time Travel (wish that was a real book!)
5. Spontaneously falling jet engines (wait – not so spontaneous!)
6. Parallel universes
7. Book #2 – Watership Down
8. Seth Rogen playing a switch-blade carrying school bully
9. Author #1 mention – Graham Greene
10. The movie takes place in 1988, when I was just past Donnie’s age
11. Hypnosis is creepy
12. Is this real or am I imagining it???
13. The Patrick Swayze swish shots on his motivational tape
14. Nothing as menacing as storm clouds reaching down to your house
15. Donnie’s mother is a great actress
16. “Grandma Death” waiting for the letter that has yet to come
17. Author #2 mention – Stephen Hawking
18. Drew Barrymore can’t act her way out of a paper bag, but she gets movies like this made
19. We all have those water aliens from The Abyss protruding from our chests
20. Donnie takes Gretchen to see Evil Dead at the movies
21. That poor fat Chinese girl takes so much abuse throughout the flick
22. Donnie’s affinity for axes, butcher knives, gasoline cans, and firearms
23. A fat man in a red jogging suit smoking a cigarette – weeeeeird
24. “Cellar Door” … it’s a clue! (and by J. R. R. Tolkien, future Me learns)
25. I think me and my friends had animated discussions about the sexual habits of Smurfs … also sometime circa 1988.