Positive, slasher films are the standard Halloween factor, however there’s just one title I reliably watch this time of 12 months, and it does not contain Michael Myers.
Now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, the film was unfortunate sufficient to be launched in theaters a month after the September 11 assaults. Having a plot that hinged on an airplane-related catastrophe absolutely did not assist its field workplace efficiency, and it initially tanked — solely to be resurrected within the years and months later as a cult hit, one which unintentionally spoke to the American temper following 9/11.
Audiences watching “Donnie Darko” in late 2001 will need to have been slightly creeped out by the connections. Within the aftermath of the airplane accident within the film, everybody on the town is on edge: A gaggle of youngsters ready at a bus cease all go silent and search for as a jet passes noisily overhead, simply as so many people did in these days.
Extra broadly, there’s an ominousness within the air — like “one thing horrible goes to occur,” as one character says — that feels linked to the real-life collective fear {that a} bigger, extra indefinable catastrophe was but to return after 9/11 – and the New York airplane crash that adopted, unthinkably,
only two months later. I first found “Donnie Darko” as a midnight film within the East Village, years after its launch, and have discovered myself going again to it round this time yearly. However in 2021, its existential melancholy and cultural anxiousness really feel extremely related, like director Richard Kelly pulled off slightly time journey of his personal and acquired a glimpse on the mess that’s 2021.
Its odd tone feels surprisingly acquainted, as does the juxtaposition of suburbia’s barely manic sunniness with Donnie’s rising sense of bewilderment, isolation and sense that one thing could be very off.
I even discovered a few of the rhetoric from Swayze’s character, a glib, spray-tanned self-help guru, recognizable: His model consists of claiming
fear is the ultimate enemy, very like our authorities officers and anti-vaxxers who
downplay Covid-19 dangers and mock the involved as being imprisoned by their very own worry. His character additionally presages a flood of
self-help guru downfalls, to not point out the rise of wellness and influencer tradition and the type of
conspiracy-theorist thinking it could possibly appeal to.
And that looming whisper of apocalypse? Test. Donnie has, as his therapist places it, an “lack of ability to deal with the forces on this planet he perceives to be threatening.” Which could even be a nutshell analysis for the present
nosedive in worldwide psychological well being, to not point out the “
eco-anxiety” understandably plaguing youngsters all over the world.
On the film’s core is Donnie’s query, which will not sound misplaced
to the climate-conscious: Am I loopy, or is the world about to finish? Kelly has
weighed in on Donnie’s sanity and launched a director’s reduce years later. However his addition of 20 minutes of expositional footage principally simply detracts from the mystique, to not point out the enjoyable of decoding the plot nevertheless you need.
“Donnie” straddles sci-fi, horror, and comedy, and places a spin on the
1980s high school movie trope. Donnie’s dilemma echoes the quintessential teenage expertise: No one understands what is going on on besides me, and the adults are all too oblivious to assist.
Throw within the sci-fi angle and it is like “The Matrix” by means of John Hughes — or, as Kelly himself
reportedly said, “Possibly it is the story of Holden Caulfield, resurrected in 1988 by the spirit of Philip Okay. Dick.” Kelly’s screenplay additionally offers in quantum physics themes that may begin to present up in our discourse within the years to comply with, with parallel universes, alternate realities, and
simulation theory name-checked in mainstream publications.
It is also only a trove of nice, bizarre performances from actors from extra mainstream materials. Drew Barrymore, who govt produced, performs considered one of Donnie’s academics, as does Noah Wyle. Maggie Gyllenhaal performs Jake’s sister. Seth Rogen, in his first film function, is a faculty bully. Ross, a.okay.a. Elaine from “The Graduate,” is a casting coup — she’s a movie icon of an earlier era’s cultural angst. And Beth Grant steals the present as a fanatical follower of Swayze’s character.
However in the end, “Donnie Darko” by no means takes itself too severely. Even because it unsettles, it is typically actually humorous: Highlights embrace a monologue in regards to the origins of Smurfette and watching the Gyllenhaal siblings lob obscenities at one another over the dinner desk.
Chances are you’ll not know fairly what is going on on right here, however you will benefit from the experience. As Jake Gyllenhaal mentioned in
an Instagram post on the anniversary of its Sundance debut, “Completely happy twentieth Donnie! Let’s hold complicated folks. Here is to twenty extra.”
