Review of Donnie Darko (2001) by Manicure — 22 Nov 2020

From Wikipedia: “Chūnibyō (中二病) is a Japanese colloquial term that translates to "eighth-grader syndrome" […], typically used to describe early teens who have delusions of grandeur, who so desperately want to stand out that they have convinced themselves they have hidden knowledge or secret powers.”.

That’s the word that first came to mind to describe Donnie Darko and his supposedly “emotionally deep” and “thought-provoking” attitude towards the system and adult society. Combine it with the new wave soundtrack and a mysterious entity wearing a rabbit suit and you know exactly whom this film is intended for. I expected to like it, as to some extent I used to be part of the same generation of subculture angsty teenagers that Donnie represents. However, it strangely didn’t click with me at all. It tries so hard that it ends up feeling too naive and artificial for my taste. It’s not completely cringeworthy: it has a quite unique atmosphere and some cool moments here and there, but nothing noteworthy if you are older than 17.

Wrongly labeled as “surrealist” just for the fact that it never seems to make any sense on its own, it’s actually just a poorly presented sci-fi film with time travel and multiverse stuff.