Review of Donnie Darko (2001) by Ben L — 29 Mar 2016

Watching Donnie Darko was a frustrating experience for me. On the one hand I like movies that focus in on time travel and other sci-fi elements. On the other hand I hate movies that are nothing but ambiguity and only lead to questions with no answers.

If the story was tied up logically, and everything made sense I would have loved the whole thing and anxiously sought to watch it all over again. Instead nothing is tied up logically, nothing made sense, and I don't know if I have any desire to go through that frustration again.

I was enjoying the film, fascinated by the puzzle, and desperately trying to decode what was real and what was imagined by Donnie. Sadly, the film didn't care to fill me in on where I was right or wrong.

In many ways this movie was similar to the 2004 film Primer, although thankfully Donnie Darko wasn't extraordinarily boring and had some good actors so I was at least interested enough to endure it.

With this film, just as with Primer, as soon as I was done watching I instantly Googled to see what the heck just happened in the movie. In both films I was mystified by the intricacies of fan explanations, and infuriated that there was no possible way I could have deduced them by watching it (certainly not after watching just once.

) I'm trying to give Donnie Darko a break because there are elements that are very similar to other movies I love, but the entire film is just an enigma to me. I'm glad others can enjoy the puzzle presented by this film, but I'm simply annoyed by it.