Review of Donnie Darko (2001) by Brittany%20 P — 09 Apr 2018

Donnie Darko is a film that seems to have become a legendary coming-of-age film. The keyword however is "seems." Beginning the film, I had high hopes. I was expecting a film about a teen learning to control his schizophrenia, perhaps expressed through the demon known as Frank.

Rather, I received a film that was blatantly confusing and contrived. Many reviewers proclaimed that you have to watch the film for a second time to truly understand the symbolism. However I could watch hardly it the first time, it wasn't in the slightest interesting, until the final act.

The film focuses on too many characters to the point they are all character tropes. If that was the film's intention, then they shouldn't have include what I perceived to be 45 minutes of their menial interactions with Donnie (especially his girlfriend).

Donnie himself was bland; he was a "woke" teen ( I'm guessing something exemplary in the 80s). Yet, the film barely focuses on his backstory as to how be became so enlightened. Leading to me the viewer, not really caring about the protagonist; especially with such monotone dialogue.

One aspect of the film I did like however was the cinematography. There were many eye-catching shots, and the music fit the atmosphere perfectly.