Donnie Darko¶
415 words on Films
When talking to Dan on the phone the other day, he mentioned the film Donnie Darko, mainly because of its 80s soundtrack including Joy Division and Tears for Fears. Not really knowing what it was about except a guy seeing rabbits
I thought I'd give it a try – after all I tend to like strange films.
Gretchen: My mom had to get a restraining order against my step dad. He has emotional problems.
Donnie: Oh, I have those too! What kind does your step dad have?
Gretchen: He stabbed my mom four times in the chest.
Donnie: Oh.
Donnie: Oh, I have those too! What kind does your step dad have?
Gretchen: He stabbed my mom four times in the chest.
Donnie: Oh.
And a strange film it was. There's Donnie, going to high school and to therapy who sees a dark rabbit that tells him to do things, which he does. There's a plane engine falling into his room. There are strange liquid transparent blobs he sees growing out of peoples' chests indicating what they'll do next. There's a strange teacher who teaches according to some guru's book splitting the whole world along an axis going from love to fear. There's that very guru who isn't only a patronising wanker (and Patrick Swayze as Christine immediately recognised) but also into child porn. There's Donnie's dad loving his son for telling that teacher to forcibly insert the fear-love lifeline into my anus
. There's in fact all of Donnie's family who are seriously into swear words, making for some funny dialogues.
Rose Darko: Our son just called me a bitch.
Eddie: You're not a bitch. You're bitchin', but you're not a bitch.
Eddie: You're not a bitch. You're bitchin', but you're not a bitch.
There's an absolutely hilarious dialogue about the Smurfs and the role of Smurfette that reminded me of the dialogue on Star Wars in Clerks. There's something about time travel and an old lady who tends to be almost hit by cars when standing in the street who wrote a book about it. There's Donnie saving his girlfriend's life somehow using this time travel thing. There's him being hit by that aircraft engine in the process. Oh, and there's no red line really.
Uh-oh. I'm not sure what to make of it. At stages I found the film ridiculous but at other times I really liked it for certain details. And while the film seems to consists of loosely joined episodes everything seems to fit together in a sublime way.
If the sky were to suddenly open up, there would be no law, there would be no rule. There would only be you and your memories.
