Donnie Darko

[Lazarus]

just watched Donnie Darko (after buying the DVD after Xmas!!!) and thot "Wow!"

Noy my usual type of film but Very Very good!!!

<edit> but one question I have -

Spoiler

at the end, was it just me (or some bad acting) that the mother didnt seem overly distraught at the death of her son? Did she KNOW what had happened (since she was in the airplane) - just one niggly naggly doubt for me.

 

[Taen]

Brilliant Film .. Patrick Swayze 4ever

 

[mank!]

Spoiler

at the end, was it just me (or some bad acting) that the mother didnt seem overly distraught at the death of her son? Did she KNOW what had happened (since she was in the airplane) - just one niggly naggly doubt for me.

Been a while since I watched it now, but my guess is...

Spoiler

Earlier on in the film Donnie is discussing about being able to remember things when you wake up from a dream, but only very sketchily and it soon disappears. This is why Gretchen stops and waves to Donnie's mother, despite the fact they hadn't met yet, she has some vague recollection of it just like Donnie's mother has some vague recollection of what happened to her son in the past few weeks.

That's my view on it anyway.

 

[Lazarus]

Been a while since I watched it now, but my guess is...

Spoiler

Earlier on in the film Donnie is discussing about being able to remember things when you wake up from a dream, but only very sketchily and it soon disappears. This is why Gretchen stops and waves to Donnie's mother, despite the fact they hadn't met yet, she has some vague recollection of it just like Donnie's mother has some vague recollection of what happened to her son in the past few weeks.

That's my view on it anyway.

Spoiler

but if the mother never met gretchen or vice versa - how would they even remotely THINK they knew each other?

 

[mank!]

Spoiler

but if the mother never met gretchen or vice versa - how would they even remotely THINK they knew each other?

Spoiler

I meant they never met each other in the period of time in which Donnie died, I'm sure they met when Donnie was saved by Frank. Therefore when they "woke up" they had a vague recollection of one another as well as what happened. Either way weren't you wondering why Donnie's Mum wasn't bawling her eyes out and beating up that tree she was leaning against and not about Gretchen and Donnie's Mum knowing one another?

 

[Lazarus]

Spoiler

I meant they never met each other in the period of time in which Donnie died, I'm sure they met when Donnie was saved by Frank. Therefore when they "woke up" they had a vague recollection of one another as well as what happened. Either way weren't you wondering why Donnie's Mum wasn't bawling her eyes out and beating up that tree she was leaning against and not about Gretchen and Donnie's Mum knowing one another?

Spoiler

My brain hurts!!!

Im not concerned with her not bawling her eyes out, cos I reckon that had something to do with her being on the plane and "experiencing" what had happened in a surreal way.

Just curious as to why they women knew each other when they never actually met during the film.

 

[mank!]

Spoiler

My brain hurts!!!

Im not concerned with her not bawling her eyes out, cos I reckon that had something to do with her being on the plane and "experiencing" what had happened in a surreal way.

Just curious as to why they women knew each other when they never actually met during the film.

Spoiler

Like I said I haven't seen it for awhile (I'm going to have to watch it tonight now) so I can't remember them not meeting or meeting, so yeah. I'm just making stabs in the dark really.

 

[Lazarus]

you dont believe me?

 

[mank!]

No, I just honestly can't remember either way.

 

[Wij]

I thought it was just that they'd ripped off David Lynch's trademark moves. Lynch films always have two 'worlds' of some sort that logically speaking shouldn't be connected in many cases yet somehow there's always a subtle hint that one of the characters remembers something that they shouldn't if the interpretation we are led to believe exists between the two worlds is true. I had some example from Mulholland Drive in mind but I've forgot it

Anyway, it's the same idea. The main part of the film is supposed to exist in some parrallel time-bubble, at a tangent to the regular universe, but just to unsettle us we get the odd hint that somebody knows something they shouldn't. This makes us think long and hard about the interpretation we have of the film and discuss it endlessly on message-boards. Win-win scenario for the director init ?

 

[Ezteq]

i loved this movie and i really dont know why just sat there watching it felt good, does that sound wierd?? i guess sometimes you see stuff or hear something and it clicks a little part of you at the back of your brain and for some reason your never quite sure of your think yeah this is good, i watched the whole of that movie didnt understand lots of bits but unlike i normally would i didnt rewind it or get annoyed with it it was all part of the experiance i think or i could have just been high from gas fumes leaking in to my room what ever the reason i liked it.

 

[xane]

Well, I finally got round to watching this last night.

It may give you a clue to my film preferences when I say I was hoping for something to make up for the complete waste of my life incurred by that other "great" film Shawshank Redemption.

Predictably, Darko failed to inspire me in all ways.

I hate films with vague anti-climatic endings like this one, they leave you wondering why you spent the previous hours watching the story, especially when that story was dull and the acting substandard. Even worse is the cultish air that there was some deeper meaning and none of the great unwashed like me can unearth it, and so prevents any negative views on the film.

For example; Twelve Monkeys or American Beauty had better endings, even though you knew roughly what was going to happen halfway through the film, and even without the ending it they were full of memorable acting. Darko has neither the end or the middle, either one would have qualified.

I was hoping for a better recommendation from you guys, Battle Royale is on tonight, I'm giving you a second chance !

 

[Tom]

Battle Royale is a very cool film, and it features Japanese schoolgirls in uniform!

 

[Sigurd]

Excellent film... one of the best I've ever seen - it just fitted together perfectly, little things made it seem more real than most films I've seen (the father laughing at Donnie's insults) and it managed to mix sadness with happiness at the end perfectly.

Spoiler

I think quite a few people didn't "get" it but I believe how you understood the film was more personal - although it's clear that Donnie is being used as an "Aslan" equivilent of Jesus by the director in some ways (the cinema "now showing" thing hints strongly at that)

I'd recommend this film to everyone, some of you may not like it but I think most people will.

 

[Durzel]

The problem is, it's become a bit too cult and I don't think that many people have the balls to say they genuinely didn't like it.

I agree with this viewpoint.

I've seen the film, and I enjoyed it - but I felt sullied by the fact that I already had been party to tales of its greatness, so my opinion of it was jaded. It's one of those films that, had I seen it in isolation, I would've probably been blown away. As it was, since I was expecting it to be great, I can't help but feel that I liked it because I felt like I was supposed to like it, to follow the status quo, etc.

The only reasonably unique opinion I have of the film is that it is older than I was expecting it to be. Think Breakfast Club era and you're close.

 

[Taen]

I thought it was just that they'd ripped off David Lynch's trademark moves. Lynch films always have two 'worlds' of some sort that logically speaking shouldn't be connected in many cases yet somehow there's always a subtle hint that one of the characters remembers something that they shouldn't if the interpretation we are led to believe exists between the two worlds is true. I had some example from Mulholland Drive in mind but I've forgot it

Anyway, it's the same idea. The main part of the film is supposed to exist in some parrallel time-bubble, at a tangent to the regular universe, but just to unsettle us we get the odd hint that somebody knows something they shouldn't. This makes us think long and hard about the interpretation we have of the film and discuss it endlessly on message-boards. Win-win scenario for the director init ?

Um.... Its not the same idea at all ... just because a film also has 'two worlds' etc. etc. doesnt mean that it is a rip off of another movie ... half the films ever made would be in this boat then ... btw David Lynch isnt as original as you think he is at all (even though he is one of my favourite directors), his style is completly ripped off from a film maker in the '50's & '60's who isnt very well known and made some amazing short films - try and guess who it is

 

[nath]

The only reasonably unique opinion I have of the film is that it is older than I was expecting it to be. Think Breakfast Club era and you're close.

Older as in it's been around a long time, or that it was set in the 80's?