Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut

Uncut - 09/01/2004
"Worth seeing' About 20 times at least."

Los Angeles Times - 07/23/2004
"Droll, subversively hilarious, DONNIE DARKO is as amusing as it is provocative."

Sight and Sound - 12/01/2004
"[T]his new cut of Kelly's audacious debut reinstates material previously available as DVD extras..."

Rolling Stone - 02/24/2005
"A visionary movie about time, life and a big goth bunny..."

Premiere - 03/01/2005
"[T]he film remains good cerebral fun."

Movieline's Hollywood Life - 02/01/2005
"DARKO is certainly deep enough to reward multiple viewings."

This new and embellished version of the 2001 theatrical release, which was a cult hit, offers twenty minutes of scenes that were deleted from the original, sound improvements, new songs (such as "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS), and new special effects that give insight into Donnie's world and his theories of time travel.

Writer-director Richard Kelly's bold debut film is a social satire, a dark comedy, a science fiction time-traveling fantasy, and a suburban nightmare about an extremely intelligent, depressive, self-destructive, narcoleptic, gun-toting, sex-crazed, teenaged arsonist: Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal). DONNIE DARKO is not your typical teen comedy. But, like GHOST WORLD and RUSHMORE, it uses the trappings of the teen comedy as the entry point for a subversive and trenchant (and also wonderfully entertaining) look at American life. The difference between those films and DONNIE DARKO is that Donnie is an unlikely hero who just might save the world.

It's October 1988, in the Virginia suburb of Middlesex. When Frank, a grotesque giant bunny (possibly imaginary), leads Donnie out of his house minutes before a plane smashes through his roof, he not only saves Donnie's life but also warns Donnie that the world is about to end. Over the next few weeks, Donnie falls in love with Gretchen (Jena Malone) and tries to figure out what his life means. Kelly's film perfectly captures the unease that is quietly scratching under the surface of suburban late 1980s life. Gyllenhaal leads an exceptional cast, bringing Kelly's twisted but humane vision to life. An exceptional performance is given by Mary McDonnell (PASSION FISH) as Donnie's mother.

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