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Donnie Darko - 90
MPAA rating: R
Running Length: 122 minutes
Year of release: 2001
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, and Holmes Osborne
Director: Richard Kelly (II)
Category: Drama, Sci-Fi, Black Comedy, Romance, Suspense
Story: 24/25
Acting: 23/25
Cinematography: 13/15
Execution: 7/10
Music: 8/10
Spin: 15/15
Donnie Darko is easily one of the most original films of 2001, and the one most likely to have slipped under your radar, as it only opened on 58 screens across the country. Genre-bending, dark, and liquid, it quietly and calmly builds toward a heartbreaking ending you won't expect. You'll leave the theater thinking about it, and it'll probably still be haunting you the next day. It takes some time to get where it's going and may seem confusing along the way, but the ending is well worth it.
The cast all turn in solid performances, especially young Jake Gyllenhaal, who portrays Donnie, the troubled teen walking a fine line between sanity and schizophrenic paranoia with amazing results. I did, however, feel like the 26-year-old writer/director did sometimes try to shift direction too quickly between the eerie, the comic, and the sad, but it's a tough line to walk because the material is so ambitious. Overall, he swung hard and hit big on his debut. The story is magical, the acting top-notch, production values are high, and I'd highly recommend it to just about anyone.