THE MOVIE

Dark, Darkest, Darko.

In writer/director Richard Kelly's extraordinary debut movie, it's October 1988 and small town USA is about to witness the end of the world. It's home to Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a brilliant but troubled teenager, plagued by terrifying visions which he alone knows the meaning of. With his class mate and soul mate Gretchen (Jena Malone) and a mysterious ex-teacher, nicknamed Grandma Death (Patience Cleveland), he must unravel the strange occurrences affecting his school, his home and his life before a horrifying specter known only as "Frank" leads Donnie to the edge of his sanity...

Damian M
I first saw this film with Tim at the 2002 Sydney Film Festival. There was just something intriguing about the small blurb I read about the film and I had to see it. So along we trudged to the State Theatre and were blown away. This is one helluva film and has to be seen to be believed. Masterly crafted and beautifully executed it gives one hope that filmmakers can still make intelligent and thought provoking films that aren’t full of product placement, the next ‘big’ thing, a thumping pop soundtrack or Sean William Scott. See it, you must.

Tim M
That night at the 2002 Sydney Film Festival, I remember getting in the taxi to go home and telling the Driver about a great movie I just saw called Donnie Darko. It blew me away, but at first I didn’t like it as I do now. Considering that I LOVED it immediately after I saw it, imagine my feelings today. It honestly gets better with every viewing, and I have watched it several times on this disc, which is just superb. The final minutes of this movie are some of the most haunting and best minutes ever put to a final reel of film. Simply, just go and see it. And yes, there is no Sean William Scott.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

This is a very fine modern DVD transfer of a 2.35:1 (16x9) widescreen film. The image is sharp and clear and offers plenty of detail. Everything you need to see, can be seen. Colors are pretty neutral but are well represented and blacks and blues look considerably eerie. There are a few minor (very minor) video problems such as aliasing and a few film artifacts but these do not detract from what is overall a very fine presentation.

Audio:

We get DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 tracks for our listening pleasure and both are good. Dialogue is clear and audible, even when mumbled, and there are no syncing issues. All of the speakers get put to good use to establish an eerie and strange atmosphere for the film and when called upon they can also deliver the goods. The music is appropriate, despite the inclusion of songs, and the soundtrack does a good job of balancing everything out nicely.

THE EXTRAS

Yay, we get what the Americans get in the extras department. Finally!

First up we have two commentaries. The first of these is by the director and star and the second is by the cast and crew. The director/star one is the pick of the bunch here as the two have a great chemistry and this is a fun and surprisingly informative track with plenty of info about what went on whilst making and writing the film. Worth a listen.

Next we have an extensive array of deleted scenes, all with optional commentary. These are interesting to see but were deleted for good reason.

We also get the full infomercial as featured in the film and various trailers, music videos and TV spots.

There are also your usual text based extras but there is also some information on time travel which makes for interesting reading.

A decent package all up which although it misses some of the R2 extras is worthwhile.

SUMMARY

This is a fantastic film and certainly one of the best of recent years. To say more about it would spoil it but suffice to say you must see it.