art & design
Love It or Hate It: Donnie Darko
The best thing about the film Donnie Darko is how polarizing it is. Some people love it; some people loathe it. We found two people well-versed in the entertainment business with opposing views on director Richard Kelly’s debut movie. We sat them down for a beer and recorded their conversation. Their identities have been hidden but their opinions have not. This was the result:
EyeHeartDarko: What makes Donnie Darko so brilliant to me is that it takes a coming-of-age genre, adds a science fiction-meets-horror element to it, and creates a film that really had never been seen before. It’s like looking at a fine painting–each time you stare at it, you see something different and you get something different out of it. That’s kind of the definition of art.
NoMoKelly: You know the old saying that you can’t put lipstick on a pig? Well, you can, evidently, and Donnie Darko is the perfect example. The story makes no sense. Events are weird for the sake of being weird, not for the purpose of moving the story forward. A lot of the time, when people don’t understand what is going on in a story but it looks cool, they think it’s a good movie. Hence, lipstick on a pig.
EyeHeartDarko: I’ve always thought it was a strange trip into the mind of a troubled teenager. You don’t need to always have a linear story, either. Maybe that’s where you disconnected from the film.
NoMoKelly: That must be where I disconnected from Domino, too. And Southland Tales. And The Box. That’s nearly thirty bucks and more than four hours of my life I’ll never get back.
EyeHeartDarko: We’re not talking about those movies. We’re talking about Donnie Darko. This was Kelly’s first film and it came out four years before any of those other ones. The cinematography, the acting, the sound are amazing… turn the bass up during some of the hallucination scenes with the creepy rabbit. You’ll be amazed.
NoMoKelly: That means I’ll have to watch it again.
EyeHeartDarko: Didn’t you think the rabbit mask was cool, at least?
NoMoKelly: Yeah, I’ll admit it. That rabbit mask is pretty awesome.
How do you weigh in on Donnie Darko? Tune in to Ovation this week to make up your mind: Donnie Darko airs Tuesday, January 24th at 8pm EST and Sunday, January 28th at 5:30pm EST.
Sam Feeder is a poet/writer/photographer who works primarily in Los Angeles and Austin. Feeder is a careful observer and tries to experience as many different aspects of life as possible, ranging from travels all over the world to discovering that hole-in-the-wall restaurant or bar no one knows about.
Image: Donnie Darko
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