There
are a lot of small independent movies out there; some are bad, some are
good, and some are great. Occasionally, one shows up out of left field,
and while great, it doesn’t get the distribution or the audience recognition
that it deserves- DONNIE DARKO ($30) is such a movie. Seen primarily
at film festivals and in art house theaters, the DVD release of DONNIE
DARKO will allow audiences the opportunity to check out this darkly
intense and truly unique motion picture. I should note that while looking
at the DVD packaging, I tempted to think that DONNIE DARKO is just
another teen thriller; however, that aspect is just a single layer of
what one finds in this dark and unsettling movie.
Mentally
disturbed individuals have the tendency to hear and see things that the
rest of us do not. What if these perceptions were something more than
just mere mental illness? Well in the case of the film’s title character,
they may well be… Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a troubled high school
student, who needs to be medicated to control his urges, plus he is seeing
a therapist on a regular basis. The effectiveness of both is called into
question because Donnie still has a tendency to walk in his sleep and
converse with a hideous six-foot rabbit named Frank. Actually, the sleepwalking
turns out to be a blessing in disguise, because Donnie is on a somnambulist
trek across the golf course, when a jet engine falls out of the sky and
crashes into his bedroom. However, Donnie’s encounters with his six-foot
rabbit pal Frank are another matter entirely. As Frank gets deeper and
deeper into Donnie’s mind, the rabbit causes him to perform increasingly
destructive acts, not to mention that Frank informs Donnie of the exact
date and time that the world is going to end… To give away anymore of
the story would spoil the surprises and rewards of watching DONNIE
DARKO for yourself.
Although
made on a minuscule budget, DONNIE DARKO is a well-crafted film
that benefits from the single-minded vision of writer/director Richard
Kelly and first rate troop of actors. Jake Gyllenhaal successfully embodies
the character’s teen angst and mental turmoil, yet he maintains just enough
restraint to keep the performance from lapsing into caricature. Mary McDonnell
is amazingly good as Donnie’s mother Rose; McDonnell takes a seemingly
small role and makes it incredibly multifaceted. Patrick Swayze has his
best role in years, as the film’s self help guru Jim Cunningham. The cast
of DONNIE DARKO also features Drew Barrymore (who executive produced
the film) Jena Malone, Holmes Osborne, Noah Wyle, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James
Duval, Beth Grant and Katharine Ross, an actress who has been too long
absent from films.
20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment has made DONNIE DARKO available
on DVD in a 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. Fox has produced a very good-looking transfer
of a film that has a decidedly stylistic vision, which was produced for
relatively little money. The image is usually sharp and well defined,
although there are shots that appear somewhat soft. Colors are rendered
at a very natural level of saturation and flesh tones appear completely
realistic. There are no problems with either chroma noise or hues bleeding
beyond their boundaries. Blacks tend to be reasonably accurate, but not
as intensely deep as they appear on most new films. Because the blacks
are slightly off, the image did not have the level of depth one associates
with brand new movies. Still, both shadow detail and contrast seem fine
throughout the course of the movie. Digital compression artifacts are
never problematic on this dual layered DVD.
This
release of DONNIE DARKO features an excellent Dolby Digital 5.1
channel soundtrack. The sound mix utilizes the discrete encoding very
well, sometimes to create an unnerving sense of atmosphere. Surround usage
is surprisingly effective, yet it marries into the forward soundstage
flawlessly. Dialogue reproduction is always clean and fully understandable.
The bass channel is solid, without becoming boomy. Music is well integrated
into the five channels; with both the film’s score and eighties pop music
sounding full-bodied. English and French Dolby Surround soundtracks are
also encoded onto the DVD, as are English and Spanish subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as a nice complement of supplemental features.
DONNIE DARKO includes not one, but two separate audio commentaries.
The first track features director Richard Kelly and star Jake Gyllenhaal,
while the second includes the director again, along with cast members
Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Jena Malone, Beth Grant, Holmes Osborne,
Katherine Ross, and James Duval, as well as producers Sean McKittrick
and Nancy Juvonen. I found both tracks to be informative and entertaining
and recommend listening to both. Those with a casual interest would probably
find the cast and crew commentary more entertaining and should start there.
Also included on the DVD are twenty deleted and extended scenes, which
can be viewed with or without director commentary. There is a lot of interesting
material amongst the deleted scenes, which were removed for pacing and
timing concerns. Next up is the complete Cunning Visions infomercial from
the movie that includes the option of an amusing audio commentary. A Mad
World music video is also included on the DVD, along with an art gallery,
a web site gallery, a glimpse at The Philosophy of Time Travel
book from the film, a theatrical trailer, five TV spots, cast filmographies
and filmmaker biographies.
DONNIE
DARKO is a unique movie that deserves to be seen by a wider audience
than it had in it limited theatrical screenings. Fox has produced a solid
DVD edition of the film that should remedy the situation. If this review
has piqued your interest in this terrific little movie, go out and get
your hands on a copy of DONNIE DARKO.
There
are a lot of small independent movies out there; some are bad, some are
good, and some are great. Occasionally, one shows up out of left field,
and while great, it doesn’t get the distribution or the audience recognition
that it deserves- DONNIE DARKO ($30) is such a movie. Seen primarily
at film festivals and in art house theaters, the DVD release of DONNIE
DARKO will allow audiences the opportunity to check out this darkly
intense and truly unique motion picture. I should note that while looking
at the DVD packaging, I tempted to think that DONNIE DARKO is just
another teen thriller; however, that aspect is just a single layer of
what one finds in this dark and unsettling movie.
Mentally
disturbed individuals have the tendency to hear and see things that the
rest of us do not. What if these perceptions were something more than
just mere mental illness? Well in the case of the film’s title character,
they may well be… Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a troubled high school
student, who needs to be medicated to control his urges, plus he is seeing
a therapist on a regular basis. The effectiveness of both is called into
question because Donnie still has a tendency to walk in his sleep and
converse with a hideous six-foot rabbit named Frank. Actually, the sleepwalking
turns out to be a blessing in disguise, because Donnie is on a somnambulist
trek across the golf course, when a jet engine falls out of the sky and
crashes into his bedroom. However, Donnie’s encounters with his six-foot
rabbit pal Frank are another matter entirely. As Frank gets deeper and
deeper into Donnie’s mind, the rabbit causes him to perform increasingly
destructive acts, not to mention that Frank informs Donnie of the exact
date and time that the world is going to end… To give away anymore of
the story would spoil the surprises and rewards of watching DONNIE
DARKO for yourself.
Although
made on a minuscule budget, DONNIE DARKO is a well-crafted film
that benefits from the single-minded vision of writer/director Richard
Kelly and first rate troop of actors. Jake Gyllenhaal successfully embodies
the character’s teen angst and mental turmoil, yet he maintains just enough
restraint to keep the performance from lapsing into caricature. Mary McDonnell
is amazingly good as Donnie’s mother Rose; McDonnell takes a seemingly
small role and makes it incredibly multifaceted. Patrick Swayze has his
best role in years, as the film’s self help guru Jim Cunningham. The cast
of DONNIE DARKO also features Drew Barrymore (who executive produced
the film) Jena Malone, Holmes Osborne, Noah Wyle, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James
Duval, Beth Grant and Katharine Ross, an actress who has been too long
absent from films.
20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment has made DONNIE DARKO available
on DVD in a 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. Fox has produced a very good-looking transfer
of a film that has a decidedly stylistic vision, which was produced for
relatively little money. The image is usually sharp and well defined,
although there are shots that appear somewhat soft. Colors are rendered
at a very natural level of saturation and flesh tones appear completely
realistic. There are no problems with either chroma noise or hues bleeding
beyond their boundaries. Blacks tend to be reasonably accurate, but not
as intensely deep as they appear on most new films. Because the blacks
are slightly off, the image did not have the level of depth one associates
with brand new movies. Still, both shadow detail and contrast seem fine
throughout the course of the movie. Digital compression artifacts are
never problematic on this dual layered DVD.
This
release of DONNIE DARKO features an excellent Dolby Digital 5.1
channel soundtrack. The sound mix utilizes the discrete encoding very
well, sometimes to create an unnerving sense of atmosphere. Surround usage
is surprisingly effective, yet it marries into the forward soundstage
flawlessly. Dialogue reproduction is always clean and fully understandable.
The bass channel is solid, without becoming boomy. Music is well integrated
into the five channels; with both the film’s score and eighties pop music
sounding full-bodied. English and French Dolby Surround soundtracks are
also encoded onto the DVD, as are English and Spanish subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as a nice complement of supplemental features.
DONNIE DARKO includes not one, but two separate audio commentaries.
The first track features director Richard Kelly and star Jake Gyllenhaal,
while the second includes the director again, along with cast members
Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Jena Malone, Beth Grant, Holmes Osborne,
Katherine Ross, and James Duval, as well as producers Sean McKittrick
and Nancy Juvonen. I found both tracks to be informative and entertaining
and recommend listening to both. Those with a casual interest would probably
find the cast and crew commentary more entertaining and should start there.
Also included on the DVD are twenty deleted and extended scenes, which
can be viewed with or without director commentary. There is a lot of interesting
material amongst the deleted scenes, which were removed for pacing and
timing concerns. Next up is the complete Cunning Visions infomercial from
the movie that includes the option of an amusing audio commentary. A Mad
World music video is also included on the DVD, along with an art gallery,
a web site gallery, a glimpse at The Philosophy of Time Travel
book from the film, a theatrical trailer, five TV spots, cast filmographies
and filmmaker biographies.
DONNIE
DARKO is a unique movie that deserves to be seen by a wider audience
than it had in it limited theatrical screenings. Fox has produced a solid
DVD edition of the film that should remedy the situation. If this review
has piqued your interest in this terrific little movie, go out and get
your hands on a copy of DONNIE DARKO.
