Another first time director directs a film with an appalling title and what will be remembered as a cult classic in the years to come. The indie low budget film was given a post 9/11 Halloween release and only grossed 10% of its five million dollar budget. Word of the mouth picked up when it was released on DVD and has since been doing well and building a reputation.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Donnie Darko, a high school student diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Donnie is intelligent, disturbed and confused by the meaning of life and God. Struggling with the information he’s given in hallucinations by a sinister six foot tall imaginary rabbit, Donnie is fascinated by time travel. He constantly questions a science teacher about the possibility of time travel. And before I forget…his imaginary friend, the rabbit tells him that the world is going to end in 28 days. Kelly infuses his film with a nostalgia that anyone who was bright (regardless of results) in school will instantly recognise. There is a certain smell of innocence in the film that any science fiction fan can identify with.

Kelly wrote himself in to a trap when he wrote DD, by writing a story where the complications are simplified, subtle and the trip the film takes the viewer on, while masterfully crafted, needs a satisfying finale. He needed a payoff because the promise of the story is not expected to be broken.
Does Kelly fulfill the promise? Yes. But not everyone will agree.

The ending is murky and the complete ramifications won’t be apparent the instant after the film ends. The answers to all questions raised and sometimes ignored later on, will not always be clear unless you hear the commentary track on the DVD. Like Rushmore, DD is uncompromising and relentless in its artistic vision. Donnie Darko is a bleak, unsettling elegy to youth and a distinct fusion of sf/fantasy, black comedy and coming of age psychological drama. Kelly purposely infests his film with clichés of the teen drama/comedy and still manages to create a film of astonishing originality and one of great significance. Kelly has reputedly said that Donnie Darko is Holden Caulfield filtered through the eyes of late science fiction visionary author Philip K. Dick. But that is selling himself short.

While the aforementioned influences may have inspired Donnie Darko; Kelly has done what any influential writer hopes for. Rather than creating a shameless imitation, he has created something completely new after paying homage to the influence. This is a debut that is worthy of Darren Aronofsky’s Pi which in turn was worth of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Kelly has yet to announce his second feature but we all wait with intense expectation what this young man will bring us in the future. Is there hope for the future? Watch the film and find out.