Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more

 

Donnie Darko (2001)

Director: Richard Kelly

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This flawed but promising debut from writer/director Kelly is like The Ice Storm with a surreal psychological twist. It's 1988, and the title character (Gyllenhaal) is a moody adolescent in small town America. After a near fatal incident in which a jet engine falls on his house, Donnie suffers schizophrenic hallucinations of a spooky figure warning of imminent apocalypse. Kelly's script is an over-ambitious mess, dragging in time travel, high school politics, premonition and the presidential chances of Michael Dukakis, but his assured direction compensates. The tone alternates nimbly between comedy and horror, and two early sequences combine music (Echo and the Bunnymen's 'Killing Moon' and Tears for Fears) and image to stunning effect.

Author: NY

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Richard Kelly

Producer: Sean McKittrick, Nancy Juvonen, Adam Fields

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Mary McDonnell, Jena Malone, James Duval, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle full cast

Duration: 113 mins

Related articles


Features

Turkey or gravy?

Turkey or gravy?

We've got some advice about family moviegoing for the holiday weekend.

Holiday gift guide

Instructions on how to get your own customized soda machine (and other, slightly more rational gifts for your film-loving friends).

Holiday film preview

Are you more interested in seeing the Daniel Craig movie, the Steven Soderbergh movie or the Freddy Rodriguez movie? Answer carefully.

Boyle's orders

The director of Slumdog Millionaire talks about the joys of filming on the cheap in India after having worked under Hollywood's thumb.

Time and again

Wong Kar-wai spruces up his underseen martial-arts epic, Ashes of Time.

Mergers and acquisitions

A new deal between the Underground Film Festival and IFP pays off.

Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema

The films we previewed offer very few reasons to kvetch.