There are two types of college films: those about the four-year span (or longer) of academic studying and raucous partying or those watched repeatedly in a college dorm room setting. Donnie Darko is of the latter persuasion, and it owes its cult fandom to the pseudo-intellectual ideas it bandies about which incite teenagers just learning that films can have deeper meanings to discuss things like time-travel, predetermined fates, and the illusion of choice. For a generation of film lovers, Donnie Darko was one of the first films that actually made them want to discuss film late into the evenings with a group of friends. Even if the script is a bit spotty or the direction a bit bland, Donnie Darko was a cult phenomenon in its day and this 10th Anniversary edition Blu-ray offers all of the previously released complementary materials off of the two DVD releases to make it the last copy would-be midnight pseudo-intellectuals will have to purchase.
Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) hears a voice in his head that isn’t his own. And, if you trust the voice in Donnie’s head, the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds, a message delivered to him after he sleepwalks onto a golf course, thus making him absent for the cataclysmic crash of a jet turbine falling through the roof of his house and right on top of his bed, where he should (or rather, could) have been. The disaster sets off a chain of events that introduces Donnie to the new girl Gretchen (Jena Malone), his mother (Mary McDonnell) chosen as the chaperone for his younger sister’s song and dance team, his favorite teacher’s (Drew Barrymore) career put in jeopardy, the revelation of a motivational speaker’s (Patrick Swayze) secret, and a string of vandalism at his school. All of this occurs as Donnie receives visits from the demonic-sounding rabbit, whose presence may or may not be the side effect of behavior medications. With time ticking down to the end of the world, Donnie begins to realize that, while his survival meant different things to different people, the world might have been a better place had he been in bed that night.
Performances are rather enjoyable throughout with Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal playing brother and sister with the sort of chemistry you just can’t fake; Drew Barrymore giving a surprisingly good turn as a teacher whose desire to teach the best elements of English conflicts with an overly-conservative mother’s agenda; and Jena Malone makes shy endearing as the new girls simultaneously dealing with unwanted attention and isolation. The cast keeps Donnie Darko’s story moving along briskly even as the central idea to the plot might have benefitted from a bit of slower pacing. Richard Kelly experimented with that in his Director’s Cut, but the truth is the original theatrical cut wins out as it doesn’t try to explain too much and it leaves a lot of room for the interpretation of Donnie’s actions and motivations. With Kelly’s Director’s Cut, a lot of the ambiguity ends up on the editing room floor. And Donnie Darko needs that ambiguity.
Both the Theatrical Cut and the Director’s Cut are included here (so you no longer have to make the choice of which copy to buy), but I’m of the firm belief that the first time anyone watches Donnie Darko, it should be the Theatrical Cut. Either way, the presentation is rather smooth even with the dated “bubble/time” special effects, but the end maelstrom is really the only place where it’s really noticeable for the HD.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The set comes with all of the extras from the previous DVD releases, and Fox really didn’t make any effort to hide that it’s a copy and paste job – for that matter, the disc with the two versions of the main feature is the only Blu-ray in the set, the extras are just on DVDs. The extras that you would have found on the Director’s Cut and the Theatrical Cut DVD releases appear just as they did before, separated between two discs, with nothing missing or added – the same is true of the audio commentaries. For the Theatrical Cut, there’s a cast and crew audio commentary, which is decent but covers more of the “we made a movie that could be called ‘interesting’” style, whereas the Richard Kelly and Jake Gyllenhaal commentary gets a lot more into the ideas of the film. The Director’s Cut has a single audio commentary (like it did on the DVD), and it features Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith, wherein the ideas are discussed but also which scenes were added and what they change (there’s a 21-minute difference between the two cuts).
Since the rest of the extras are just the same old ones copied anew, we’ll just list them (They’re pretty obvious anyways). Off of the Director’s Cut disc, there’s “They Made Me Do It – The Cult of Donnie Darko” featurette, the documentary #1 Fan, a storyboard piece, and a production diary with an audio commentary. The bulk of the extras (though not the best) is off the Theatrical Release and it includes the film and the commentaries (again), deleted scenes, “Cunning Visions” infomercial, “The Philosophy of Time Travel” book, “Mad World” music video (anyone who’s seen the movie knows why), art gallery, production stills, cast and crew info, and a website gallery.
The set also includes a digital copy of the Director’s Cut of Donnie Darko.
"Donnie Darko - 10th Anniversary Edition" is on sale July 26, 2011 and is not rated. Drama, Sci-Fi. Written and directed by Richard Kelly. Starring Drew Barrymore, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
