Donnie Darko

A film set in an American suburb in 1988. Donnie is at school and on medication. He sleepwalks, and one night he wakes up outside. That night an aircraft engine falls on his house. His room is destroyed, but Donnie is not in it, so he lives. Where the engine came from is not established. No aircraft reports one missing. Donnie starts seeing someone. Frank, in a rabbit costume, tells him the world will end in twenty-eight days. From there the film is a countdown. School, a teacher, a motivational speaker, a water main, a fire, and a book about time travel. What the narrative is interested in is not science fiction but adolescence: the film literalises a young person's sense that the world is ending and takes that feeling seriously. The narrative explains nothing fully. The rules are read out of a book, and the book is not clear enough either. The director's cut contains more explanation, and many viewers prefer the released, more closed version. The music is half the film's identity. Songs of the period and the final track carry the feeling of the narrative. It was made on a small budget and was barely seen on release; it found its audience on home video and at late-night screenings. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore and Maggie Gyllenhaal are in the cast. Richard Kelly wrote and directed; it was his first film. Who it is for: anyone who likes closed, atmospheric films open to interpretation. Who it is not for: anyone looking for clear answers; the rules of the narrative are not consistent and the film makes no attempt to fix that.