Donnie Darko (2001)

Entertainment Weekly
"...Excitingly original..." 11/09/2001 p.84

Chicago Sun-Times
"...Richard Kelly, the first-time writer-director, is obviously talented....He sees his characters freshly and clearly, and never reduces them to formulas. In Jake Gyllenhaal, he finds an actor able to suggest an intriguing kind of disturbance..." 10/26/2001 p.35

Sight and Sound
"...A fine film, even an astounding one....DONNIE DARKO has a texture and tang all its own....Haunting and altogether exquisite..." 10/01/2002 p.35-9

Total Film
"...This is startling filmmaking -- end of story..." 11/01/2002 p.104

USA Today
"...This home life/high school satire set in someone's twilight zone grabs you and doesn't let go. It's also one of the best cast films of the last decade..." 03/22/2002 p.5E

Uncut
"One of the most original debuts of the past 20 years..." 11/01/2004 p.158

Premiere
"DONNIE DARKO has become one of the most original and thought-provoking movies of the last 10 years..." 02/09/2009

Newsday 8 of 10
...Like its defiant hero, Donnie Darko rebels against simplistic classifications. In varying measures a supernatural campfire tale, social satire and teen comedy, it effects with stunning self-confidence a risky shift in tone from the citrus-y domestic banter of its opening 15 minutes to the Stephen King-like chills of its Halloween-set denouement. - Jan Stuart
 
ReelViews 8 of 10
Donnie Darko, the debut feature from writer/director Richard Kelly, is part psychological thriller and part science fiction mystery. The title character (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teenager in his last year of high school, is suffering from all manner of delusions and hallucinations. He sees and does the bidding of a six-foot high rabbit wearing an insect mask, and, at times, appears completely dissociated form his surroundings. He is visiting a therapist and taking medication, but neither solution is working. Donnie is getting worse, but is it because he's descending deeper into a web of mental instability or because he's really seeing and experiencing these things? These are questions that the movie leaves unanswered until the end...One aspect of Donnie Darko's production that's definitely worth mentioning is the special effects. The movie was made on the kind of low budget typically associated with independent films, yet the visual effects are first-rate (one in particular looks like it was lifted out of James Cameron's The Abyss). With the price for this kind of CGI work in a steady decline, it is now becoming possible for all directors - not just those working with $50 million-plus budgets - to employ convincing, and occasionally eye-popping, special effects. Tools that were cutting edge a decade ago have now become commonplace. Donnie Darko proves that it's possible to do science fiction with visual effects in the independent film arena. This is just another area where the line between mainstream and indie movie-making has become increasingly blurred. Perhaps the only remaining difference is that smaller efforts like Donnie Darko use effects in service of an interesting story, while too many Hollywood productions think of the plot as a bothersome adjunct to their CGI eye candy. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
There is a kind of movie that calls out not merely to be experienced but to be solved. The plot coils back on itself in intriguing mind puzzles, and moviegoers send bewildering e-mails to one another, explaining it. Two weeks ago brought ''Mulholland Drive,'' which has inspired countless explanations, all convincing, none in agreement, and now here is ''Donnie Darko,'' the story of a teenage boy who receives bulletins about the future from a large and demonic rabbit...The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, from ''October Sky,'' as Donnie Darko, a high school student whose test scores are ''intimidating,'' whose pose is to be likable and sardonic at once, and who occasionally forgets to take his medication, for unspecified but possibly alarming reasons. He is seeing a psychiatrist (Katharine Ross), who uses hypnosis to discover that he has a nocturnal visitor who leads him on sleepwalking expeditions. One of these trips is fortunate, because while he's out of the house a 747 jet engine falls directly through his bedroom...The movie is grounded solidly in a leafy suburban setting, where the neighbors gather behind police lines while a big flatbed truck hauls the engine away and the FBI questions the Darko family. There is much unexplained...Richard Kelly, the first-time writer-director, is obviously talented--not least at creating a disturbing atmosphere out of the materials of real life. His mysterious jet engine is a masterstroke. He sees his characters freshly and clearly, and never reduces them to formulas. In Jake Gyllenhaal, he finds an actor able to suggest an intriguing kind of disturbance; the character is more curious than frightened, more quixotic than eccentric, and he sets a nice tone for the movie. But somehow the control fades in the closing scenes, and our hands, which have been so full, close on emptiness. ''Donnie Darko'' is the one that got away. But it was fun trying to land it. - Roger Ebert