Friday, November 4, 2011

Oh hai, 2001.



I learned the other day that it's 10 years since the film Donnie Darko was released. Um, sorry... but where did that little sandwich of time disappear to?

I can totally picture myself lying on my bed listening to Gary Jules' depressing cover of Mad World from the movie over and over again, pondering the meaning of life. Wasn't that just last year? Seriously.

Seeing it for the first time at 15, Donnie Darko became the film of my adolescence (closely followed by Waking Life, interestingly, also released in 2001). But I shouldn't assume that everyone has seen it, given not everyone is into psycho-philosophical sci fi thrillers...

So for the uninitiated, a brief synopsis: Donnie Darko follows the story of a teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) living in America in the 80s who has hallucinations, makes friends with an apocalyptic rabbit and learns the secret to time travel after a jet engine falls on his house. Oh and Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze are in it. What more could you want?

There was something about the way it combined a number of my interests at the time, namely space and philosophy, into a cool 80s aesthetic that totally won me over. I watch it now and notice how convoluted the plot is and how basically unwatchable it would be for most people, but I still love it.

I take it everyone has a bunch of films that are forever linked to their teenage years. Probably most aren't as dark and twisted as mine, but I'm curious, what is it for you? And when you watch it now, does it still appeal?

5 comments:

Suri said...

Donnie Darko seems like a good movie! I love psychological sci-fi thrillers. I am gonna watch that :) And I love Mad world by Gary Jules too. I have always loved superhero films since teenager. Those dramatic someone dying for someone else kind of movies. Watching it again now has lesser impact as in the past though.

soph said...

I didn't think about how you might enjoy Donnie Darko, but you're right, you do like those kind of films! This one isn't very super-hero though. Donnie is a kind of anti-hero.

Thora and Dean said...

hmmm, I think my two are reality bites and clueless. Way to make me sound very shallow miss soph!!

booth_street said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
soph said...

I love Clueless! We had to study it, but I still love it.

No, not dumb. I think I was just really pretentious and angsty.