I’m Not There, Donnie Darko

I’m Not There (2007)

Strange.  Interesting.  I will probably have to watch it again to get more from it, but I didn’t really get into it.  It was a cool approach, but just seemed to be trying to hard to be hip for me.  Not that I hated it either.  Some segments were engrossing, others missed their mark.  Maybe it was all of the hype, but it didn’t deliver what I was looking for.

Donnie Darko (2001, Director’s Cut)

It’s been a couple of years since I have seen it and decided it was time to reconsider it.  Much like Memento, you gain more from watching it again.  The time travel aspects are interesting, but it’s easier to follow the second time around.  Some of the awkward moments (which seemed like bad acting by Jake Gyllenhaal the first time through) were actually important plot points.  

Very strange movie, indeed, but you have to let it wash over you and see it through.  The cast was well done and for a small(er) budget movie was pretty impressive.  Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jena Malone all felt genuine.  

I also watched the movie with the commentary by Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith.  I am almost more of a fan of Smith when he is just talking about movies than his movies themselves.  And I am a big fan of his movies.  Some of the exchanges are very interesting and illuminating.  It really helps to tie the movie together, but real fans of the movie may feel that it might take away from the experience.

One of the things that I had trouble figuring out (when first watching it) was, why was it set in 1988.  I was trying to think of significant events that made sense.  It merely turns out that 1988 was when Kelly was that age.  He felt that trying to write as a teenage today is just disingenuous.  He set it in a time that he was comfortable with.