What a mind @#$ Richard Kelly Makes

Yesterday I got to see a pre-screening of the re-release of "Donnie Darko, The Director's Cut".

The jist of the movie: Wealthy high school student, Donnie Darko, has hallucinations, visions, and is plagued by a seemingly immaginary giant evil rabbit who orders him to commit acts of violence and predicts the impending end of the world.

First, let me just preface this review with this phrase: I liked the original release of this movie. If you didn't, you're probably not going to like the version will all of the confusing plot twists left in, ok?

Now that we have that out of the way, I enjoyed the extra footage of the parents, Jake and Maggie [Gyllenhaal] interacting, little extras like that. The trippy wormhole effect every time one of the chained "workers" [who remind me of the alien water probe in "The Abyss"] appeared was also interesting, if somewhat surreal, grainy and "Hacker"-like in its visual effect on the audience.

There is a little more to the interaction of Jake Gyllenhaal's character with the other characters (and with himself) and I liked that as well. The ending is a little more extended and it is, as per expected, very twisted and very surreal. I liked the extra footage; some of the people in went to see it with (who had not seen the original release) did not. Just to warn you, depending on your perspective, it will either clarify your understanding or it won't. Unfortunately, I am unable to be clearer about this.

Overall: I loved it. I loved the 80's soundtrack, I loved the original movie, I loved/hated Jake Gyllenhaal, it was awesome seeing more of his sister, Maggie, and I would, once again recommend this movie to anyone with a love of warped and twisted things.

If you liked "Brazil", see this movie. If you like Monty Python, you may also like this movie. What more can I say? If you've seen my reviews, you know what I watch. A paragon of Indie film goodness with bits of "SLC Punk", etc. oozing out of its pores. There were no actual cons in this movie for me, just more surreal and wonderful bits courtesy of Richard Kelly.