Donnie Darko, the Anti-Halloween Movie: 14-Year-Old-Cinema 

The "Head Over Heels" montage absolutely makes this film. I love how the camera pans over all of the characters without any major cuts, establishing their personalities without a single word being uttered.

The original michael andrews score for donnie darko is so underrated. A lot of people just remember the supplementary songs or that tension building string section that was the last half of "slipping away" and kind of stands out like a sore thumb from the rest of the score- but the whole original score is one of the most beautiful ambient/piano collections ever made.

i love donnie darko and the soundtrack is so beatiful. i love the song that plays whenever donnies girlfriend shows up and i love the scene where donnie's friend drops her notebook and donnie walks home wearing her earmuffs.

i literally watched this movie AGAIN last week. it is such an odd anomaly honestly. It talks about schizophrenia - but not actually - because it actually IS suppose to be that he has super power strength and time travel etc DOES exist in this movie. But if it was a normal world, and what they think he has (or perhaps he already had i m not sure actually) is schizophrenia. Donnie is played so well by Jake Gyllenhaal. he is so funny. This movie is time travel, a little horror-ish , romantic teen comedy, drama and tackling the topic of fearing growing up. What you're suppose to be in this world. I also don't know if it is supposed to be due to his diagnosis, but he is always the one standing up to the teachers ridiculous points and brainwashing they are trying to teach the students. donnie isn't having it. he is blunt and not always nice. he knows funny facts, and is shown to be very smart. they way they kind of portray schizophrenia without making it COMPLETLY obvious - maybe something you would only notice if you have it (which i do) i think it shows the illness very well in some scenes. it is a fun movie with serious discussions as well AND you have to actually dig a little deeper to fully understand what is going on with the whole time travel thing. it's one of my favorite movies that's for sure.

i think i remember from the director's commentary that the sequence of everyone "reacting" at the end is everyone waking with the memories of both timelines, therefore Jim Cunningham is exposed in a way

This essay is poppin'. Almost as much as the microphone.

I remember the Donnie Darko website. It explained the movie alot. Donnie Darko was my comfort movie when i was like 16-17 somewhere around there

Question: "Why do I even need a pop filter for my microphone?" The answer:

As a closeted queer kid with depression this movie was extremely important for me as a coming of age story with the whole package of identity crisis when you're surrounded by loving family and friends but feeling alone because nobody can figure you out. Also it served as my gateway drug to the weird side of cinema with Eraserhead and Sorry to Bother You being my absolute favorites now.

The movie is honestly just hella watchable

i first saw this movie when i was 14 in middle school and it blew my mind at the time and really changed how i viewed film. i can attribute a lot of my interest in film today to that movie. now i'm in college and it's still one of my favorites. i definitely have problems with it, and it can feel a little corny to watch at times, but i've adopted a similar mindset as you where i view it as more deconstructive even if that wasn't the director's actual intention and it's really just a dumb movie about teen angst. i watch it every october to get in the mood for halloween. i'll always love this movie.

A minor scene I like is when the teacher discusses how "cellar door" is the most beautiful English expression. A spit in the face of the English language, given it just stands out because it sounds like a generic French word.

You missed the Lynchian motifs in the surrealist vibe and the whole darkness-underneath-Americana thing the movie has going on.

Thank you for making this video. You put into words some of the strong feelings I’ve had about this movie ever since I first saw it. I was 13 in 2004 when my aunt rented this movie for me, my sister and my cousins to watch. I loved the movie immediately, and I wanted to digest as much as I could about it. To this day it remains my favourite movie, even at 31 years of age. I love it so much in fact that I got the numbers tattooed on my arm, just like Donnie had them in the movie. As I’ve gotten older, I too have had the thought, of how on earth Richard Kelly created something like this at the age of 25. Mind blowing. Anyway, your analysis of the movie as a depiction of suicide really hit home for me. I wasn’t diagnosed with depression until I was about 16, and when I was 18, I had my first and most serious suicide attempt. Funnily enough, I put this movie on as I tried taking my life, as I wanted to go out with my favourite things around me. Though I’m much, much better now than I was in my late teens, I think I still struggle with that sort of saviour complex thing. I still have this idea in my head that my life will have meant something if I died saving someone else. That notion isn’t as strong in my head as it used to be, but it’s still something I wrestle with from time to time. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this comment if you did, and thank you for making this video. For anyone out there struggling with their mental health, please know that it can get better. I’m living proof that it can

I’ve still never seen this movie bc the bunny guy absolutely traumatized me as a kid 😂😂

This is still one of my top five favorite movies. I had to rewatch it right after watching it the first time. Just like I did with Fight Club (in my younger days). I think nowadays we have a major lacking of people who watch movies that “make you think.” And I really don’t get why. My boyfriend is guilty of this. He’d rather watch something like a Michael Bay movie than something like Hereditary.

i love this movie so much. so happy you made this video

This was a movie I resonated heavily with as a high schooler but as I got older I grew embarrassed that I enjoyed it. Your point about its edginess makes it so apparent to me now, maybe I just didn't want to seem like that kind of movie fan to other adults.

The guy in the jogging suit was an FAA agent. It’s in the movie.

Watched this movie again recently. It really does everything super well! 👌

This show fucked me up as a kid, and still mess's with my head to this day. To the point of making reality fuzzy.

bro desprately needs a popfilter

What form of medias are elevated by vagueness? Abstraction and negative space ? Which forms counter act this idea

I think Under The Silver Lake (2018) is a worthy heir to Donnie Darko.

vagina'd individuals watch donnie darko video essays too :P

Awesome video man! I absolutely love this move, one of my favorites since I’ve seen it

I just saw this movie for the first time. I got deep into Alice in wonderland and the matrix a year ago. This movie explains those themes arguably better. I get the chills every time I think about it. I’ve been experiencing events like Donnie, I know it’s crazy. But I’ve had multible related synchronicities leading me to some realization. Like how I saw the three matrix films in a row for the first time and the next day the matrix 4 trailer released. Insane. And it heavily talked about Alice in wonderland. I can’t really explain what I’ve been experiencing but I’ll be glad to elaborate.

Man I fucking love this movie

I like to look at Donnie Darko as more of a look at a mental health crisis rather than a sci-fi. I don’t think that the time travel is real in the film, instead I think their hallucinations that Donnie see’s. At the beginning of the movie we are told that Donnie isn’t talking his meds, I believe that the air plane engine hitting his house is him snapping into a violent episode possibly suicidal. When Donnie gets back from talking to frank I think that’s when he snaps out of his episode. The rest of the movie is Donnie going through a mental crisis. He has extreme feelings of loneliness and isolation but at the same time he has a god complex. The end of the film is Donnie committing suicide the air plane engine may be symbolic to a built.

I dunno it kinda seemed like that George Lukas meme, what with history about to repeat itself and necessary death parts of ones self to sustain in that climate, the depressing take is seeing the emotional landscape of voluntarily taking the road most taken in a fast approaching social climate and the corrosive effects it can have leading to a "suicide" of ones personality.

Great content! However, can you have a mic stabilizer (and/or) mic pad so we don't have hear the bonks and thumps of you smooshin' and breathin' into your mic? I really enjoy what you have to say, but little, constant thumps are so distracting!

yo dont mind me while I go full derrida on this burger and deconstruct it

I thought he was drinking a weird metal juice box

What microphone are you using?

The idea that believing people would be better off without you is a “symptom” of depressive thinking makes me wonder if you’ve ever been depressed enough to seriously consider suicide. Major Depression-related suicidal ideation is mostly about a person being in so much pain that suicide seems like the only way, unreasonable though it is, to make it stop. The thoughts of people being better off without you is just a rationalization that some of us depressives (yes, I’m 100% speaking from personal experience as a major depressive who has battled suicidal ideation more than once) make so it’s OK to go ahead and kill ourselves. It’s a fairy tale we tell ourselves to ease our way towards doing it. You make it sound like it’s a primary symptom of major depression, and that’s just not how it works, dude.

Hey hello hi : why not get one of those fluffy things to cover your mic. You wouldn’t have all the sounds pops.

Holy hannah you need a pop filter.

dude what are these booms on the mic every 5 seconds I would love to listen to this but it's way too annoying

Anti-Halloween? Like the Catholic Church?

Good vid, great movie, horrible microphone.

Ok "filmBr0"

L+u fell off

the random bumping on the mic through-out this video gives me schizophrenia, I checked my door 8 times, you got some stragglers pounding on your basement door or something?

Yeah sorry about the pop filter my hands were tied won’t happen again etc

The best thing about Donnie Darko is the way it depicts what its like to have friends and a family. It's capacity for verisimilitude in the intimate details of growing up and its charming sense of humor about those phenomena is what makes it infinitely re-watchable.

One of those movies that just can't seem to leave my head. The more I think about it, the more I love it

Your point to a movie you know so well taking on a new viewing really hits home for me. I watched it when I was young as well, and had very fond memories of cool Donnie and the creepy time travel. When I was in my early twenties, I was severely depressed and without any language to describe how I was feeling. I watched Donnie Darko just because I remembered liking it so much, and I felt so... seen. Donnie wasn't a cool dude with time travel powers, he was terrified and lonely and struggling to reach out and connect. Never have I seen a film that so accurately captured the depth of fear and sadness that I felt at that time in my life.

Great video man! Def need to revist this movie again now. Slight criticism though is that mic bumping noise happening throughout the video kinda made me take a break sometimes LOL I def might be more weirdly sensitive to that kinda stuff but just a heads up! Great commentary and video otherwise man keep it up!

Gotta do something about those constant mic pops...

11:05-11:21 Thought I was going crazy

Thank you for reminding me that my favorite line in all of cinema happens to be from this movie. "Sometimes, I seriously doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!"

Interesting take but I think you’re missing the most important element. It’s a time travel film. Donnie has discovered how to control time, perhaps in a limited fashion. The end scene is merely one timeline. The scene where Donnie is cracking up is his realization that he literally controls his own fate.

I loved Southland Tales, i even cried in during the scene with the flying van, it felt like a moment of acceptance of yourself, which i experienced at one point under some halluccinogenic help, it wasnt a perfect film but it did connect with me, i still love what that movie was saying at that time, it was way ahead of the time.I cant believe Richard Kelly is 47 years old now, in my mind he is still the young kid with great ideas.

I used to watch it every year as a Halloween tradition but stopped when I got older because I feared it might be too angsty for my taste now, or that I only liked it back then because I was younger and easily swayed by fake deep stuff, but your review made me want to watch it again!

Cool video and all, but please get a hang of your microphone. The constant "punching" sound is really annoying

One of the best films ever made

I love your content and I want to watch it but I can't because you don't have a pop filter. buy a pop filter and you will have so many more subscribers

Bro put the mike down, the pops are making this video very difficult to watch.

9:55 Donnie dies so that he never meets Gretchen and therefore she does not get hit by the car. Sure that doesn't mean "everything is better for EVERYONE" but that was not really his point or goal.

It took me almost 10 years to realize the theatrical cut is way superior than the Director's cut. I think you said it right when you said Kelly got "Lost in the sauce". He seems to get hung up on the minute details of the worlds he creates, which end up spilling out into media out side of the film, which is antithetical to the experience of watching a film. It makes me wish he could do a mini series or a TV, something that would give him more time to expand on these Big ideas. You should do a video about the Box, I don't think I've heard any one say anything about that one since it came out. I always assumed it flopped so hard it ended Kelly's career.

Damn it Taylor, why you gotta get so smart on us?

are you punching the mic?

I love you bro but the plosives into your mic killed me this video

Whenever I think about this movie I always do it in connection to or relate it to the TV show Dark, which I feel posseses many of the themes of this film, expands them and applies them to a more streamline mythology around time travel. I find Donnie Darko to be a sort of weird unlce which went on to define how Dark ended up being, even if said show was more influenced by those works which inspired the film itself (such as Stephen King and 80s genre movies). I find it fascinating how the movie can be such a mesh of concepts and ideas (a superheroe story, a time travel thriller, a coming of age, a satire) and yet still feel coherent and easy to follow. What really grounds everything is Gyllenhall's potrayal of Donnie imo, and is a great example of how to make an audience surrogate while also giving him agency and a personality, PLUS making him a "chosen one" of sorts without it feeling cheap or forced.

Tell me why we just watched this on HBO last week and now im getting suggestions on youtube 😭

3:00 in, you're just shotgunning pop culture references. What is the film about. What are they actually saying. Do you know? Do the writers of the piece know? Not some vague idea. What is the point. What is the endgame. What story are they telling

yo the plosives in the mic are rly loud. it may be helpful to have some kind of wind screen or pop filter on the Zoom recorder :) you could also reduce some of the low end on the EQ in post at the very least. i really love DD and wanna watch this video but the plosives hurt

Mate, you need to stop boxing your mic while recording. or whatever that super irretating sound is. i am 3 mins in as write this, not sure if i'll continue this otherwise nice video.

Donnie Darko was released in 2001

The trendy microphone is not worth the bad audio man.

LMFAOOO THE INTRO

Have u watch i movie called LONDON do a video of it

Where is this guy sitting

2001, not 2008.

this video inspired me to rewatch the movie, ty

Shoutout to Seth Rohan

Hi Taylor, I have a few criticisms for you. Stop hitting the mic with your breath. That's the first criticism. I read the comments, and it looks like you're aware of the problem. Also, I see that you removed the windscreen-or whatever it's called. Second, use fewer buzzwords and give me something more profound and meaningful. Intellectual popcorn isn't what I came here to listen to. Third, organize your analysis in a more systematic manner. I'm not a professional, but it seems like your content-at least in this video-could be both more organized and more clearly laid out. You still made a great video despite these criticisms. Look at me. I don't post anything at all and I'm just here to critique your work? 😁 You remind me of Big Joel in a healthy way. Keep up the work. Thanks for the content. --- Personally, I'm in a love-hate relationship with Donnie Darko. On one end, I can relate with Donnie and I understand how the movie emotionally resonates with a lot of young men. On the other end, I'm 29 years old and I'm growing out of the teenage agnst which used to drive a lot of my emotions. Maybe my brain developed in some important manner around 25 years old, or maybe I got sick of being a teenager. I'm an adult now, and I possibly see the world in a larger & more nuanced perspective than my younger self. The world is a beautiful mess: maybe it's an open air, mental asylum; but, it's both the only planet and the only life I get, so I may as well accept it and love it for what it is while it lasts. I like to imagine that the story of Donnie Darko is a kind of explanation about how Richard Kelly felt about the world around him when he was 25-maybe younger like 23 to 24 when he must have been writing this story. In this manner, the movie is both a philosophically driven, thought experiment and an autobiography. I commend Richard Kelly for openly sharing his thoughts and feelings about this world. Very few people articulate this at 23 to 25 years old. IMO, after this movie he grew up and lost some of the angsty mindset. I think that I'll rewatch Donnie Darko, and I hope I glean more meaning from this film. Thank you to anyone who reads my comments, and may we all live a great life.

Fyi, a lot of extranious back ground thumping noise in the audio.

could you, or anyone in these comments, actually elaborate on the red fat guy / bear suit meaning please? i've never understood either

I can't see donnie darko as anything other than dumb angsty fluff... Like if a Nirvana album took itself way too seriously

This is such a great analysis of Donnie Darko. Would love to hear what you think about Southland Tales and The Box

Bro those constant wind gusts had me thinking the voices were knocking the door of my skull

I just realized who you remind me of, it's mainly your voice and the way you speak, but also your appearance to some extent, you remind me of Mason from Richard Linklater's Boyhood

I like that you used an electric razor as a microphone. I do the same thing in the morning with my daughter's hair brushes.

First film i really dove into all the theory and rabbit holes of. Such a rewatchable movie too

It is a really good film and one that is criminally overlooked.

please invest in a wind screen for that mic I swear they're cheap

Donnie Darko is 21 years old not 14.

Nice shining reference

Gretchen is a good name

SOUTHLAND TALES!!!

I’ve already seen this video 🎃

one editing mistake oops

I’m a minute in and I sure hope the point you make is incredible because your vocal delivery and your look and holding that mic in frame and the recommended video thumbnail and title of movies we liked when we were 14 coming off as pretentious as you look is already 4 major strikes.

One of worst and boring movies I've seen.

Pop filter maybe?