strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive

Adventures with an unreliable narrator.

Aug 23 04: through the cellar door

Whoa. We just had a fabulous evening with Andrew and Yuri, and now my head is all messed up.

We saw the director’s cut of Donnie Darko, which is now getting a theatrical run. I never got around to seeing the movie the first time it was released, back in 2001; but then the movie went from ‘obscurissimo cult favorite’ to ‘made $10 million in DVD sales.’ I guess they decided to take it for another spin ‘round the block, adding 20 minutes or so of footage from the DVD release that make it…well, more lucid than it was before, I guess. It’s still deeply crazy, but in a good way. Donnie Darko is a spicy purée of Charlie Kaufmann, David Lynch, and John Hughes, served over ice cubes made from frozen black-cherry soda and shredded ginger. Is Donnie losing his mind? Or is the spectral six-foot rabbit entity correct when he’s saying that the world is about to end? What is going on here?

Words fail. We got to the final credits and although I wasn’t entirely certain what I’d just seen my brain was so awhirl with questions and theories and oh-hey-wasn’t-it-great-when that I needed to see it again right away.

We didn’t go see it again, though. We went and had dinner at Otto instead. Not cheap, but very tasty. Plus I ate all sorts of actual grownup food and didn’t feel like somebody was stabbing me in the face even once.

So, yeah. A good night.

By the way, there are what amounts to Cliffs Notes on the film in an article at Salon. You have to sit through the ad to get the Salon Day Pass if you’re not a subscriber, but if you’re dying to get something like a definitive take on the film it’s worth the extra 30 seconds.

Commentary

Great movie. I kept thinking that Katherine Ross was a dead ringer for Julie London, though. I enjoyed holding your hand, too.

posted by Pablo, Aug 23 04 10:48 PM

Hey - did you not go away?

posted by Sari (again), Aug 24 04 11:36 PM

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