Donnie Darko (2001)
Director: Richard Kelly Run Time: 114 min. Rating: R Release Year: 2001
Starring: Beth Grant, Drew Barrymore, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Jena Malone
Country: United States
Language: English
Presented as part of Mammoth Mondays, a new extension of Cult 101. 4K restoration courtesy of Arrow Films and the American Genre Film Archive.
About the film:
“If revisiting an old movie is a bit like going back in time, that sense of disorientation is doubled in DONNIE DARKO . . . A haunted miasma of youthful alienation, suburban malaise, cosmic upheaval, and 1980s pop-cultural infatuation”
—Justin Chang for L.A. Times
Before Stranger Things combined science fiction, Spielberg-ian thrills, and 1980s nostalgia to much acclaim, Richard Kelly set the high-water mark with this debut feature. Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium. Described by its director as “‘The Catcher in the Rye’ as told by Philip K. Dick”, Donnie Darko stars Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, and Noah Wyle.
About the filmmaker:
Writer and director Richard Kelly gained widespread recognition for his 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko. He followed up with the ambitious sci-fi Southland Tales, which competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and the 2009 sci-fi thriller The Box, based on an episode of the Twilight Zone. He also penned the screenplay for Tony Scott’s Domino.
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