<< New Blogroll Links | Main | Two Down >>
January 16, 2004
One Down...
Well, last night in an attempt to withstand the cold, I wrapped up with some hot popcorn and cider and watched one of the movies on this list that I hadn't seen yet.
Donnie Darko is at #92 on the list, and likely will drop off in time. The list (which is from the IMDb) is significantly time-sensitive, favoring more striking recent movies dramatically. This film really isn't "top 100" material, and is taking a spot other, superior, films will eventually assume.
Which is not to say that Donnie Darko isn't a very good movie, because it is. It nicely twists the audience between wondering if it is a psychological thriller or a science fiction movie, if Donnie is crazy or if he's actually experiencing something otherworldly, and the performances are quite solid (though I agree with several reviews, the fact that Drew Barrymore was, at the time of release, the films most bankable performer resulted in her scenes being under-edited, especially given how tight most of the rest of the film is). In a clever (if a bit artificial) bit of information-era cross-pollution, some of the critical questions of the film are only answered by exploring the movie web site (the DVD contains the crucial screenshots as a supplement); this doesn't really make the film better, but it does create an artificial "mystery cult" surrounding the film, which may well explain why it makes the IMDb list. I would recommend seeing the film before hitting the website, however, as knowing the answer (if you work it out, and it isn't all that hard) spoils some of the film's misdirections.
All-in-all, a good way to spend a cold New England evening.
Posted by ghoul at January 16, 2004 08:30 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://noneuclidianstaircase.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/123
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)