Donnie Darko (2001) ****

Donnie Darko is one of those movies that's a little hard to peg into one specific category. Do you make it a teen angst drama, full of rebellion and shopping mall sportswear. Or is it a sci-fi tale featuring a giant rabbit and an abused Trans Am. It's one of those movies, hard to peg down what's going on until the closing seconds of the film.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays the title character, a teenager that is obvious troubled as hell before the credits run. He's medicated. He sees a psychiatrist. He's a typical teenager today, but in 1988 he's a little out there for the kids of the great suburban heaven he lives in. Donnie is haunted by a giant rabbit named Frank, who initially saves him from a jet engine landing on his bedroom because Frank encouraged him to sleep on a putting green that night. Frank and the jet engine are two of the mysteries that surround Donnie Darko. As these weird events keep piling up one after another he goes through the standard teenager stuff like rebelling against a hypocritical establishment and getting a girlfriend. It's a teen angst picture with a hard, painful twist.

Director Richard Kelly delivers and intertwined tale that is really a look at a suburban area and the odd residents that exist there. As you watch the film, initially thinking that Donnie is nuttier than your great aunts fruitcake, you slowly realize that Donnie may be saner than many of his friends and neighbors. I guess you can throw social commentary in the mic as well.

By a small thread Donnie Darko is really akin to the David Fincher film Fight Club, released a few years before this one. Donnie is one of the pissed off youth that lashes out at the society around them. Donnie isn't quite as violent as, let's say Meat Loaf, but we have to remember he's doped up and tends to spout off at authority from time to time. This could almost be called the closing chapter on that era of 1990's filmmakers that were pushing the idea of breaking down the establishment. Fight Club did it on a global scale. Donnie does it at his school and with the help of Frank the Rabbit.

Donnie Darko is very interesting in that it doesn't take the straight line super highway approach to telling its story. Instead of the quickest, most direct, Eisenhower financed path to its destination this film feels like a twisting, turning ride in the country. Sure, you're going through a little extra wear and tear and it's going to take a little more time, but it's a more fulfilling ride to the end.