Donnie Darko

            This is a haunting and masterful dark comedy. We meet young Donnie (Jake Gyllenhol, The Day After Tomorrow), troubled by his various psychotic delusions, he begins to see a therapist. The hypnosis and counseling begin to reveal that Donnie’s visions may be more than paranoia or psychosis. He may be lost in a strange world of transdimensional shift and temporal paradoxes.

            In any case, he does his best to cope with the visions as he makes his way through adolescence, spending time with his girlfriend, trying to do well in school, and putting up with his parents. The only problem is that one of his psychotic nightmares, a 6 foot demonic bunny rabbit tells him the world will end on Halloween night.

            Donnie follows a sick and twisted pattern of events that lead up to this, but can’t piece it together until it’s almost too late.

            Set in 1987, the culture and nature of the characters is amusing and hysterical. The dynamics of the Darko family are masterful, and really set the tone for the whole dark comedy feeling. Drew Barrymore (E.T.) adds an especially notable cameo as a non-conformist school teacher who encourages Donnie to figure things out rather than settling into the mediocrity of the 1980’s.

            The ending itself is a very dramatic and fascinating idea, and Donnie really does find redemption in the strangest way possible. His delusions and actions come to a gripping end in this spellbinding 2.