Fifteen years before Stranger Things combined science-fiction, Spielberg-ian touches and 80s nostalgia to much acclaim, Richard Kelly set the template and the high-water mark with his debut feature, Donnie Darko. Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium.
Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death in the form of a falling jet engine, follow Frank´s maladjusted instructions and try to maintain the space-time continuum.
Described by its director as „The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick“, Donnie Darko combines an eye-catching, eclectic cast pre-stardom Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, heartthrob Patrick Swayze, former child star Drew Barrymore, and an evocative soundtrack of 80s classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears a.o. This brand-new 4K restoration, out on DVD on next Monday, Feb 9th, carried out exclusively for this release by Arrow Films, allows a modern classic to finally receive the home video treatment it deserves.
(Sometimes a product description is a good description; even a song of Duran Duran doesn’t kill the magic. -MHQ)