03.16.07
Why are you wearing that stupid man-suit?
Wow. I just saw Donnie Darko 
. What an amazing movie. Even my dad liked it, although I’m willing to bet he didn’t get at least half the plot. I say this with some certainty because I’m not sure I got half the plot.
I’m usually not very big on film analysis, mostly I’m studying Film and Media for the Media part. Specifically, Computer Media (to which around 3% of our curriculum is dedicated - not bitter!), but this is one of those movies that could motivate me to pay more attention during our Fiction Theory and Analysis classes. It is also the kind of film that absolutely makes me realize how much the world needs film scholars, because otherwise, how the Hell will we ever come to understand what happened in this movie?
Fantastic film. Gotta buy it now.
mikearthur said,
March 17, 2007 at 23:38
Yuck!
You’ll be gutted I registered this just for this but I HATE Donnie Darko!
I thought it was an incredibly pretentious film that won people over on the fact it was OHSOCLEVER, however, if you actually sat and thought about the the film was full of glaring contradictions and was too CLEVER to actually be an entertaining film.
Jonas said,
March 17, 2007 at 23:58
Then how come I was greatly entertained by it?
In other words, I disagree. I’m in the middle of a very draining debate about the quality of Planescape: Torment, so I really can’t handle another discussion that will inevitably beach itself upon the Shores of Subjectivity. I respect your opinion, and as such, I respectfully disagree.
Thank you for posting, regardless
EER said,
March 18, 2007 at 00:42
Donnie Darko is AWESOME. Every time I watch it, I realize that I notice one thing more that I didn’t last time around
The last time I saw it (two weeks ago or so) I was wondering,
*SPOILER WARNING*
in the end when Donnie dies and everybody looks sad, do they KNOW that they have travelled back in time, did they actually travel back in time, did only Donnie travel back in time? Do they remember what happened? Was it all a dream?
Anyway, see it again, it’s even better the second time, especially if you watch it in the dark
EER said,
March 18, 2007 at 00:44
btw, you may want to see Pi if you haven’t already.
Jonas said,
March 18, 2007 at 01:27
What is Pi?
I think at least it looks a lot like Frank remembers what happened in the tangent universe. I really need to watch the director’s cut before I can speak with authority about the plot, it sounds like a lot of extra stuff is added there, especially the excerpts from The Philosophy of Time Travel probably explain a lot.
EER said,
March 18, 2007 at 10:02
Pi, I’ll just steal the plot outline from IMDB:
“The mathematician Maximillian Cohen (Sean Gullette) is tormented by a severe migraine since he was a kid, and he uses many pills to reduce his painful headaches. He is a lonely man, and his only friend is his former professor Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis). Max has the following assumptions, which rules his life: (1) Mathematics is the language of nature; (2) Everything around us can be represented and understood from numbers; (3) If you graph the numbers in any systems, patterns emerge. Therefore there are patterns everywhere in nature. Based on these principles, Max is trying to figure out a system to predict the behavior of the stock market. Due to his research, Max is chased by a Wall Street company with obvious interest in the results of his studies, and by an orthodox Jew follower of the Torah, who believes that this long string of numbers is a code sent from God.”
Also a film you should see multiple times before you actually understand it
Not only that, but it is called Pi, which is the coolest number.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704/
If you have seen the directors cut, let it know, I only have the ‘normal’ edition here which features some deleted/extended scenes but nothing in relation to the ‘after travel’ bit. There is a director commentary track though, maybe that helps reveal some secrets
EER said,
March 18, 2007 at 12:20
It would be nice if I could just edit my comments, anyway, I just watched the movie with Director’s comments (and Jake Gyllenhaal was there too), on which a lot is explained. From pizza to what that end sequence was all about, not at all a real boring comment track like with X-Men.
Jonas said,
March 18, 2007 at 18:40
Well then what IS it about?
EER said,
March 18, 2007 at 19:40
Apparently, everyone wakes up and remembers everything as if it were a dream, but it passes away over time, making room for the reality of this universe instead of the tangent one. However, that still leaves a lot of open space for speculation, but that was probably intentional
fox said,
March 22, 2007 at 19:14
“Pi” is a great movie, I recommend it to everyone who likes David Lynch. It’s not as cryptic as Lynch’s movies and also has it’s own style but definately reminds me of them. I love the combination of those sfx and the material it’s been filmed on (b/w with very sharp contrast).
I didn’t understand the plot of Donnie Darko at all. Found it entertaining, though.
Jonas said,
March 22, 2007 at 19:25
I love David Lynch! His movies make no sense, but they’re really fascinating none-the-less
He could go a little easier on the porn and the gore, though.