FILMCLUB: DONNIE DARKO (OV)

FSK 16 | 113 minutes | Drama / Thriller | Release: 05.03.2024 | USA 2001

"My Friend Harvey" meets "Final Destination" in the original, beautifully staged and quite spooky cinema debut of the talented Richard Kelly. Jake Gyllenhaal, son of director Stephen and brother of "Secretary" heroine Maggie, is joined by producer Drew Barrymore as the lead actor.

Middlesex, Iowa, 1988: Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is at first glance a typical American teenager, endowed with a sharp intellect, vivid imagination and world-weary wisdom, but equally introverted and emotionally unstable, he cultivates a friendship with Frank, a giant rabbit that only he can see. When Donnie is woken up one night by his imaginary friend, who reveals that the end of the world is imminent, he narrowly escapes an accident that could have been fatal. From then on, Frank becomes Donnie's constant companion and provokes a series of events that cause a lot of trouble in the small town. But what is really behind the voice in Donnie's head?

With his feature film debut, 26-year-old Richard Kelly has created a cult film for an entire generation. Kelly, who described his screenplay as a kind of "Catcher in the Rye narrated by Philip K. Dick", takes the viewer on an unusual genre mix of melancholy science fiction, coming-of-age, teen comedy and fantastic thriller on a seemingly (nightmarish) dreamlike journey into the limbo between the worlds of childhood and adulthood. Initially plagued by various problems when it was released in 2001, DONNIE DARKO only developed over the years into what is probably the first cult classic of the new millennium. Featuring a great cast, starting with siblings Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal before their Hollywood breakthrough, through heartthrob Patrick Swayze and Oscar®-nominated Katherine Ross, 80s child star Drew Barrymore and TV favorite Noah Wyle and an atmospheric soundtrack of 80s classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and Duran Duran, DONNIE DARKO became the inspiration for many independent filmmakers and is now released in a new restoration that will not only delight fans of Donnie and Frank.