Amanda: I guess I’m able to pay attention to idiot savants and people who ramble for two minutes before making their point, so when movies do the same thing, I can just accept them for that. However even David Peoples says he watches Blade Runner and wishes the story had the clarity of the visuals, so I think you make a strong point about cohesion as a necessity in movies.

Adam: Thanks for issuing that link. Emerson’s essay was long but I did enjoy it. What was interesting about is that he chose to highlight the teenage angst aspects of the film, which I glanced over in favor of the science fiction/fantasy elements. How cool would it be to spend Halloween in Middlesex as a teenager. Get to live across the street from Mary McDonnell & Maggie Gyllenhaal, see a jet engine fall on their house and have Drew Barrymore as your English teacher. This would make having to sit through Jim Cunningham videos worth while.

Hedwig: Check out the Jim Emerson article that Adam linked if you haven’t already. He responded to the growing pains of Donnie Darko much the same way that you did. Your teenage years must have been more tempestuous than mine because I responded to the film as a Twilight Zone episode more than I did Catcher In The Rye. That’s one of the cool things about Donnie Darko; two film lovers can walk away from it having seen two completely different movies. Thanks for commenting.

Marilyn: Too often I put people into boxes where movies with science fiction or horror elements are not received well by women, just like movies where actors suddenly break into song or dance are not suitable for men. Thanks for reminding me that great movies are great and can be enjoyed by everyone. Unless they are from Korea. I cannot imagine Donnie Darko making any sense to your friend!

Daniel: I don’t hear filmmakers really giving it up for their DPs nearly as much as they should. Whatever you want to say about Richard Kelly and Sean McKittrick, they don’t try to take credit for the film’s visual sheen. I’m glad the film’s visual palette met with your discerning approval. Thanks for commenting!

Elena: Thank you for submitting that cool comment. I would be curious to know if a year later, this is still your favorite movie. At any rate, let’s hear it for the people with brains.

Marc: For someone who says he doesn’t care much about message boards, you sure devoted a lot of space to commenting on Donnie Darko. I agree that any crowd who loves a movie too much is easy to ridicule. I also agree that this movie doesn’t really make sense. None of that really mattered to me though. I don’t know why someone looking for something that made sense would watch a movie called Donnie Darko anyway. Thanks for contributing though.

Watching it a second time with her, the adolescent longings and philosophy came to the forefront–perhaps because that’s what I was told to look for. Still, there were so many things that seemed right about that “interpretation,” from parental behavior ,to taking behavior modification drugs (wasn’t every kid on Ritalin by then?), to looking for wisdom from an old person (something people tend to lose when they reach adulthood). I was a big fan of Jena Malone from her gut-wrenching turn in Ellen Foster, and it seemed that her role in that TV film helped tinge this one with its luminous tragedy and hope. The film was Catcher in the Rye to a great extent, or at least referenced unconsciously that seminal work on adolescence.

Donnie Darko seemed less complicated to me on a second viewing. That didn’t destroy its magic for me, however. To me, the film was like a scenic tour through an adolescent mind–crazed, mixed up, omnipotent, romantic, doomed. It’s really a great achievement.

Exactly! I could not agree with you more. That’s also, I think, why the director’s cut didn’t work: the director’s own vision interfered with your own way of looking at the story, and it’s bothersome rather than helpful.

I must’ve seen this film about 15 times. I was 17, I think, when I first saw it, and just like The Catcher in the Rye did two years earlier, it connected me on an incredibly strong level. Now, at a bit more of a remove, I can see some of the flaws, and I no longer think it’s the greatest movie ever made, but it remains close to my heart.

As for Southland Tales, I just saw it last weekend and loved it, but it is totally out of control, and can’t measure up to Donnie Darko. I greatly enjoyed it, and I’ll definitely watch it again, but for all its sprawling detail, it has no emotional depth. Nothing to compare to the sharp depiction of ‘the Pain of Puberty’, in any case.

More than the story, I just love occupying Middlesex as a viewer — like how the theater is showing Evil Dead, and the little moments with Donnie’s parents. So many great details that keep me coming back.

I haven’t seen the director’s cut or listened to commentary, but viewed on its own terms, I think I pretty much “got it.” Mostly, I think the film suffers from an overload of ideas and detail that don’t add anything to the overall structure. It’s interesting that he saw the script as being about the 80′s, since that aspect worked the least for me.

I sound very critical, yet I do like the film very much. It’s possible that the ravenous young fanbase, convinced that the film is so utterly deep or unfathomable, just turns me off.