Donnie Darko is an american film about a troubled teenager who undergoes many peculiar events ultimately leading to an apparent end of the world. An end prophecised by a man in a frightening bunny suit. With only 28 days to go, Donnie has to go through strange events which push his psyche to the limit, til the film meets it's end, which pushes it's audiences understanding on the film to their limits.
psychological aspects
Darko has been widely seen as a "psychological thriller", enough so that it was put on the back of the DVD case. Throwing it in to this genre is very understandable though, many parts of the film show that Donnie (main character) is psychologically unstable, whether they be blunt hints or subtle statements (i.e. from references that Donnie needs to take medication regularly to his psychotherapist telling his parents that he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia).
That said, the intent of including these aspects can raise debate to the point of the whole film. The film, when looked in to more deeply, is based around the idea of time travel and parallel universes. I believe that the writer (Richard Kelly) added these in because it makes us question whether the somewhat supernatural events in the film were real or if it was all in Donnie's head.
With all that in mind, it seems to me that the fact that we raise questions like that was the a main point the the entire film, which puts an artistic spin on it, and a well done one at that.
Profits for Darko
The film was made on a budget of around $4.5 million. It made a total turnover of $7.6 million, leaving a fairly tidy profit of around $3.1 million. Personally i feel it was well deserved, however, the $7.6 million is overall, which means the profit was gradual but it didn't take too long.
Not Just Some Teeny Flick
With it's story revolving around teenagers, high school, and having references to things in teen culture (e.g. house parties); Donnie Darko actually has appealed to wider audiences. This is due to it's artistic concept and structure, and it's mild horror scenes (Frank's appearance). I also think that how it's artistic aspects were well written drew in more praise from it's teenage audience. This is because it showed that a teeny film could be well written and appreciated by a lot of other audiences and doesn't have to be a cheesy slasher filom (e.g. Scream).
Reviews and Reception
Donnie Darko's star rating came to a good 4 stars, as rated by Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB and Metacritic to name. Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian has called it "startlingly original" and, like myself, can't quite put a finger on it's ultimate genre "Is it a horror film? A black comic parable of Generation X angst? A teen drama with a psycho edge? If not, what the hell is it?"
Elvis Mitchell for The New York Times has said that director Richard Kelly has shown "Great Care" for the film. however, he does go on to say that the movie "has no life" and is "cold and over planned".
I would give my opinion on it to round this section off, but this is my all time favourite film, so I'll spare you hours of my constant gushing over it.
Awards
Donnie Darko was nominated for 8 awards and won a total of 10 awards, including the Special Award at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The full list of Donnie Darko's awards is linked to IMDB right here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/awards.
The production of Donnie Darko
The production studio used for Donnie Darko was Flower Films, owned by Drew Barrymoore and Nancy Juvonen. This gives answer to why Barrymoore had such a small part in the film, in comparison to her acting status, because she had a part in production. That said, every part in Donnie Darko, be it however small you like, is still significant to the entire story. The cameras used in the film were digital which allowed for the studio to ass some CGI effects e.g. the portal in the cinema.
Marketing and Advertisement
The advertisement in Darko was the typical run-of-the-mill stuff, i.e. posters, television ads, bus stop ads, magazines, etc.
This is one of the poster advertisements used for the film. As you can see, it beholds a very artistic image of Frank the Rabbit's mask, made up of the faces of the characters in the film. This kind of image makes you look twice to see under the mask to all the faces and gets you more interested in what it is. It also portrays a dark image to the film which can subtly bring out a morbid attraction to the audience, without giving too much away about the film itself. It also includes a list of the main characters in the film, a way of dropping big names to further attract people to watching the film. The film title is bright and contrasting to it's background, but also fits in with the main image just above it and the rest of the text; this is so it pops out to people.
This is one of the trailers used for the film. It flicks through a lot of scenes to reveal just enough about the movie to interest but not too much that it spoils it. The creepy backing music and words like "visions" bring out morbid interest in the audience, which goes with the morbid aspects of the poster. There is also big name dropping in the trailer to, once again, draw more people in.
