'Darko' a heady, trip back to the 80's

Donnie Darko - R\nStarring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnel\nDirected by: Richard Kelly\nHigh school student Donnie Darko lives in a picture-perfect neighborhood, attends a sophisticated private school and enjoys every benefit a kid could have in 1988 Virginia. It's too bad that every night he disappears, sleepwalks and commits destructive vandalism at the request of Frank, his imaginary friend who is a 6-foot rabbit with a sinister grin.\nAnything can happen in the surreal world of "Donnie Darko," written and directed by Richard Kelly. Plane engines can mysteriously fall out of the sky with no airplane in sight, the Smurfs can become the basis for a sex conversation among teenage boys, people can still talk about Michael Dukakis and, thanks to Kelly, all of this makes sense when the movie ends.\nAfter its debut at last year's Sundance film festival, "Donnie Darko" had an extremely short release in theaters. Hopefully the newly released DVD will allow the movie to gain the exposure it truly deserves. Although the film didn't make much money at the box office, the DVD was designed as if the movie was a blockbuster, with two commentaries, 20 deleted scenes and supplementary material galore.\nThe first of the two commentaries is from Kelly and "Donnie" portrayer Jake Gyllenhaal. Kelly shares interesting stories about filming the movie and sheds more light on the movie's intricacies. Watching the deleted scenes -- with or without Kelly's commentary -- is a must after viewing the actual film because many of the lingering questions will be answered. The second commentary features several cast members, including Drew Barrymore, who produced the film and plays Donnie's slightly off-kilter English teacher.\n"Donnie Darko"'s supplementary material is the best part of the DVD. The plot presented in the movie has complex background information and throughout the film, Donnie encounters several pieces of written material that help explain what is happening to his mental state. The movie's official Web site carried both documents relating to fictional events that occurred before and after the events in the movie as well as the actual text of most of the written material. All of that has been recreated here, and it's fascinating to see exactly how much detail Kelly put into this production. \nWith its combination of 1980s nostalgia and deep questioning of the theories of time travel and creation versus destruction, "Donnie Darko" will make you laugh, make you think and fuel an instant desire to know more about Donnie's world. Thanks to the DVD, all of that is possible.\n

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