Donnie Darko
00:38:02
About
Go suck a fuck, it’s our episode on “Donnie Darko” (spoilers AND swearing). A film in which we learn the incorrect place to store a Lifeline exercise card; that there’s nothing more beautiful than Drew Barrymore’s cellar door; and that it’s not just Patrick Swayze’s dancing that’s dirty. This brilliantly cast, Halloween-set fantasy stalled at the US box office, did much better when released in the UK a year later; then DVD and word of mouth cemented it as a modern classic. Audiences may have been left scratching their heads, but most came away with a love of this intelligent and complex film, and that felt like a magnificent fuck you to a film industry convinced cinema goers need a steady diet of lowest common denominator crap. A subsequent “Director’s Cut” made the mechanics of the film’s take on time travel much more explicit, whilst also adding some unnecessary padding, but this film transcends its hard sci-fi premise, and can be viewed in the logic of dream or fantasy, always making narrative and emotional sense to the attentive viewer. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Every living creature on this earth dies alone.
Famous lines
- "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end."— Frank
- "Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?"— Donnie Darko
- "Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"— Frank
- "I think you're the fucking Antichrist."— Donnie Darko
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here this evening for the second part of our, what month are we doing? There's a theme to this.
ChrisI think This must be Halloween, isn't it?
LeeWe're a horror podcast, it's always Halloween.
ChrisWell,
Chrisbut I thought we we did Donnie Darko in between our theme, but did I go, no, I was
Chrismaybe it could be, it could be sci-fi still, I guess.
AdamI think it was just we we just We think it was sci-fi.
ChrisBut yeah, yeah, it's funny, I totally do not think of it as a sci-fi film, but it really is.
LeeYeah.
ChrisWhich is kind of weird.
LeeAdam clearly did when he thought of putting this together.
LeeBut yeah, so we are here for the 2001 movie Donnie Darko.
Leea film I'm guessing we've all seen multiple times before.
Leeand there will be spoilers, there will be swearing, if you haven't seen this film,
LeeI don't know if we're gonna be able
ChrisI was I was gonna say I was gonna say yeah, what happens right, exactly, that's the thing.
ChrisIs it possible to spoil?
ChrisI'm hoping Adam's gonna fully explain it to us because I feel like I'm just one step behind on this one.
ChrisLike, and I love everything about it, there you go, said it straight out.
ChrisI don't think I've hidden that before, but, but still, yeah.
ChrisI I I still feel like is it 'cause it's time travel, then that that could be a complete spoiler.
AdamExcept it kind of tells you that at the start.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's sort of
AdamI I to be honest, I think all the hints you can get going into this, this isn't one where you're like,
Adamyou know, it's it's best to go in a bit prepared at least.
ChrisThat's so I'm trying to remember though, and I think Lee, I totally cut you off probably while you're explaining.
LeeNo, no, it's fine.
LeeThat was all I was going into really.
ChrisBut it's is I find this one of the harder films having when you know what happens to remember what I was thinking exactly the first time I watched it.
LeeYeah.
ChrisBecause I almost still feel like, as you said, still trying to figure it out and it's like, well, I know way more about it having watched it quite a few times now.
ChrisAnd yeah, still it it's funny how it's somewhat somewhat difficult to be sure.
LeeI I think I've seen it three times, I think I watched it the first time and I got to the end and thought I had it.
LeeAnd then when I watched it the second time, I was like, that's nothing like I remember.
LeeYeah. And then I tried it again the third time,
Leeyeah, and thinking right, well, this time I'm gonna really focus in and I'm really gonna nail it.
Leeyeah, and again I came away thinking, yeah, I I still don't think so.
LeeSo I'm gonna be absolutely honest, I have not watched it this time for the podcast.
ChrisOh, no, we boy.
LeeBecause I I made a conscious decision because
Leeevery time I've watched it the first time and I loved it, and every time I've watched it subsequently, I've liked it a little bit less.
Leeand I know that I'm generally the contrarian on this and you both come in and go, what a great movie that is, and I go, fuck that.
LeeSo, I've decided not to watch it and go off of my fairly remembrance.
ChrisYeah, no, that's that's a fair fair idea, I would say.
ChrisIt'd be interesting to see, yeah, Adam's take on it then and see what we all end up with.
ChrisBut, so I think this might be my fourth time, I watched it, I'm fairly certain I watched it soon after it came out.
ChrisI didn't watch it in the cinema,
ChrisBut I remember being hooked from the start when
ChrisI I I was trying to work out, you know, watching it with trying to be slightly more critical on this viewing and figure out exactly what I think and why.
ChrisBut it's it's something about it's very mundane and yet really surreal
LeeYeah.
Chrisall the way through and that just gripped me from the start, the way you see him wake up and he's like with his his got bite and he's on a sort of large heel mountain and like what's going on.
ChrisAnd then the way the music then transitions and it becomes quite dreamlike and that you don't hear sounds as much and then you just sort of see his dad blowing the the leaf blower, his sister and his mum just reading, reading.
LeeOh, Pet Sematary.
ChrisWhat do we say, how do we refer to Stephen King now, the author that wrote Pet Sematary.
LeeYeah.
Chrisand then it's like, oh, that's interesting references and you like I had no idea what it was about, you know, you've heard the name and you're like,
ChrisI don't know, and what is going on and why is this all so mundane when something weird has happened, because what's he doing, you know, up the on his bike.
ChrisAnd then you think it's all about his difficulties with mental illness.
ChrisSo it's like I just yeah, the first time through, no idea really where it was going to go, how horror based it was going to be, or yeah, and I I think that's it, I was just totally,
Chrisyeah, this has really got me and and just that whole aesthetic throughout I find fascinating.
LeeOh it it is an absolutely beautiful movie.
LeeAnd I I I enjoy so many things about it, I say, which is kind of why I didn't want to mar it for myself.
LeeYeah, because yeah, it it's just as you say, it's got that really strange, like almost '80s, I know it's based in the '80s, but it's got that almost '80s feel where it's like, oh, we don't have to explain everything, which they don't do anymore.
LeeEverything gets overexplained and, you know,
LeeWhereas with this, it just kind of tells you the story.
LeeYeah, that was the first time so I didn't see this at the cinema, I hired it on VHS.
LeeOkay. when it first came out.
Leebecause it it was before I'd been on the internet, but I had a friend who was getting into the internet, and I spoke to him on the phone, and I was like, oh, what you been doing?
LeeAnd he said, oh, I watched Donnie Darko, so I've just spent the last two days on the internet trying to find out what the film was about.
LeeI was like, how did you watch a film and not understand it?
LeeAnd he was like, oh, well, once you've seen it, you'll totally get it.
LeeSo I I went and hired it that weekend.
Leeyeah, and totally knew exactly what he was on about.
LeeBut yeah, so I I came away thoroughly enjoying it and yeah, and not really feeling that I was missing out by not 100% getting.
ChrisThat's it.
ChrisYeah, yeah, you just take so much from it.
ChrisReally like about I guess elements of being a teenager growing up.
ChrisThe difficulties of kind of trusting different people and authority, like you'll being told this.
ChrisBut, you know, he's clever and so he's questioning and it's like it's interesting how some of the adults don't like that.
Chrisand don't accept it, whereas some others are supporting him.
Chrisyeah, but then there's there's this sort of a it's almost a I don't know, like a choir, it's not always quiet, sometimes they scream, but there's a desperation to almost everybody, it's like things are just not quite great for everybody.
LeeEverybody's a breaking point and you don't know why or if it's for the same reason.
LeeYeah, so it's it's just carries that it is it's that tension, isn't it, all the way through.
LeeYeah, that constantly puts you off kilter and does leave you just going, I don't know why any of this is happening.
LeeYeah.
AdamSee, the question I would ask is, 'cause I I I watched the theatrical version.
ChrisSo I only learned that.
Chrisyou know, just today in fact.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd the director's cut, it's it's a weird thing, 'cause I watched the theatrical version and I was like, have I seen the director's cut, have I not?
Adambut the one of the main things they do in the director's cut is they show you bits of the philosophy of time travel book.
Chris
AdamSo, so the harder sci-fi end of it comes out more.
AdamAnd I was convinced, I'm like, maybe I have seen the director's cut.
AdamAnd then I remembered, it was an extra on the original DVD.
ChrisOkay.
AdamWhich they then put into So you saw the scenes in the director's cut.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisOh, that's interesting.
ChrisSo, so Lee was saying that he didn't actually watch it for for this one I should just say Adam had to go away briefly and might that bit.
Chrisbut yeah, so and he didn't want to watch it because he almost feels like the more details he gets, the slightly worse it gets every time.
LeeYeah, the more I watch it, the less I enjoy the film.
LeeAnd I I when I came away the first time, I loved it, so I never want to get to a point where I don't like it.
ChrisAbsolutely, yeah.
ChrisBut that's interesting, seeing those details in trying to explain more about the physics of time travel, I guess, then yeah, that could potentially take away more.
AdamThat was something I forgot to do.
AdamThat was something I forgot to do is I was going to not in a I think you'll find that he was wearing a wristwatch that would only have been available in 1989 and this is set in 1988.
AdamSo not wishing to be one of those people, but I was I was going to look up and I just totally forgot.
AdamI was going to look up the publication date of a brief history of time.
Chrisyeah.
AdamThe science teachers got that when he's talking to him about time travel.
AdamAnd it was like and in my head, I was like,
Adamthat feels like it was but I presume it was something where the ball rolled and it was more prevalent in the '90s.
LeeYeah, but it had already been out.
AdamBut it was already published, you know, I don't think they'd make an error like that in this anyway.
ChrisI could imagine a book like that might have taken a little while to get some traction.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's not an instant, it's not an instant obvious bestseller, is it?
AdamBut but it was like a sort of pop science phenomenon for a while in the '90s, certainly, a lot of people had read it then.
AdamAnd well, a lot of people had bought it then.
LeeYes, I I I I have a copy, I like everybody else who read the first two chapters.
AdamBut I think that yeah, but like I sort of got the gist you're saying that because
Adamit is a it is a odd world, well, not it's not an odd world, it's a horrible world.
ChrisIt's a mad world.
AdamOh, thank you.
AdamIt's but it's a horribly true sort of feeling world.
AdamBut like you say, where everyone just seems a bit just on the verge of something.
ChrisYeah.
AdamEveryone's just from the verge collapse or snapping or, you know.
AdamAnd which which feels oddly prescient, you know, it's
LeeI I think that's one of the things as well that it's the relationships in this that I do find draw me in too much.
LeeYou know, his relationship with his sister and with his like it all feels.
ChrisFeels very real and yeah.
ChrisYeah, really good.
ChrisAnd it was funny, so yeah, the first time I watched it, I had no idea that they were actually brother and sister.
ChrisAnd then when I when I learned that, I was like, oh, did that actually that could have helped.
LeeNo.
ChrisYou know, because they really do work well together.
ChrisBut all the cast seem to work really well together.
AdamI I think it's a stroke of fucking genius and fortunate that they're both really good actors.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut equally it's a stroke of genius, 'cause there is just that short hand there, like that bickering at the table.
AdamAnd it's like, you just made a prick of yourself, smile.
AdamYou know, is frighteningly, frighteningly real.
ChrisI've gotta say, after watching this again and now having older children, I do see some some similarities with me and the father more than I did the last time I watched this.
AdamI think I think oddly enough, that's kind of a positive thing because I think the dad's all right.
ChrisHe's he's like he's all right.
AdamYou know what I mean?
ChrisHe doesn't he's breaking in a kind of I'm trying to just let things go a bit and, you know, just not get too caught up all the time.
AdamYeah, he he he seems sort of all right, but not not a great parent.
ChrisNo, he's got he's got quite a less a fair, having him as your dad.
ChrisWhereas like, oh, he is going to burst out laughing at this point when I, you know.
AdamIt's quite quite a dramatic sort of moment to be in a
Adamcalled in by your head teacher.
AdamAnd
ChrisThat is that is funny.
AdamSo so yeah, don't be too harsh on yourself.
ChrisI think.
AdamYeah.
AdamI mean, his his politics are all over the shop and he does play golf with Nazis, but, you know,
ChrisAside from that, yeah.
AdamAside from that.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd that's that's
ChrisOh, sorry.
LeeOh, sorry.
AdamNo, I was going to say because that's something that we'll we may come to because it isn't it's weird because it's not a positive reset that he does entirely.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
AdamIn terms of
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThe world, you know, yes, he saves Gretchen's life, he saves Frank's life, he probably saves Miss Pomroy's job.
Adambecause he doesn't go on a vandalism spree that eventually gets her the push because of the book.
LeeBecause she's in a in every single time.
AdamAnd and she's the reason that we all saw it, because basically she said, she read the script and she was the one who said, my production company will put X amount in this, so it can get a cinema release and be out there.
ChrisNice.
ChrisOh, okay.
Adamin return for a role in there.
ChrisFair play, yeah. Well, and it's a good role. Yeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeShe does do fantastic, as she always does, I mean.
AdamI think I think the weirdest one was having not seen it for so long and then looking like going through the cast list and like Seth Rogan's in there.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd
ChrisThat is a funny funny role for him after having now seen what he typically does.
AdamI think it's a perfect role for him, it's just I assume that's just him at school.
ChrisYeah, it could.
AdamYeah.
LeeAnd say saying about funny casting though, you know, it's the same with Patrick Swayze.
ChrisAbsolutely, yeah.
LeeAgain, he was one of those people, I don't know a lot about him, his films aren't generally the type of thing that I'd watch.
LeeBut I very much had this
Leetakes himself extremely seriously.
ChrisLikes being a heartthrob kind of.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd I think and I think coming to this film not knowing where it was going and his character in this, I was like, oh, it's just a bit of a vanity thing and I kind of
LeeYeah, and then when you twist, I was like, oh, my respect just went through the roof.
ChrisAbsolutely, yeah.
ChrisI I think that's it, I I respected everyone that was in this film.
ChrisAnd yeah, and particularly that, but it is it is interesting how in a sense, none of them appear as great characters because of the world that they're in.
LeeYeah.
ChrisAnd it's like, but they all just play it so well, you just yeah, it's like.
ChrisI mean, the way Jake Gyllenhaal, plays a a, you know, teenager with mental illness, like for me, he just captured it so well.
ChrisWhere it's like he is he's not, you know, he's on the edge and it's like which way is it going.
ChrisAnd yeah, I just thought he really did.
LeeBut he never kind of overplays it.
LeeLike he's it's very as you say, it all feels very true to life and very very real.
LeeAnd I I mean, I'm so glad to see that this film did, you know, launch him into the stratosphere and obviously he went on to do massive stuff and has knocked it out the park every time.
Leebut yeah, I think this was a this was a perfect place for him to start because he he just nailed it really.
ChrisYeah, and I think it's it's funny, in terms like you say, you don't have to fully understand it really.
ChrisThere's so many gems to take away from it that it's like that's all enough, you don't really need to necessarily feel like you've fully understood.
ChrisIt's and I and I don't think I don't think it is possible because with a lot of sci-fi, I think like we said last week, you can start picking holes in a lot of it and it's like it doesn't actually make sense because it can't really exist, most sci-fi is not possible.
ChrisSo you've already kind of decided to make a film that is unlikely to be fully explained if you try to.
Chrisso ignoring that, then yeah, there's just there is so much.
ChrisI I mean, even something like the what was it? The the language Cador.
ChrisLike even just that stuck in my head when I saw that saying, I was like, I so funny, I've never thought of the English language as being not having nice sounding phrases.
ChrisAnd it's like it's kind of funny how that does because you think Cellador sounds rubbish.
ChrisHe's like, no, actually the sound of it is beautiful.
AdamOddly enough, it reminded me there's obviously, RIP Michael Gambon, but it reminds me of a bit from The Singing Detective.
AdamAnd there's a bit because he plays a writer in that, and at one very towards the end of it, he says to someone, do you know what the most beautiful word in the English language is?
AdamOkay. And I think they reply is it rose, and he says, no, it's elbow.
ChrisOh.
AdamJust because of how it flows, how it looks written down.
ChrisBut you start off, you know, as soon as you hear that, it's hard to not think of the thing, and so it's like, you know, that's your experience of it.
ChrisBut yeah, if you just view the phonetics of it, it's it's completely different.
AdamAnd the actual just physical symbols that make that, you know, it's sort of,
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's but no, there's a lot of
Adambecause he I'll I'll give you the a brief history of of time travel.
Adamis that basically, 'cause I don't think it comes up, it's all of this is what was explained in the book, so it turns up in the in in the excerpts of the book that they show you.
AdamThe book doesn't exist, obviously, the time travel book.
Adambut basically, so Donnie's what's called basically, it all takes place in what's called a tangent universe.
AdamWhich is a bit of the universe that's gone awry.
AdamAnd and until it gets corrected almost like ground hog day.
AdamIt can basically bubble and fuck up the real universe.
AdamBecause it gets it's like a record getting stuck on a groove or something like that, it just doesn't eventually you just break the universe because you've got this little tangent bubble that's appeared.
AdamAnd and there's the possibility a lot of people think that there's a lot of people now theorize, like fans on line and stuff, theorize that this isn't Donnie's first loop.
Chris
AdamThat maybe other characters like her putting seller door on the what on the blackboard, then makes him think of Roberta Sparrow's house and going through the cellar to get into the house.
AdamAnd it's almost like these characters sort of vaguely remember what's happened.
AdamBecause at the end, Gretchen and his mom sort of sing to recognize each other.
ChrisYeah, yeah, I always.
AdamEven though she's never met him and obviously the universe has been reset, so she never meets Donnie because he's dead.
AdamAnd you did say spoilers and fucking swearing, didn't you?
LeeI did, yes, yes.
AdamGood, right, fine.
Adamyeah, so it's like it's almost like some characters might be trying to remembering to try and put things in line.
Adamso that Donnie can get the formula right this time and reset the universe or find out.
AdamAnd Donnie is what's called a living receiver, which is a being chosen to guide the artifact back to the primary universe.
AdamNow, the artifact is something that comes out from that comes out of the primary universe into the diversion universe, is usually made of metal, it's the jet engine.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo it's his job is to get that back to where it belongs, because obviously it's dropped through time and gone wrong somehow, because it's basically come back from.
Adamit drops off the plane that his mum and sister are coming home on, and yeah.
AdamSo,
Adamhe basically, he has to create a wormhole to send that back in time.
Adamand he has those powers, apparently.
AdamBecause as a living receiver, you gain supernatural power or like enhanced strength or just basically a bit sort of superpower sort of thing.
Adamso he's able to create a portal to send it back in time and then but be under it this time so that it works.
Adamand then Frank is part of the manipulated dead, who are beings connected to the living receiver who have died within the tangent universe, they can move through time and contact the living receiver with details of future knowledge.
AdamWhereas there's also the the manipulated living, which is people who are connected to him who don't die in the tangent universe, but still have some vague memory of what's happened.
AdamBut somehow, dying in that universe enables you to travel through time and warn him shit.
LeeSo all of these these, you know, all of these theories have sprung up just from this movie.
LeeThis isn't like a a theory that people
AdamNo, this is basically this is what was in Richard Kelly's head when he wrote the book when he wrote the film rather.
AdamYeah. And then the book has those little bits in there.
AdamAnd I think personally, they were probably just released on the DVD as, well, I had this backstory and maybe it didn't come out clear enough.
AdamBecause he's now putting them in the director's cut.
LeeYeah.
AdamEven though he said there wasn't his director's cut is not technically.
AdamIt wasn't because the studio took it off him or something like that.
AdamHe Donnie Darko as it appeared as a theatrical release was what he wanted to go out in the cinema.
AdamAnd I think that, yeah, so the director's cut is like, I wanted to I can put more stuff in and, you know,
Adamexplain it better, have a second go almost, it's like a second draft, maybe.
LeeYeah, but I think that's the thing, I think if you've got all that in your head and you put it all to film, and you know the backstory, you might go, oh, well, it seems obvious to me 'cause I know.
LeeBut if you then release it, yeah, the whole world watches your film and go,
Leeit's brilliant.
LeeBut I don't know what the fuck happened.
LeeYou're like, yeah.
LeeI need to go back and fix it, well, you don't need to, it's done well.
LeeYou know.
LeeYou've achieved what you wanted.
LeeBut yeah, a later date, you've then got that.
Leethat ability to say right, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna re-edit it and rework it and better explain what I was trying to put together.
ChrisBut it's interesting, even though the film is based on that premise essentially, and you need all of that to make the film, all of that is actually not what makes the film good.
LeeNo.
ChrisThis sort of a funny paradox almost.
AdamI think the I think the good thing is this film works in a way that I think you get certain science fiction does it really well and it's this thing of if you can make it almost magical or you know, border into the fantastical.
AdamAnd it makes it makes like dream logic sense as much as it did like sort of fantasy logic sense, in that you don't have to know what the mechanics of it are and what things are called.
AdamAnd let's face it, the theory of time travel does not actually grant you anything other than an insight into
Adamwhat happens in a divergent universe and why things happen in that sort of sense.
AdamBut it doesn't explain like, oh, and then you summon a portal in this way and this is the physical properties of, you know, it doesn't go ment in that sense.
AdamBut, you know, it's kind of like it's you can almost read it like he just wishes hard enough that he goes back in time and so and puts it right.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah, he wants to choose that Yeah, yeah.
AdamHe can put right what once went wrong and maybe next time his best leap will be the leap home.
ChrisGood, I should
AdamAnd actually in the director's cut, Donnie's first line is, oh, boy, and the opening music is.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo, yeah, basically it started out as a it was a quantum leap episode that just got out of hand, because the show would finish and they were like this too good an idea to the room.
AdamSo.
LeeI did love the music in this as well, it was you know, it was yeah, it was great.
AdamThat's the point, that's the reason I won't watch, I didn't watch the director's cut.
Adamis because I was like, oh, I don't think I've watched the director's cut, I'll watch the director's cut.
AdamAnd then I found out that you don't get the killing moon at the start of it and I thought you can fuck off then.
Adam'Cause that song's fucking amazing, they've replaced it with an excess, and I'm sorry, but a strangle wank versus one of the finest, you know, gothic pop songs that's ever been.
AdamIt's yeah.
AdamBut also and this this is the weird fucking thing is I didn't realize quite kind of the timeline on this.
AdamActually time.
AdamThis came out in October 2001 in America.
AdamIn that America.
Adamand basically, it it's not the same on a lot of the posters, but originally the font that's used at the start of the film was used on all the posters.
AdamIt was decided that that font looked somewhat Arabic, so they changed it on all the posters, but they couldn't change it on the film.
AdamAnd most of the pre-publicity stuff was like posters of crashed jet engines and things falling out the sky.
AdamSo obviously October 2001, that don't fucking track very well.
LeeNo.
AdamAnd so in America it it it sort of did poorly at the box office because they basically had to pull half their advertising and fuck around with it and stuff like that.
AdamAnd just it never got the numbers that it was going to get.
ChrisThat's crazy.
AdamYou know, and it the only way it was going to get noticed was for the wrong reasons of loads of like some red faced prat on Fox News claiming that it was laughing at the victims of 9/11 or whatever, you know.
AdamAnd so but then it came out over here in 2002.
AdamAnd did really well in UK cinema and slowly got because of that.
AdamSo it slowly got on like taken up on DVD and like more people were discovering it.
AdamSo it was actually, it was like Jimmy Hendrix, basically.
AdamAs it came over here and became famous and then went back to America to be famous.
Adambut
Adamthe weirdest part of it is, is that obviously the cover at the end of it Mad World, the tears for fear cover.
Adamis became the UK Christmas number one, 2003.
LeeOh, God.
AdamSo, it's like just a weird sort of bubbling lifespan that this film has.
Adamthrough that sort of delay of almost like a year before the pickup on it that happens and stuff like that.
AdamAnd I have to say that was a good one 'cause that was a good year 'cause it beat.
Adamwhat it beat the darkness, Bow Selector's Christmas single, and and and the Pop Idol of that year.
AdamWhich was the first time that had been like told to fuck off out of the charts.
AdamSo.
LeeRight.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo you know, it was it was good in that sense, but yeah, that and then the weirdest moment, which is when a guy
Adamgo Gary Jules is the guy who sings it and Michael Andrews just plays the piano.
AdamDoes all the score for this, which is a fucking brilliant score.
ChrisYeah.
AdamLike it's so sort of just right. Yeah. And again, that's the thing that gives it that sort of fantasy fairy tail edge.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisDefinitely.
AdamIt sort of dreamy sort of stuff as well as the dread and things like that, but yeah, so a guy went on Stars in their eyes.
Adamas Gary Jules singing Mad World, why?
AdamAnd then it's like the next time you're on, you have to do a different one of their songs.
LeeOh.
AdamAnd yeah, so he he he went and found an album track and was never seen again.
LeeYeah.
AdamOne last one on the music though.
AdamThere's a Pantera song on here, but I didn't know this, Pantera disowned their first four albums.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd and so they agreed for the song to be used, but they credited as, what is it, the green mummies or something like that, the screaming green mummies.
ChrisOh.
AdamDead Green Mummies, that's it.
LeeYeah, you're right, yeah. Yeah.
LeeWow, weird.
LeeYeah, I didn't know that either.
LeeI I know Pantera, but not terribly well.
AdamSo it's definitely a Halloween film, is it a horror film?
LeeOh, yeah, we this is what we said.
LeeI think visually, 100%.
LeeLike all the the weird sky stuff, obviously Frank is freaking.
ChrisYeah, see that's that that became such an icon from it as well.
Chrisbut I I I would think lots of people would think it was definitely a horror film.
ChrisMaybe they wouldn't if they watched it necessarily.
ChrisBut the impression is absolutely that it is.
LeeYeah.
ChrisAnd then that's what I was saying when I when I remember thinking, I think this is a horror film and then just having no concept about and as I guess most people didn't.
ChrisWhere's it going to go, how far is it going to go like, is there going to be a lot of Gore?
ChrisIs it like it just threw me completely as to.
AdamIt's so unnable.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThat's the thing with it is you just genuinely don't know.
ChrisIt.
ChrisLike you say, you hit the dream and it's like Yeah, absolutely.
Leeit never sort of stops from there literally till the closing scene.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYou still have no idea what could happen in the next 30 seconds, it's fucking mental.
Leeyeah, and that that was what I loved about it, and it did throw so many curve balls in there.
Leejust totally, you know, like we said that with the Patrick Swayze thing, like that didn't for the story to happen.
LeeThat that kind of relevant to anything, but it just puts it in there just as another, you know.
LeeYou think you know what's happening, but you have no idea really.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisAnd but just going back to I was going to say, so that's the one thing that's not clear if that that appears like that gets undone.
ChrisSo he doesn't then get caught at that point.
LeeYeah, possible. I never thought about that.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThat's the thing, you do sort of there are certain things that don't happen for the good.
ChrisBut is that again, the element of the way this film is trying to be somewhat realistic in its portrayal is, yeah, you can't necessarily fix everything, that's just that's just how life is, maybe.
Chrisbecause there was another one that we didn't mention earlier was the the girl and as usual, I've forgotten her name.
ChrisAnd the one who likes Donnie and he realizes when he sees her book on.
AdamTreeta.
ChrisTreeta, yeah.
ChrisI've got the list here but there's quite a lot of people.
AdamYeah, everyone gets a credit in this.
ChrisYeah, yeah, that's good.
Chrisbut yeah, and you know, and even her, just her story is like, it's sweet and upsetting.
ChrisThat he has been kind to her and that's made her kind of fall in love with him, but he had no concept about that.
ChrisUntil and then it's it's strange, it's another surreal sort of moment where he feels the need to go up to her and say it's all going to be all right.
ChrisAnd I guess what he what he meant there is that she won't then fall in love with him and be upset that they're not together.
AdamI I think at that point, I don't think he even knows other than I'm taking action that that is going to fix something.
ChrisSeems right.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's it's very you you get the feeling that it's a very driven thing that he he is not in control of.
ChrisYes, that's it does absolutely call into question, you know, predeterminism and and so on.
ChrisAnd yeah, but how he does feel like he is taking the correct path like morally.
ChrisIt's when when he laughs at the end, it's, you know, he's like, he's totally accepted and knows what he's chosen is right.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's also it's also, I've done it.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
AdamI get that sort of almost it's like, I fucking knew I could do this.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd again, his performance in this, like, you know, and that is you say, it's it's those bits where he gets so much across without having to say anything.
LeeIt's just in mannerisms and facial expressions and he just tells a whole story just through laughing, and it's I yeah, I mean, it's a brilliant thing to see, really.
AdamI I have to say on the Jake Gyllenhaal thing though,
AdamI don't know, have either of you seen Nightcrawler?
LeeOh, God, yes.
LeeWhat a fucking good film that.
LeeThat's one.
LeeI think with that, I would argue we could do on the podcast.
ChrisOh, okay.
AdamI think that is kind of a horror film.
LeeIt's dark, it is freaking.
AdamYou know.
AdamBut worth checking out, Chris, because that is because I think that's one of the ones that doesn't get as much love.
ChrisI've never heard of it.
LeeNo, it doesn't.
LeeIt it just kind of went under the radar, I think it might have been Drew who told me about it.
Leeand said, oh, you need to check it out.
AdamHe was.
AdamYeah, he definitely Drew told me, yeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd like yeah, I was totally blown away by it, absolutely fantastic movie.
ChrisWe didn't even mention.
AdamHe's not blowing it and he doesn't go back.
LeeYeah.
AdamNot that Nightcrawler.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisWe we didn't mention the dangers of being a a a therapist and using hypnotherapy, that's got to be a bit awkward.
ChrisYou know, yeah, got to stop this now.
AdamYeah.
ChrisSo yeah, just I think that's it, like just there's so many scenes where Jake was just like, yeah, you're just playing this really well and it's it's such a it's a weird role in a way as serious as it is kind of ridiculous.
LeeYeah, it's got cult movie written all like, you can see how this film picked up a cult following.
LeeLike this has got one of those, you know, in the Prince Charles every two months or whatever and it's got people who go to every screening like it it has got that very cult.
LeeAgain.
LeeAnd like you say.
LeeYou can do days of research and chatting online and theorizing about it.
LeeAnd it.
ChrisIf you want to, but you don't have to.
LeeNo, you can come away and enjoy it as soon as the film finishes.
LeeYeah, or you can mull it over for days on end afterwards.
AdamAnd the the cinema that they're in in you know, when they're in the cinema that that cinema every Easter screens, it's a real cinema they filmed in and they screen Donnie Darko every Easter.
ChrisExcellent.
LeeGod, that'd be great to go to that.
Leeright.
LeeSo, yes, so definite recommend from us.
Leeyeah, absolute solid movie.
LeeAs I say, I and I that's the reason I didn't go back is because every time I enjoy it a little bit less, but what I love about it, I love so much, I never want to spoil this movie for myself, which that sounds like a very strange place to come from, but that's how I feel about it.
ChrisI think that makes a lot of sense.
AdamYeah.
Leeyes, so thanks ever so much for listening everybody.
Leego, enjoy your Halloween, we will be recording again the weekend before Halloween and we'll be doing a what we've been watching.
Leeso we will have a ton of stuff, hopefully, I know I've filled up an entire page of shit, so I'm gonna have to be really really picky about what I.
ChrisPrioritize well, yeah.
LeeYeah, otherwise we're gonna have a minute per movie or something and it's gonna be.
LeeBut yes.
LeeSo, have a great Halloween, go and watch all your favorite spooky shit and we will see you in a fortnight for what we've been watching.
LeeGood night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
LeeOh, now I've lost me mouse.
