This is a sort-a sequel to DONNIE DARKO, a film that launched the careers of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal and is considered by many a classic of strange sci-fi and cool mood music (most notably the remake of "Mad World"). This sort-a sequel focuses on the younger sister, Sam, played by the original actress Daveigh Chase. Rickard Kelly, the writer and director of the original, had no involment at all in this film.
The story: Sam, the younger sister of Donnie, goes on a road trip with her best friend with the dream of becoming professional dancers. Their car breaks down in the desert and weird things begin to happen, incluidng visions and masks and stuff falling from the sky.
Was it good?
No. It was horrible, almost unwatchable.
What makes the first movie work sooo well (for the people that liked it) was that it wasn't about the weird sci-fi stuff -- it really was about Donnie, this nice kid who is kind of isolated and sees all this hypocracy in the way adults act and just really doesn't seem to like the world -- a world that on the surface is a nice suburban world, but is less nice underneath. Like the movie HEATHERS, it tapped into that teen dissatisfaction of the life you see around you and the frustrations teen feel. They even mention a James Joyce story were kids destroy a home just because they enjoyed destroying it and in maybe ways as Donnie becomes more destructive we as both with him and against him, enjoying his lashing out and knowing it is a dangerous path he is going down. Even if you took out the sci-fi elements and just made it about a kid going off his meds, it would be fascinating. With the sci-fi elements adds extra weirdness and complexity that created a movie that could be watched again and again and discussed and argued about again and again.
That's why it became a cult hit.
This movie lacks all of that. First, the portrayal of Sam is weak. She's just this annoying kid who goes on a road trip. Also, but putting her in a road trip (instead of in her home) it guts that central element fromt he first film that made it so connactable. Now we don't connect to Sam, we don't care about any of the people, and we don't really care what happens. The weird elements don't seem to build off anything -- they are just thrown in there because the first movie had them, but they don't seem to have any real purpose. In fact ***SPOILER**** when they kill Sam late in the movie, it is an empty act. There's no emotion that comes with it, because we don't care about her at all. And the rest of the movie just seems empty. If the movie, called S DARKO, isn't about Sam then what the hell is it?
It's a mess, that's what it is.
*** AVOID ***
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