FIRST TIME WATCHING: Donnie Darko

Natalie’s face at 35 minutes in. I bust out laughing

Mixed feelings on this movie. I feel like this is a movie that tries too hard to be intellectual and esoteric, and that the writers came up with interesting hooks and gadgets first, then found a way to fit them into a script. However, I do find it enjoyable as a kind of "mood" movie. The less I try to figure it out and the more I look at it like a weird 2 hour moving Dali piece it's kinda fun.

I loved this movie when I saw it in the theater on release, and I definitely was one of those "if you don't understand it, then of COURSE you don't like it" people. 24 years later, it doesn't quite hit the same but I still very much like it. I actually don't think the Director's Cut does it any favors - they added some stuff that's supposed to explain the story more but I think it makes it feel LESS like a fever dream, and for me that's a detriment.

I'm not really a fan of "Donnie Darko." Even on my third viewing since its release, I still found it difficult to grasp. I've brainstormed several alternative interpretations that might help clarify its meaning, and I genuinely believe that a different presentation could have made it more effective.

I'm with you, Nat. I thought it was interesting the first time I saw it, thought it was even more interesting the second time but now it's just, so what? Where does it get me? I hear the writer/director is interested in making an expanded version on the same subject. God help us. For better Gyllenhaal, give "Source Code" a try. Science fiction on a human level.

2nd time see this film , first time seeinf the directors cut and ...yea i dont get it lol

this film is depressing

I just want to express that I'm genuinely disappointed that you don't seem committed to SparkleMotion. I'm also a bit disheartened that you didn't see the value in the rest of the story.

It's an odd movie, one of my favoriets, it's tough to categorize or thematize it though

Don't worry, it was never one of my favorites either.

Seth Rogen is a bully 😂🤣🤣🤣 This movie is not my cup of tea

Hi, loved the reaction. And don’t ever feel bad for not liking this movie as much as some people do. And if people go around talking down to you or anyone else for ‘not getting it’ that’s just people being A-holes. I can only share what I experienced when watching this and why it’s my favourite movie. And that is in no way claiming to be smarter than, or whatever petty crap that certain 6-10% loudmouthed A-hole ratio we seem to find in any human community will say. The original cut of this movie had none of the book-chapters explaining things. And seeing it for the first time it just made me go ‘wtf just happened, here?’. And the reason why it’s come to be my favourite is exactly for that reaction: it made me want to watch it again and see if I missed something. And when I did I discovered something amazing… I kept seeing things I missed and the plot started making a little more sense. It took multiple viewings, but every time I watched it, it felt like I was on a journey trying to solve this great puzzle. second viewing: wait, is he in a pocket dimension? Third viewing: wait, so some of these people know and are either too scared to give up their reality and are trying to convince him there’s something wrong with him? third viewing: Holy shit, yes and other people know too and are trying to help him break the pocket.. but why? Wait didn’t frank say ‘like my father before him? and his father before me?’ IS THIS POCKET DIMENSION A FUCKING REPEATING CYCLE? DID DONNIE, BY SEEING THE FUTURE SAVE HIMSELF, BREAK THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, AND THEN TRAP EVERYBODY IN THE UNIVERSE IN THIS POCKET DIMENSION THAT’S JUST A CYCLE OF HIM SAVING HIMSELF UNTILL THE PEOPLE IN IT REMEMBER ENOUGH TO PUSH HIM INTO SACRIFICING HIMSELF SO THEY CAN FINALLY BE FREE!? AND DID IT TAKE HIM FALLING IN LOVE FOR HIM TO FINALLY HAVE SOMETHING HE WANTED TO SAVE MORE THAN HIMSELF AND THAT’S WHY HE LET HIMSELF DIE, BROKE THE POCKET AND LET TIME TAKE IT’S NATURAL COURSE!? I had the best of times figuring this out on my own, and it felt so earned in the end to realise I saw the signs and pieced it together. I’ve never gotten a high like that from any other story. But having said all that. I can’t blame anyone for not appreciating it as much as I do. Some people love doing the crossword every day and I personally couldn’t give a damn about it. Doesn’t make me dumber than them because I can’t be arsed to spend time on a puzzle that I get nothing out of. To each their own. Live and let live. Love your reactions and wish you all the best.

Aw man, I’m glad your eye got better but this is the movie to watch with a messed up eye!

I really wish reaction channels would go for the theatrical cut in most cases. I know I'm in the minority but I think the Lord of the Rings theatrical cut is 1000 times better than the extended edition for example. Films usually have scenes cut for good reasons.

well now we know what you need to watch next - Watership Down

The parents are too lenient, welcome to the 80/90's. We literally raised ourself. Next one the list, Butterfly Effect. He did went back so his " Girlfriend" , mother and sister live. Girlfriend never met, mother and sister didn't get into the plane because the pedophile didn't get caught. Maybe with edible you would have enjoy it more.

This was a fun reaction, Thanks for the great reaction. I would have shared more during the golden nuggets live stream but I did not want to spoil the movie for people who have not watched it yet. I only really remember the original cut, which did not have certain elements that are in this version. Plus the sound track is slightly different. Warning may contain some plot spoilers so stop reading if you want to avoid any plot spoilers. Ok so to explain the story just a little bit, this is like the whole Loki show, it's not as much time travel as a tangent universe. The story has so many ideas that are extremely unique to this universe/story. All those ideas are in the book, (in the original theatrical version they did not have the book parts). I never knew what was in the book till I went to the website. And the book has a bunch of exposition about the rules for the tangent universe and "time travel" which is just what they experience when a tangent universe collapses. But a tangent universe according to all the literature in the book that you never really understand says that they can actually destroy the primary time line, or all of reality. Unless all the obscure stuff happens. The movie does a really bad job at explaining it self, so you can end up with people who "get it" because they spent a little bit more time figuring out all the stuff that was only suggested at in the movie. The directors cut does give you a little bit more of the information from the book. That being said it would have never worked in a theater. Here's a paragraph of text to speed read and understand, in the specific context of this confusing A.F movie. In a nutshell the simplistic explanation is that everyone in the tangent universe was sorta aware, and some of them had more power to direct the tangent universe to collapse in such a way as to not destroy reality. Did the movie explain this well, nope. I think you also find the Loki TVA stuff to also be silly, or just story destroying. One small thing that I would disagree with you is that at the end of the movie, you see how everyone has been impacted by the tangent universe, so even though it does seem like you are just back at the start they tried to show how everyone was impacted by tangent universe, even if they don not fully understand the experience. Which is I think how the movie was trying to make the audience also feel. Last I thought it was interesting that you did not know who Noah Wylie is..... You should watch some of his content he is such a great actor. I even got to see him in a black box theater in hollywood. but he has ER, Falling Skies, and The Librarians which has three movies and then its own tv show where he is more of a guest star.

I remember loving this movie when I first saw it at like 17 years old, but this time around it didn't click for me. I feel like this movie it the definition of "I'm 14 and this is deep". I had never seen the director's cut and I gotta say the theatrical cut is better.

Nat, I get why you might not like this film. I like it, but to be honest, I had to look up some discussions about the film online to understand it a bit more. But I'm not going to criticize anyone for not liking this film. It's a weird one.

We should’ve known from the cut and dry description on this one 😅 she’s like Kojima after he sees a movie 😂

Off topic, what happened to your Movie Premier? I know it was a few months ago but have not heard anything.

It's ok to say it sucks

I see from comments this is the director's cut...ah, well.

Totally respect the opinion. It's one of those very, very niche cult classics. I really didn't enjoy it all that much after seeing originally, but I'll echo some of the other comments in that the theatrical release is probably the preferable option if you ever found yourself wanting to rewatch. Director's Cut really tries to do 'too much' to get the point across and it sorta takes an element out by adding more than it needs.

Hi Nat.... WHAT THE FU#K !!! did I just watch, I have sooo many questions. I had heard of this movie and either i have never watched it OR I watched it and wiped it from my memory, I'm not sure which....

Nothing wrong with liking or disliking a film. The world would be kind of boring if we all liked the same thing. Love what you do, Nat. Happy to be along for the ride :)

Hate to say it but....I'm beginning to doubt Nat's commitment to Sparkle Motion.

I guess I’m maybe someone who is in the middle on this movie, from your comments at the end. I don’t think it’s a good movie, but I also don’t really think it’s a bad movie. I ended the movie just feeling kinda meh about it. Maybe that means I don’t like it idk, but really at the end I just felt like the movie just kind of exists and didn’t do a lot for me. I didn’t really have a lot of attachment or care about much of what happened, but I didn’t necessarily think it was an outright bad film or that anything about it was egregiously bad. I would agree I think some of the acting and dialogue is a bit weird. But I think the movie does have some interesting ideas, I just didn’t necessarily care for how it’s portrayed or how it all plays out I guess. Just didn’t really elicit a lot of emotion from me one way or the other. Say yeah like I said kinda just meh to me, so I guess that might put me as someone in the middle on this one.

I've seen the theatrical version but this is my first time watching the Director's Cut.

Did Madame Webb get a score? I think this is the lowest score I've seen from all your reactions - and that's saying a lot!

Directors cut is shittier. Spoon feeds it to you. Directors cut is universally viewed as worse, shame thats the one you reacted to. Not close to my favourite movie, dont really care for it to be honest, but you reacted to the wrong version.

You just didn't GET IT, Man!

I haven't watched this in over 17 years. Will be nice to see a refresher. *Update while watching the movie: I'm actually getting huge David Lynch vibes from this.

lol wait a minute I don't think I've ever seen the director's cut of DD, I wonder if that colored her perception of the film. I think it's pretty universally hated, even among fans, so I'll have to give this a shot this weekend and see if the consensus is true.

I'm shaking n crying now fr. Darko is my favorite movie. Love it or hate it don't matter. Glad you are reacting to it! You just thought Maggie and Jake were married LOL I wasn't triggered by your opinion, Nat. It's always interesting hearing someone else's opinion. Please🙏🏼 add Nightcrawler to the Poll!

Oof you watched the worse version. Well this will be interesting

Happy Feature Friday Nat. Haven't seen this movie before. Will be interested to see what I think of it over the weekend after your comments last week he he 😅 Hope your trip is going well. Have a great weekend Nat 💛