Donnie Darko

Finally got around to watching Donnie Darko this past weekend.

Richard Kelly's 2001 debut feature with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role tells of a troubled teenager who constantly visions a haunting figure in a bunny-costume who tells him to murder people and do other destructive things.It initially opened to lukewarm response,but has developed a cult following over the years especially after the Director's Cut of the film was released.

The thing that's so interesting about this film is how it gets many things right,but gets few of the essentials very wrong.The atmosphere is suitably chilling,it goes deep under your skin-Gyllenhaal plays his part confidently and is convincing most of the time,the direction and music are both perfected to create a mood that's best described as a creepy and disturbing serenity,one that doesn't require screaming teenagers,outpours of blood or anything showy to work.

Which is why one element stands out so painfully obvious like a sharp prick.The story is just so weak.For a large part of the film I had no idea what was going on-the script is written in away that it retains this incredible amount of secrecy for a frustratingly long time-until,wa-la!,this huge bomb of an explanation abruptly arrives and unravels within a few minutes at the end of the movie.Even after the explanation,the plot still doesn't make sense and does little to justify how contrived,pretentious and confusing it really is.If only for the visuals,atmospheric quality and very small interesting subplots about it's supporting characters (none of the supporting characters get much screentime,but a few of them are very well-developed without their subplots sidetracking the main story),the effect the poor story has on the film as a whole is significantly minimised.

Similarly,2004's The Machinist,which featured a terrific and unforgettable central performance by Christian Bale and also created that creepy atmosphere perfectly,had a story that was extremely convoluted and relied on too many twists and secrets that the film itself was unsubtantial and thin.Also,Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers,which I felt mastered that kind of adorable quirkeness without seeming too smart or unrealistic,suffered from a story that was utterly pointless and made up of a bunch of small good comedy sketches that amounted to very little in the end.

Well,there you,I've made my point.Three films that I feel were legendary in their creation of the right tone,mood or atmosphere,but were ultimately brought down by weak storylines.In other film news,EW's compiled a list of their fave Movie Endings-and they've recently added a second one too!My easy favourite would be the ending to Lost In Translation-yes the film itself is absolutely incredible and I've watched it close to a dozen times,but without the perfectly-executed ending it wouldn't have worked.Here's the full clip of the ending,be sure to keep your ears wide open for the song playing in the background-J&M's wonderful "Just Like Honey".

To cap this,here's a link to a clip of a Battles video.If you haven't heard of the band-they're one of the pioneers to the emerging genre of math rock,something that takes a bit of getting used to I think.Anyhu,their songs are all crazy good and it's all I've been listening to for the past few days.