Donnie Darko vs Carrie

Donnie Darko doesn’t want to take his pills any longer.  He just called his mom a bitch and his sister a fuck-ass at the dinner table.  After sleepwalking last night, he woke up this morning in the middle of the road, miles from his home.  A giant rabbit named Frank tells him the end of the world is coming.  Hey Donnie, maybe just break one of those pills in half and take it at dinner, okay? Maybe mash it up in some mac and cheese?

Of course, then a jet engine crashes through the house, and I’m thinking, hey maybe that rabbit’s onto something.

Donnie Darko isn’t my favorite movie by a long shot, but sometimes it sure feels that way. More than any movie lately, I find it creeping into my thoughts.  At work, in my car, watching movies, and especially reading comics, Donnie Darko keeps coming back, just like that damn giant rabbit.

And I am terrified of that giant fucking rabbit.

I’ve heard a few people say they hate Donnie Darko, but their comments are always followed by “it didn’t make any sense,” so it’s hard to know what exactly it is that they’re hating.  It’s like me when I say “I hate math,” or “I hate Jay Leno.”  I think writer/director Richard Kelly has crafted one of the more original and compelling movies of the past few years.  It’s equal parts 1980s teen movie, thriller, suburban satire and science fiction. It’s like some lost Vertigo comic you keep meaning to pick up, but never can seem to find when you’re in the store.

Donnie Darko (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is a schizophrenic living in 1980’s suburbia with a seemingly perfect upper-middle class family.  The word “Darko” is part of the title though, so you know they’ll only seem perfect for about five minutes.  A jet engine has crashed through the roof and right into Donnie’s bedroom.  Luckily, he was sleepwalking on a golf course at the time.  The family has been given a gag order until a settlement can be reached, in part because, well, no jets have reported losing an engine.

It should come as no surprise that Donnie’s in therapy.  He’s being visited by the giant Rabbit more often, and his dreams are becoming more and more vivid.  Soon, random acts of vandalism are occurring in town; one look at the grin on Donnie’s face as he walks home from the flooded school should let you in on how persuasive a giant imaginary devil rabbit can be.

Jena Malone is the new girl at school, and finds a cynical soul mate in Donnie.  Malone and Gyllenhaal give incredibly measured and careful performances.  There are always thoughts before words, and actual living humans behind their sad eyes.  Gyllenhaal, especially, fills his character with loneliness, guilt and curiosity without ever dipping into teen-angst clichés. Soon, Donnie is torn between accepting the happiness of his new life, versus the increasing violence and doom in Frank the Rabbit’s predictions and instructions for Donnie. Oh, and Donnie may have just cracked the secret to time travel.  Make sure you’re wide awake when you watch this one. 

I’ve barely even dug into it here.  Donnie Darko is complex, but never pretentious (okay, almost never), and never sacrifices character for its massive plot (not that I could tell, anyway. There are times when the characters serve the plot, but not when they completely disappear, as is common in thrillers.) I’ve got another movie to get to, so I’m just going to run through some of the pleasures that await in Donnie Darko.  Namely…Donnie’s conversations with Frank the Rabbit, usually in a mirror, each one scarier than the last; a triple date to the movies with Donnie, Jena and Frank; a pre-teen Duran Duran dance routine; a phony self-help guru getting his comeuppance; Drew Barrymore screaming the f-word at the top of her lungs; and, just when you’re sure it won’t cause movies just don’t do this to us, another jet engine.  It was smart of Richard Kelly to set Donnie Darko in the 1980s. If it were set in the present day, then Donnie’s problems could be easy to dismiss. By taking it back a few years, Donnie Darko plays almost like a fever dream, or a sad memory you recall in bits and pieces.  Kelly knew better than to set Donnie Darko earlier than the John Hughes eighties though, cause in the 1970s, Donnie Darko would have had competition.

Carrie White. The most messed-up teen ever. They hate her at school, they hate her at home. She hates herself.  She just wants a pretty dress, mama, and a date, and why can’t we turn on some lights in this place? Holy jeez, Carrie scares the crap outta me. Sissy Spacek is so sweet and cute and creepy CREEPY in this movie. Man. Yikes.

Carrie succeeds on nearly every level it attempts.  Everybody knows what it’s like to be picked on, and unfortunately, everybody knows what it’s like to pick on someone else. Except Carrie White. Don’t worry though, she learns quickly enough.

Carrie can move things with her mind. She thinks about them, they move. Usually it’s related to her emotions, which, thanks to her zealot mother, she keeps firmly in check at all times. Carrie barely ever speaks above a soft whisper, and her huge round eyes never meet anyone else’s. She’s the freak du jour at her high school, and the unwitting target of the meanest practical joke ever, involving the prom.

The prom.  We all know what happens to Carrie White at the prom. It’s pretty scary, and cleverly filmed (director Brian DePalma makes us wait for that bucket to drop FOREVER. Anyone watching usually gets tired of my flinching after the cord is pulled for the third time.), and Carrie’s revenge is sweet, to be sure.  But it’s after the prom when Carrie--and Carrie--really gets to me.

When Carrie sits in her post-Prom bath, all you can think about is, there’s no going back.  Things are never going to be all right for Carrie White.  Her revenge doesn’t feel like revenge but rather a huge mistake.  You know she’s feeling all dirty and guilty, and not in a good way.  Okay, actually the first thing you think is probably, “ew, get out of that bloody bathtub,” but after that, you’re gonna be freaked out, thinking about what she must be thinking.  Eventually, of course, Carrie goes after the source of her problems, her crazy mom.  You probably know how she ends up, but I won’t spoil it here, just in case.  If that surprise ending is still a surprise to you, I don’t wanna be the one who told.

By the way, even if you’ve seen Carrie, you should watch the DVD.  Apparently, the casting for Star Wars and Carrie were held at the same time, with the actors put into a possible Star Wars group and the others into a possible Carrie group.  Funny imagining the way things could have turned out.  Smart-ass Carrie Fisher as Carrie White?  Afroed William Katt as Luke Skywalker?

Of course, Carrie is nothing without Sissy Spacek, and she’s brilliant. Luckily for her (and us) Carrie came at a time when actresses didn’t have to be stunning and savvy and cap-toothed. Apparently Spacek put Vaseline in her hair to audition, which seems outlandish  today. She didn’t smear on self-tanner first? Go to a Pilates class? What kind of actor is she? Hopefully, Jake Gyllenhaal, and especially Jena Malone have seen Carrie and paid close attention. The day will come when Gyllenhaal will play rookie cops and advertising executives and leave all the oddities and neuroses behind. Luckily, we’ll have Donnie Darko to remember him by.  Here’s hoping Jenna Malone, like Sissy Spacek before her, gets a Donnie Darko all to herself, cause it’s only a few short years before she’ll be playing magazine editors and beautiful prostitutes, and from then on there’s no looking back.

Donnie Darko: A-

Carrie: A