Director restores ‘Donnie Darko’
A little more than 15 years ago, a strange, compelling movie about a high school kid who, after an airplane engine drops on his house, gets bizarre instructions from a menacing rabbit opened in theaters.
It was the misfortune of “Donnie Darko,” an indie darling at Sundance just months earlier, to open so soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bad timing for a movie that partially involves an airplane crash.
But since then, the debut film of 24-year-old Richard Kelly has become a cult classic. Starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal, with support from Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone and Seth Rogen, the film spoke to young people about angst at the dawn of the new millennium (although the film is set in 1988).
“It’s gratifying to know that it continues to connect with people,” Kelly said by phone. “We struck some kind of nerve. We hit people on some kind of emotional level that allowed them to embrace something unusual and saw some things in themselves, in the character. That’s meaningful to me. It makes me want to continue to be unusual, I guess.”
Good news for fans: Kelly has supervised a 15th anniversary restoration, which he is bringing to the Roxie Theater. The film opens on Friday, March 31. Kelly will be there in person after screenings on Sunday, April 2 (sold out), and Monday, April 3 (tickets still available).
Kelly said he wanted to do the restoration because “beyond the aesthetics of improving the film and the image quality given our new technological tools, it was also to bring it back to theaters because it got such a tiny arthouse release 15 years ago in 2001. So very few people got to see it on the big screen. So I’m very excited for people to experience it that way.”
It is also reaching a whole new generation of fans, some of whom don’t remember 9/11 (or weren’t yet born).
“Donnie Darko” became an immediate hit on DVD and on the midnight movie circuit after that failed first release, and Kelly was able to release a director’s cut — which was 21 minutes longer — theatrically in 2004. Fans have debated which version is better, with some complaining the director’s cut over-explains what was a thought-provoking mystery in the theatrical original.
Both versions have been restored, but interestingly, Kelly is bringing the 113-minute theatrical cut to the Roxie.
“I suggested that they just play the theatrical cut because I was just thinking of brevity since I was doing a Q&A; otherwise there would be no time to talk afterwards,” Kelly said. “I feel like if people are experiencing it for the first time, it’s good to start with the theatrical cut, and if they want to dig deeper, then they can move on and take a longer, deeper dive into the movie. They exist as companions to each other.
“I never intended the director’s cut to replace the theatrical. I almost thought of it as an extended remix, like a remix of a song — an alternate version, I guess.”
Kelly’s career has been eclectic, and for fans, frustratingly non-prolific. He has made only two more films, both as ambitious as “Darko,” as writer-director: “Southland Tales” (2007), which imagines an all-star cast — Dwayne Johnson, Justin Timberlake, many others — in a Los Angeles that becomes a police state after a nuclear attack in Texas; and “The Box” (2009), in which struggling couple Cameron Diaz and James Marsden are offered a million dollars if they’ll press a button and cause the death of a total stranger.
He also had the sole writing credit on Tony Scott’s inventive “Domino” (2005).
Kelly said he has never stopped writing and has several projects for which he is seeking financing (he thinks one will come through soon). But despite his setbacks, he is not complaining.
“For me, making films — it’s really an incredible honor to get to do this,” Kelly said. “I don’t want to ever do something for the wrong reasons or without the proper means . ... I feel really good about where I am with all the scripts and the stories I have been preparing. I can’t wait to be back behind the camera again, more than anything. It’s been too long.”
Is there anything an older, wiser Kelly (he turned 42 on Tuesday, March 28) would tell 24-year-old Richard Kelly?
“I would say, ‘Be confident and continue to try and take risks,’” he said. “I think more than anything, I want to stay focused on films that are political and make a statement and can feel like resistance, you know? I think we need to resist against this (Trump) administration, and we have an opportunity as artists to really express ourselves in a way that’s political.
“I hope the people that green-light films and finance films don’t hold back, and let artists be political. I think it’s our responsibility to do that.”
“It’s gratifying to know that it continues to connect with people.” Richard Kelly, director, “Donny Darko”