Donnie Darko, was directed and written by Richard Kelly, and it is perhaps the greatest film I have ever seen, it was a pitch perfect exploration of time travel and teenage angst. It has one of the greatest soundtracks of any movie and perfectly captured a period in time. It utilized fantastic casting and acting to bring an incredibly effecting movie that will leaves you in a state of shock. I have watched it around six or seven times. Now Donnie Darko was the first feature length film by Richard Kelly and it's amazingness could have been caused by one of three things.
- Donnie Darko was a lucky break, it was simply pop science and philosophy with a healthy dollop of angst put into a blender, That against all odds paid off for an inexperienced filmmaker, a good film that won’t be repeated.
- Donnie Darko was the first outing of a cinematic genius that will take the world by storm churning out amazing cinema and will be known far and wide as a genius.
- Aliens (I felt I needed three to justify a list)
As much as it makes me sad to say it the answer it seems is number one. As soon as Donnie Darko rose to a cult status the studios were more than happy to bankroll whatever Richard wanted, and that’s how we wound up with Southland Tales (2007).
Kill it with fire!
The film starred Sara Michele Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Sean William Scott, Mandy Moore and Kevin Smith (and about twenty other b celebs). In short, Southland Tales was a load of sprawling incomprehensible shit. It had the distinct feel of Richard Kelly trying to replicate his prior success with Donnie Darko by stealing (and butchering) themes from it. I actually decided to bar judgment on Richard Kelly for Southland Tales because it was his first miss step and I had a theory that it was all a big middle finger to the MTV generation, and throughout the film it had been subtly taking the piss about republican stereotypes and product placement, and that the only comprehensible moment was purposefully an (actually quite well done) scene in which Justin Timberlake lip synchs to a Killers song.
Oh how wrong I was proved to be when Richard Kelly’s follow up The Box (2009) was released into cinemas.
Not James Marsden! First Buffy now Spike, who's next Willow?
The film was an adaptation of a Richard Matheson novel that had already been done much better by The Twilight Zone. The film again was a load of drivel that was manufactured from the ground up to be ‘deep’ but pulled that off about as well as ‘Deck Dogz’.
He also wrote the tragic Domino which featured Keira Knightley trying to act tough.
Really you saw this and thought 'you know what, she would be good as a bounty hunter'.
Domino was a fairly run of the mill retrograde junk; Keira was so woefully miss cast it almost laughable (perhaps the movie's one saving grace). If you ever watch it there is one scene in particular that is so out of place in the context and feel of the movie it completely takes you out of the moment (you will know what one). But what was plain baffling about Domino was this quote by Richard Kelly. "Domino might be one of the most subversive films released by a major studio since Fight Club". In what way is this film even slightly subversive....because it puts forward the proposition that the ludicrous story actually happened, and thus is an attempt to legitimise deceit and lying, which is already rife in any film with 'based on a true story' written on it?
It is quite clear to me that Richard Kelly indeed does fall into category number one. Every movie post Darko has been a desperate attempt to remake what made Donnie Darko great. He also lessened the impact of the original Donnie Darko with the horrible Directors Cut, and the ‘Philosophy Of Time Travel’ book. He is emulating David Lynch quite a bit, and while he did capture the feel in Donnie Darko, Southland Tales failed in an attempt to be Lynchian for the same reason Twin Peaks failed when David Lynch stopped directing in the middle of the second season. If I had the opportunity to give a bit of advice to Richard Kelly it would be this Stop trying to recreate Donnie Darko and stop trying to follow in the footsteps of David Lynch.
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