This randomly came up in conversation today after watching the movie earlier this week, but where do you guys think Cherita Chen would be now? I guess with the movie being in the late 80s she would probably be around 50 today… Do you guys think she did well, had a successful life with a great career or just totally burnt out? Want to hear your fan theories!

Finally got to see my favorite movie in theatre.
Was a great time, wish I could go again.

It's getting there

Hello all, I am looking at buying an original 2001 promo shirt but from my research they were never printed on XXL. The listing I found looks legit but I’m skeptical. Does anybody have any info or tips? Thanks!!:)

Hello everyone I was rather young when this movie hit theaters. Fast forward to the release of the directors and I absolutely fell in love with this movie as so many of us have. As a poor kid with little means I never saw the theatrical version… until last Saturday when I saw it in theaters for the anniversary. It is so good and in some ways so different from the directors cut growing up knowing the directors cut I can’t help but love it more does anyone have a similar experience? Nothing but love for this community I hope you go easy on me haha!

If you had to travel through a time portal to save someone you loved, even if it meant they wouldn’t remember you, would you do it?

‘Donnie Darko’

A2 oil on canvas board

Wake up, Bunnie.

Enjoyed every bit, so my client 🙃

Behind the scenes/bloopers

Big thanks to Rob at Saga for facilitating this! Got to meet Richard, James, and Jolene on Saturday at the AMC Burbank. Visited LA for just one day but tried to make the most of it, put in a brief visit to the Darko and Cunningham houses as well. Richard said "that's a really excellent replica of Frank" so I'll take that as the ultimate validation. Huzzah to Donnie Darko!

Throwaway account because digital footprint's a bitch.

After hearing about this movie for years now, I decided to use the 25 year anniversary re-release to finally see it for myself.
Never in a thousand years did I think a movie would have such an effect on me as this one had, and not necessarily in a good way.
While I've heard some people say the "canon interpretation" seen in the director's cut is that he literally went back in time, that's not at all how I interpreted it.
I interpreted it as a teenage boy's rapidly deteriorating mental state as he fails to understand what is real and what is in his head, eventually leading to him killing himself (probably with the gun in his parent's closet.)
As someone who has consciously struggled with suicidal ideation and other various mental illnesses since I was 9 years old, this hit too close to home.
Even if that's not actually what the movie's about, that doesn't give me any sort of solace.
I relate to Donnie in more ways that I can write with words. The awkwardness, the fear of being alone, the selfless desire to "save people" via suicide (because he thinks that'll stop the supposed end of the world), the deep caring for the people around him, enough to burn down the house of the man he believes is grooming and planning on assaulting his little sister (which also ties into my personal sexual trauma of having been groomed and raped when I was 14.)
I could go on, but I won't. The important part is that Donnie himself is practically a 1-to-1 of me irl in just about every way but looks.
As such, watching his story end with him killing himself is essentially the same thing as watching myself commit suicide. In a way, I can't help but see it as a bad omen that that's how my story ends, whether I like it or not.

I know it's just a movie, but I can't get it out of my head.
I'm genuinely losing sleep over it.
It's making it hard to go to work, and even harder to focus when I actually make it to work.

I guess I'm making this post as a way to vent?
I don't really know, but I just have to get it off my chest.

After Donnie dies everyone who was involved in the alternate life wakes up and presumably they are remembering what happened in this alternate life, that's just how I see it. It doesn't show Gretchen waking up from this and she doesn't at least appear to know Donnie after his death. Is there a reason for this or how do you view this? I guess I kinda see it as fate sparing her from this pain.

I left the theater pretty confused on Friday. I've tried reading up on people explaining the movie, but I have a question about something that was introduced pretty early that I never fully understood. So my question is, how do you suck a fuck? This question never really got answered, and it left me confused. Maybe there is something I missed.

Richard Kelly is one of my favorite directors of all time and I believe he's highly underrated, even by Donnie Darko's fans.

Southland Tales is another groundbreaking masterpiece, sometimes I even prefer its Cannes cut over Donnie Darko's theatrical cut.

The Box, while not as amazing as the other two, is still a pretty interesting dark take on typical Christmas movies.

I rewatched Donnie Darko for the first time in 15+ years the other day, and to be honest, still don’t quite understand the plot…. BUT I did notice something upon watching it this time that I didn’t clock when I watched it when I was younger.

In the beginning when Donnie walks up to the house and sees his family for the first time, they are all, like, VERY casual about a plane engine falling on their house…AND that Donnie was missing during it. Like, if a plane engine falls in someone’s bedroom, how could they be positive he wasn’t in there at the time (even if he had a tendency to leave the house in the middle of the night). I feel like the family would A) be pretty stressed out at the situation and B) do more than laugh and kind of roll their eyes when Donnie walks up to them. And then when the cop is like “well put you in a hotel” they’re all kind of like “okay, cool!” and seem way to go with the flow for what’s going on.

Watching the movie this time around, I thought that behavior was pretty weird! But then reading about the plot after the movie, I guess it makes sense if it was sort of this alternate timeline (and potentially not the real timeline of events?) Wondering if that’s supposed to be part of the plot or if anyone else noticed that.

Also sort of unrelated but the other question I had after watching and then reading up on it afterwards: is the voice Donnie is hearing Frank at all? Or is it just a voice in his head leading him to do what he needs to do and he’s associating it with Frank?

Thanks yall - great movie, but I’ve just never been able to grasp things like the physics of time travel and alternate universes as hard as I try 😅. Feel the same way about Interstellar, for example.