There is plenty of teen opera in the movies. Richard Kelly's debut was a teen opera, the coming of age kind. The thing with Kelly, though, is that his teen hero may never come to age.
II.
October 1988 - Middlesex, Virginia. Donnie Darko (2001) <1> begins early morning, with teen Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) cycling home after a sleepwalking incident. A song from the era plays background to this brilliant sequence, as it steadily builds in affirmative detail and energy. <2> The sequence will also take on a more moving quality, once Kelly has told us all that he means to in his film.
It develops that sleepwalking may not be the only disorder that Donnie has to cope with. Donnie has taken to chatting with an imaginary rabbit, a bad bunny with prominent choppers. Frank (the rabbit) counsels Donnie to commit various bits of mischief, building to the more serious acts of vandalism and arson.
Donnie's therapist (Katharine Ross) informs his parents (Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne) that their son might be experiencing the onset of schizophrenia. Donnie's hallucinations continue to increase, until his therapist has to consider the possibility that Donnie might become a danger to himself, or others.
Meanwhile, writer-director Kelly has been constructing a different explanation for Donnie's doings than a therapeutic one. This narrative is speculative, and takes the film in the sci-fi direction of time travel and alternate universes.
III.
The surrealism, the humour, and the hypnotic tone of Kelly's picture does bring David Lynch to mind. But the echoes of Lynch never distract from Richard Kelly's original talent and promise with Donnie Darko.
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<1>I saw the 2004 Director's Cut, which adds twenty minutes to the film.
<2>The song is an INXS track, "Never Tear Us Apart". Later, towards film conclusion, the soundtrack will play Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
