Donnie Darko (review)

Geoff King's brief cultography of Donnie Darko (Kelly US 2001) provides a good starting point for teaching and researching this enigmatic film. The book includes a general discussion throughout of what makes a 'cult' film. It also includes detailed discussions of the film's history, reception, complex formal structure and thickly layered meanings. In the first chapter, which explores the 'production, promotion, and early reception' of Donnie Darko, King notes that 'Cult status often requires a sense of a project's embattlement and/or its initial failure to find an audience in this way' (5). Such problems force most fans to discover the film through non-traditional or unofficial means such as midnight movie screenings. King moves through a history of Donnie Darko that covers the obstacles that added to its eventual cult status. Scriptwriter Richard Kelly had difficulties getting financing because of his demand to direct. Once financing was secured, Kelly was able to finish principal photography in a short period of time, but disagreements over editing left him unhappy (and eventually led to a director's cut). Difficulty finding a distributor, mixed critical reviews and the 9/11 attacks on the US contributed to the failure of the original theatrical release. King's survey of this material is crisp and clear.

In the following two chapters, which make up the bulk of the book, King analyses the 'afterlife' of Donnie Darko as well as its complex textual and intertextual meanings. King's discussion of genre deftly traces how elements of teen drama, romance, horror and sf played a role in the publicity and reception of the film. The multiple genres evoked complicated marketing and reception, but also contributed to the film's cult credentials. King is careful not to fall into a simple taxonomic approach for what makes Donnie Darko a cult film. As he notes in the final chapter, his book foregoes any 'a priori definitions' of cult and emphasises how the 'textual' and 'extra-textual...dimensions of cult' relate to the specific example provided by Donnie Darko (95). Though initially a commercial flop, the film gained momentum and a cult following through midnight screenings, internet discussions and a successful DVD release. This was followed by a profitable overseas release and a director's cut. King's discussion of these different versions of the film proves most provocative and problematic for sf scholars.

King begins the book with a brief introduction where he shares his own experiences with Donnie Darko and admits his bias for the original theatrical version over the director's cut. One difference between these two versions is that the sf elements are more pronounced in the director's cut. While the original theatrical version contained discussions of time travel and alternate realities, for example, King asserts that much of the 'subtlety and originally elusive nature' of the film is changed by the insertion of excepts from the fictional book The Philosophy of Time Travel into the director's cut (33). The more explicit use of sf conventions, King implies, weakens the emotional impact of the film. In the original version, King states, 'the fantasy dimension is most closely cross-wired with the more realistically-grounded evocation of the troubled teenager and his family context' (49). This privileging of both 'realism' and narrative ambiguity implies that moving clearly into the realm of the fantastic somehow diminishes the film's ability to address the problems inherent in teen drama. As the extensive scholarly literature surrounding the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (US 1997-2003) indicates, this is a problematic argument at best. Even if applied only to Donnie Darko, this argument will prove controversial for sf scholars. King is right to note that the director's cut beefs up the sf aspects of the film and provides more information to the viewer, but his complaint that 'the viewer is sometimes led by the nose' in the director's cut reveals his own bias for a particular type of independent film that eschews clarity and a clear genre identity.

King's...