If after more than twenty four hours, a figure in a ragged, horror-inducing bunny suit and a troubled teen donning an equally manipulative man suit are still consuming valuable space in your mind, you know a movie's doing something right. Donnie Darko. After hearing peers' claims of its cult classic authenticity, I knew this film had to be put on my Netflix Queue, and for good reason, too. Set in the year 1988, the film follows Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teenaged boy who is plagued with visions of a talking rabbit, for the span of twenty eight days as his new rabbit "friend" Frank instructs him to cause chaos among the town before the end of the world arrives.

After watching the intro shot featuring questionable resolution and shaky camera angles, I braced myself for subsequent guerilla filmmaking tactics, but ended up being pleasantly surprised by the aesthetic approach the 2001 technologic limitations had to offer to the science fiction and mystery elements of the film. Who knew bubbles could so effectively represent vortex portals?

Aside from knowing that the film would gradually build up to the terrible Doomsday occurrence on October 30, 1988, I had no other prospects of what this film would do. Act I and II of the movie advanced the story at a slow pace that had me occasionally (silently) yelling at (my laptop) screen for the likes of Donnie's therapist, his parents, and Donnie himself to offer a sound resolution to the downward spiral he was falling into, but alas, by Act III, we learn that everything serves a purpose in the end. Speaking of Act III, wow...never have I seen a film that so eloquently tie up all loose ends regarding character development, yet leave my jaw in a permanent state of demotion with a visible question mark above my furrowed brows. As the final scene plays to the tune of Gary Jules' "Mad World", my mind was left to backtrack the last 113 minutes I had just watched and try to piece together everything to make sense of it all. I then proceeded to do what any rationale person would, and Googled "Donnie Darko explanation" (actually I typed Donnie Darko expanation because I was still too much in a state of utter shock to properly spell). I came across a website that holds all answers to the puzzling enigma that is Donnie Darko and I encourage you to give it a look: http://www.donniedarko.org.uk/explanation/ (Warning: This website is a big bucket of spoilers so do not read until after watching the film which you should go do right now).

Donnie Darko, like many films that have come before and after it, requires more than one watch to even come close to grasping the meaning of the story (think Inception), but unlike these other said films (think Inception) is one that could be viewed multiple times without tiring of it because of its simplistic storytelling methods that focus less on the believability of its special effects and more on the development of relatable characters. Even Donnie Darko, in his state of delusion, offers glimpses of sanity, "I promise, that one day, everything's going to be better for you".

This film, dark and dramatic, continues to maintain its cult-classic following due to comedic, memorable dialogue, think "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion" and superb performances by Jake Gyllenhaal who portrays Donnie Darko with a tantalizing, deceptive charm, as well as big name stars like Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze who master the art of subtlety in playing smaller, minor roles in a low budget film without the distractions one would assume their previous resumes would create.

All in all, I give this movie four out of five thumbs up (CCCC).