Donnie Darko - when a favorite film is also a best film

It's possible that a select few of you might be reading this immediately after I publish, but if you aren't, I am actually sitting at my computer, typing away in the latter part of the evening. This is the second time in the past week that I have done so to write about my Best Films Rewatch. You would think it was late January/early February, and I was in the midst of my "27 Days of Oscar." But no, it is still Summer, despite the Halloween decorations at your local Kroger/Ralphs/Albertsons/Wegmans.

It's been fascinating to reexamine my life, told through the lens of my favorite films of all time. That's not something I quite imagined would happen with this summer series. But all bets are off come October 5th when "A Star is Born" is released. That will truly begin this year's Oscar season for me. Not Toronto or Telluride, as I will not be attending those festivals and feel I won't have much to offer in terms of coverage until I actually start seeing the contenders. Until then...

Although I have already moved into the 2000s, I feel like I will have to go back at some point and watch "Leaving Las Vegas." There was a time that I considered that film one of the best. And what about the horror genre! Sure, "Black Swan" is coming up, but should I be considering "Halloween" or "A Nightmare on Elm Street?" Movies I love enough to have watched at least 20+ times each? And looking ahead, how did I possibly leave off "Brokeback Mountain." When "Brokeback" lost Best Picture I locked myself up in my bathroom and cried. I think that qualifies making the list.

Even adding "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Brokeback Mountain" I am about 2/3rd of the way into the list and at a significant turning point in my life in regard to cinema. 2001 was the year I moved to New York City (making it much easier to see any movie I liked), the year I became reinvested in the Oscars and the year I saw 2 films that will more than likely be near the top of my Best Films of all time--"Donnie Darko" and "Mulholland Drive."

I'm still not quite ready to comment on the Best Popular Film category at the Oscars...but the addition of the category has continued to make me think about the way I am examining the films on my list. Notice how in the beginning of the piece I called them my favorite films instead of the best films?

For example, I already know that "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and "Psycho Beach Party" won't make a Top 10 Films of all Time, but is there a difference between favorite film and best film? Would they make a favorite film list instead?

When you ask someone what movies they love, don't you ask, "What's your favorite film of all time?" not "what's the best film of all time?"

If we are talking about favorites--meaning films I love enough to watch over and over, there are movies I haven't even considered. "Steel Magnolias," "Confessions of a Shopaholic," "Bridget Jones' Diary," to name a few. I know they aren't going to make my "Top 10 Films of all Time" either, but I would possibly pawn them off to a friendlier, popcorn-y Top 10 "Favorite Films of all Time." There does seem to be a distinction - one that I have considered here at Awards Wiz before. If that's the case I could certainly add "A Walk to Remember" back to the watch list.

Are there films that might make both lists though? I think so. "Black Swan" and "La La Land" have potential. Of the films I have already watched I can see "Doom Generation" and "Shag" possibly making the cut for both. Same with "Donnie Darko."

Speaking of "Donnie Darko," I'll go ahead and delve more deeply into my personal life here, because those who know me best know it's certainly going to get real when I start writing about "Beautiful Boy.

Despite seeing it many times and saying for a few years that "Donnie Darko" was my favorite film of all time, I don't believe I had ever seen it clean (drug/alcohol free for those who don't know what that means) before last night.

Before watching "Donnie Darko" this go around, already thinking of my list being divided into three categories (Best, Favorites and Disappointments) I imagined "Donnie Darko" landing on the Favorites list. What a surprise to find it as brilliant as I (didn't quite) remember.



Released in 2001 and taking place in 1988, the film somehow seems both a product of its times while also seeming completely present and topical. How the film manages to take on the subject of time travel, apocalyptic adolescence, the self help craze, over(?) medicated youth, politics, etc. without an overt sense of irony or camp is a tribute to writer/director Richard Kelly.

What's interesting about both "Donnie Darko" and "Mulholland Drive" is that I didn't say either was my favorite film until a few years after their release. 2001 was quite the first year to live in NYC. Of course 9/11 happened, and although I watched the Oscars in 2002 and saw all the films, I just wasn't my same bubbling obsessive self after the towers fell. Not at first.

Eventually things began to feel a bit more normal. It wasn't until I began meeting new friends, who upon discovering that I was a full fledged Oscar nut began to ask me what my favorite films were that I began to revisit my opinions. Eventually "Funny Girl" and "Dead Poets Society" felt like very non-NYC answers. "Donnie Darko" and "Mulholland Drive," however, did not. With a dash of "Secrets & Lies" thrown in for good measure.

Seeing "Donnie Darko" last night, clean, I'm glad I didn't retrospectively embarrass myself all of those years with my declarations. Looking back, and this is a bit embarrassing to say, I think I said it was my favorite film because the cool kids liked it. It really wasn't until the mid 2000s that I truly began to consider films with my own critical eye.

I think that trying to fully understand "Donnie Darko" takes away from the film's brilliance. At one point I owned the Director's Cut, but I never watched it. Last night I watched the original theatrical release on Netflix. Reading about what Kelly added, I'm glad I didn't watch his director's cut. The film's ambiguity attributes much to its excellence.

As does the acting. Mary McDonnell, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Holmes Osborne are so great as the picturesque suburban family. Maggie's Elizabeth opens the film declaring she will be voting for Dukakis while Dad and Mom refute in exactly the way you would imagine a socially liberal/fiscally conservative family in the burbs in a Hollywood film might respond. But then you have Donnie (and Frank, of course), who seems to be schizophrenic until the end of the film makes a serious case for the time traveling worm holes/turning back time theory instead.

I almost had issue with Beth Grant and Patrick Swaze's characters however. When Grant's teacher, Kitty Farmer, shows her class the "Fear/Love" video starring local self help guru Jim Cunningham (Swaze), I got a bit concerned that we were heading into dangerous, over the top, territory, but Kelly manages to hold tightly to the reins of the tone he has set.

Now that I've started to think about how the films I have watched might fall into categories of Best or Favorite, let's examine where we are in terms of the films I have already watched. In order of release...

Best Films
Vertigo
West Side Story
The Godfather Part II
Secrets & Lies

Best and Favorite
Empire Strikes Back
Shag
Silence of the Lambs
Pulp Fiction
Doom Generation
Billy Elliot
Donnie Darko

Favorite Films
Clue
The Crying Game
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Neither
Funny Girl

Remaining
Leaving Las Vegas - 1995
Mulholland Drive - 2001
Lost in Translation - 2003
Mysterious Skin - 2005
Brokeback Mountain 2006
Zodiac - 2007
Where the Wild Things Are - 2009
Black Swan - 2010
La La Land - 2016
Call Me By Your Name - 2017