Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

DONNIE DARKO (2001)

HARVEY meets CATCHER IN THE RYE in this self-indulgently bathetic cult fave that caught on big in its post-theatrical life. Jake Gyllenhaal looks solid & fleshly as the possibly schizophrenic, possibly dead, teen landmine Donnie, while all the adults, those who understand and those who don’t, mishandle the usual hormonal angst. If FIGHT CLUB was homoerotic metaphysics for onanistic underachievers, this is the straight sophomoric edition. Trying to fashion a sort of Tim Burton version of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, director Richard Kelly flails away, choosing odd takes with lots of wistful smiles from all. And surely a proper director’s cut would have shortened, not lengthened the path to his "gotcha" ending.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Good Grief! How many film & literary references can you fit into such a small space! Shame, MAKSQUIBS, shame! (Nice use of 'onanistic,' though. Assuming, it's even a word.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: For a more grown up, fully realized take on the ideas being tossed about here, check out FISTS IN THE POCKET/'65.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/fists-in-pocket-1965.html

No comments: