| 100 |
New Times (L.A.)
Like gathering storm clouds, Donnie Darko creates an atmosphere of eerie calm and mounting menace -- stands as one of the most exceptional movies of 2001.
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| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly
Kelly, the 26-year-old writer-director of this excitingly original indie vision, shares more artistically with Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson than he does with Spielberg or John Hughes, but the point is, he's out on his own here. He swings big -- with flair.
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| 90 |
LA Weekly
Joe Donnelly
It is funny, sad and beautiful. And it's right on time.
|
| 90 |
Village Voice
Certainly the most original and venturesome American indie I've seen this year.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
Appealingly, the movie has a certain lightness -- like the aforementioned butterfly -- which makes its foreboding qualities surprisingly user-friendly.
|
| 80 |
Mr. Showbiz
The nerviest, oddest, most outlandish and idiosyncratic American indie debut since "Buffalo 66," Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko defies description.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
If you let it be what it is, Donnie Darko will knock you flat.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
Kelly is a supple and courageous storyteller, boldly free-associating as he mixes parody and satire with earnest psychodrama and coming up with plot points no one could anticipate.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
A stunning technical accomplishment that virtually bursts with noise, ideas and references, but it's fundamentally a gracefully crafted movie that's about human beings and not images.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
So much here is equally befuddling and beguiling; I caught myself leaning in toward the screen repeatedly, trying to somehow get closer to the gorgeous impenetrability of the story, of the boy.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
The flaws are more than balanced out by the risks the earnest Kelly encourages his excellent cast to take.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Its only constant is that it's strangely eloquent and quite original.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Most experienced filmmakers wouldn't even attempt a film that's so blackly funny, that so rapidly shifts genres and tone, and that layers late '80s cultural references so thickly, from "E.T." to Smurfs.
|
| 70 |
Variety
Has plenty of problems. But most stem from a young filmmaker overswinging on his first time up to the plate and hitting a deep fly out rather than a home run.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
David Lynch lite.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
Loren King
The debut feature from 26-year-old director Richard Kelly shows plenty of promise, but it's somewhat self-involved and won't appeal to audiences who like a straightforward -- even if fantastical -- narrative.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Donnie Darko is the one that got away. But it was fun trying to land it.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
If this movie ever figured out what it wanted to be when it grows up, it would be a terrific one.
|
| 40 |
Film Threat
This is really one of those Rorschach test films. You either love it or hate it. For those who loved it, I have only one word: overrated.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
It's this compulsion to solder melancholy to weightlessness that constantly trips up the movie; Mr. Kelly doesn't have the assurance to pull off such a difficult feat.
|
| 38 |
Chicago Tribune
Just another self-absorbed teen chronicle, with the added twist of a little time travel and a surprise ending.
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