3 posts tagged “donnie darko”
It's not often I agree with Empire magazine but in this I do. Donnie Darko is up there among my top 5 favourite films of all time and it is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
Went to see Chumscrubber on Sunday at the Clapham Picture House.
The one review I had seen was appalling but it had Jamie Bell in it and he tends to choose interesting films, so I thought I'd give it a go even though I knew very little about it.
I was gobsmacked at the cast: Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Carrie Anne Moss, Rory Culkin as well as Bell.
While all the parents in a perfect middle class town get on with their perfect lives the kids are all happily getting shit-faced on drugs until the town's drug dealer hangs himself without even hinting to his best friend (Bell) what he intends to do. Bell, the town outsider, is then blackmailed by a group of kids into retrieving the remaining stash from his dead friend's house.
That's the basic premise.
It makes it sound straightforward but it is a very strange film. I cannot decide whether I loved or hated it. It completely perplexed me, which is something I suppose.
It lifted scenarios straight from, amongst others: Donnie Darko, Alpha Dogs (although Chumscrubber pre-dates Alpha Dogs it is based on a true story that doesn't), Six Feet Under and Desperate Housewives. The result was a highly derivative mish-mash.
But in it's defence it had that stellar cast who were brilliantly bonkers in their performances and there were one or two excellent satirical moments.
While I was watching, I couldn't help thinking why all these renowned actors chose to be in a film with such a crap title and play such contrived bizarre characters? For example, Ralph Fiennes plays the town mayor who undergoes a moment of enlightenment, having read a local psychologist's self help guide, and starts painting dolphins everywhere. Okaaay.
The Chumscrubber of the title refers to a character in a video game who's relevance is, well I'm not entirely sure.
This film won awards when it was first released. If anyone else has seen it I'd be curious to hear their views because it has completely flumaxed me.
The concept of three seemingly different stories which are subtly interlinked isn't a new one but it is done well. There is some imaginative and crisp camera work, particularly during the Japan-based story which involves a group of deaf teenagers.
The Brad Pitt-Cate Blanchett story line is the weakest. The drama of the situation those character found themselves in washed over me and may be in part because of Mr Pitt. It's not that he's a bad actor but I find he's too famous for certain roles. Julia Roberts is the same. I couldn't stop thinking 'it's Brad Pitt, everything will be fine'. Maybe I'm being unfair but I didn't feel any of tension, panic or frustration the story line should have generated.
Overall I left the cinema feeling bemused about the whole experience and puzzled over the point but not in a good way. I'm not adverse to films which are difficult to fathom, after all Donnie Darko is one of my favourites.
Great to look at but the stories on the whole washed over me.
