Donnie Darko
By Kit Macdonald
Richard Kelly's cryptic 2001 dark comedy about time travel has certainly been on a journey. Opening in US cinemas just a few weeks after 9/11, it was barely advertised (a film with a crashing plane as one of its central images not being a particularly welcome form of escapism at that moment in time) and duly disappeared with barely a murmur. Its UK cinema release a year later helped generate belated critical and commercial interest in the film, and since then it has gone from loss-making turkey to cult classic to straight-up classic, its combination of much-loved star turns (Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhall), quotable lines ("what's a fuckass?"), fan-theory-provoking plot and air-punching 80s soundtrack proving irresistible to audiences in the end.
This 4K restoration was completed in 2017 to celebrate the film's 15th anniversary - Kelly said then that he was never truly happy with the colour and detail levels of previous versions of the film and that he was excited for audiences to experience it in its new and improved incarnation.