It's a bad week in Conejo Springs for Samantha Darko, the iconic Donnie Darko's little sister, now grown up and reprised by Daveigh Chase. Sam has hit the road with her bosom buddy, Corey (Briana Evigan), because she feels cast adrift by a family shattered by her brother's bizarre death. Not surprisingly, considering her history, she's a profoundly troubled young woman.
Fatefully, Sam's road trip brings her and Corey to a troubled little town in rural Utah plagued by missing children, a homeless veteran's post-traumatic stress, ennui among the young, a lecherous ex-con turned pastor and countless other eccentrics -- indeed, clinical neurosis seems to be a prerequisite for permission to live in Conejo Springs.
Sleep disorders are a common symptom of mental illness. Thus, if Samantha had been better rested, she probably would have thought to avoid a town named after the furry little mammals that inspired the hideous death creature that haunted her brother.
In any case, Sam lands in the town to work out her destiny at a time when a lot of the townsfolk are facing crises in their lives. Soon after she arrives, the specter of Things Falling From the Sky establishes itself as a motif of doom and a Doppelganger of our protagonist materializes to set off a countdown to The End.
After all this is set up, things go very badly for the title character -- and almost as badly for the audience. A casual movie fan might well consider this movie a wreck and feel cheated by the resolution. For the filmmaker and film student, it's worthwhile to analyze this movie because its inspiration was a landmark of cinema and culture.
I would recommend "S. Darko" if you're involved in movie-making -- or obviously, interested at all in Miss Chase. If you're not in either of those categories and you see it anyway, you may be tempted to take the DVD along with you next time you go to the trap range.
Be that as it may, the story is set up in a compelling fashion. But no sooner do we realize that The End is near than the question becomes: The End of what? About half-way through Act Two, you will understand why IMDb viewers rank this movie so low. This could have been -- should have been -- a great movie.
"S. Darko" has a strong cast of attractive young performers, and very good production values. The cinematography and music evoke powerful moods and the leading actor, Miss Chase, creates a deeply engaging and sympathetic character.
To consider what went wrong, two titles come to mind: "Psycho" and "Dallas."
Other than the shower scene, the Hitchcock masterpiece is best remembered for the extraordinary plot device of killing off the protagonist at the midpoint crisis. If anybody else has ever been able to get away with that risky twist, Mr. Fisher is not among them. And, as far as the prime-time soap opera goes, one of the most memorable achievements of "Dallas" was the entire run of Season Nine, which went into the books as the longest dream sequence in history.
Back to "S. Darko," let's assume for a moment that the whole project deserves to be taken seriously and you're left sorting through the usual existential questions during the closing credits.
The key question is how Samantha could have insinuated herself into the lives of so many people if, as it turns out, she departed so soon. Perhaps her dreams were a projection of her inner conflicts into characters she actually created? Otherwise, what would be the emotional reward -- for both protagonist and audience -- in having someone choose to commit themselves to a journey headed to certain doom when it turns out that journey doesn't exist? After all, the opening title crawl tells us that S. "has drifted deeper and deeper into the darkness of her sleep. And when darkness consumes the starlight, nightmares rule the night. " Fair enough, but in the context of her life, the nightmares need to light the way to some kind of redemption, even if they've swallowed up all that starlight. Of course if the hapless Samantha's demise would have brought redemption to a subsequent protagonist, the average viewer would be left with feelings of fulfillment while taking the DVD out of the machine.
But instead, we're left with the message that a person can consider taking a certain path, and then have a profound nightmare about the consequences of taking such a path, and then wake up and achieve salvation. After all, Dorothy had a similar experience in "The Wizard of Oz" -- and she returned transformed from a wistful young girl to a wiser young woman. But Mr. Fisher chose in one scene to evoke "Alice in Wonderland," a story in which the protagonist has a bizarre dream that is its own adventure and leaves her largely without a transformational arc -- a curious hollowness captured perfectly by Walt Disney.
Here, at the end of all the sound and fury, Samantha seems to have had a nightmare that transformed her into a person who doesn't need nightmares. I suppose that is possible, but I think many viewers will be left wishing they could have the last 100 minutes back.
It's worth adding that Miss Chase has already done excellent work as a child and has a great future.
I saw one of her first roles in the Michael Landon biopic as one of about 20 children portraying kids growing up in a large family. I knew at once she had star potential -- I even called her agent (who corrected my pronunciation of her name -- it's "Da-vay," not "Davie") to find out what she was going to do next.
This movie will do little to harm her career. I remain convinced she'll go on to achieve great things in her profession.
Fatefully, Sam's road trip brings her and Corey to a troubled little town in rural Utah plagued by missing children, a homeless veteran's post-traumatic stress, ennui among the young, a lecherous ex-con turned pastor and countless other eccentrics -- indeed, clinical neurosis seems to be a prerequisite for permission to live in Conejo Springs.
Sleep disorders are a common symptom of mental illness. Thus, if Samantha had been better rested, she probably would have thought to avoid a town named after the furry little mammals that inspired the hideous death creature that haunted her brother.
In any case, Sam lands in the town to work out her destiny at a time when a lot of the townsfolk are facing crises in their lives. Soon after she arrives, the specter of Things Falling From the Sky establishes itself as a motif of doom and a Doppelganger of our protagonist materializes to set off a countdown to The End.
After all this is set up, things go very badly for the title character -- and almost as badly for the audience. A casual movie fan might well consider this movie a wreck and feel cheated by the resolution. For the filmmaker and film student, it's worthwhile to analyze this movie because its inspiration was a landmark of cinema and culture.
I would recommend "S. Darko" if you're involved in movie-making -- or obviously, interested at all in Miss Chase. If you're not in either of those categories and you see it anyway, you may be tempted to take the DVD along with you next time you go to the trap range.
Be that as it may, the story is set up in a compelling fashion. But no sooner do we realize that The End is near than the question becomes: The End of what? About half-way through Act Two, you will understand why IMDb viewers rank this movie so low. This could have been -- should have been -- a great movie.
"S. Darko" has a strong cast of attractive young performers, and very good production values. The cinematography and music evoke powerful moods and the leading actor, Miss Chase, creates a deeply engaging and sympathetic character.
To consider what went wrong, two titles come to mind: "Psycho" and "Dallas."
Other than the shower scene, the Hitchcock masterpiece is best remembered for the extraordinary plot device of killing off the protagonist at the midpoint crisis. If anybody else has ever been able to get away with that risky twist, Mr. Fisher is not among them. And, as far as the prime-time soap opera goes, one of the most memorable achievements of "Dallas" was the entire run of Season Nine, which went into the books as the longest dream sequence in history.
Back to "S. Darko," let's assume for a moment that the whole project deserves to be taken seriously and you're left sorting through the usual existential questions during the closing credits.
The key question is how Samantha could have insinuated herself into the lives of so many people if, as it turns out, she departed so soon. Perhaps her dreams were a projection of her inner conflicts into characters she actually created? Otherwise, what would be the emotional reward -- for both protagonist and audience -- in having someone choose to commit themselves to a journey headed to certain doom when it turns out that journey doesn't exist? After all, the opening title crawl tells us that S. "has drifted deeper and deeper into the darkness of her sleep. And when darkness consumes the starlight, nightmares rule the night. " Fair enough, but in the context of her life, the nightmares need to light the way to some kind of redemption, even if they've swallowed up all that starlight. Of course if the hapless Samantha's demise would have brought redemption to a subsequent protagonist, the average viewer would be left with feelings of fulfillment while taking the DVD out of the machine.
But instead, we're left with the message that a person can consider taking a certain path, and then have a profound nightmare about the consequences of taking such a path, and then wake up and achieve salvation. After all, Dorothy had a similar experience in "The Wizard of Oz" -- and she returned transformed from a wistful young girl to a wiser young woman. But Mr. Fisher chose in one scene to evoke "Alice in Wonderland," a story in which the protagonist has a bizarre dream that is its own adventure and leaves her largely without a transformational arc -- a curious hollowness captured perfectly by Walt Disney.
Here, at the end of all the sound and fury, Samantha seems to have had a nightmare that transformed her into a person who doesn't need nightmares. I suppose that is possible, but I think many viewers will be left wishing they could have the last 100 minutes back.
It's worth adding that Miss Chase has already done excellent work as a child and has a great future.
I saw one of her first roles in the Michael Landon biopic as one of about 20 children portraying kids growing up in a large family. I knew at once she had star potential -- I even called her agent (who corrected my pronunciation of her name -- it's "Da-vay," not "Davie") to find out what she was going to do next.
This movie will do little to harm her career. I remain convinced she'll go on to achieve great things in her profession.