And Another

A product of fear

One of the odder sequel pitches in recent years must have been S. Darko (“A Donnie Darko Tale”*), straight to DVD on May 12. Unsuccessful in the theaters, Donnie Darko gained some critical notice and a cult following on video, though adoption by a certain quantity of the alternative youth demographic (the one for which Hot Topic is a shorthand) has led some older folks to distance themselves from it. Abstract and moody, if its hints of larger pictures mean you can’t quite consider it self-contained, it distinctly does not say ’sequel.’

*Not a Donnie Darko tale. S. Darko follows Donnie’s younger sister Samantha (you remember her from Sparkle Motion). Seven years after the events of Donnie, Samantha (Daveigh Chase, the only returning cast member) hits the road to LA with her friend, uh, Rayanne. They end up in Conejo (Spanish for rabbit) Springs and loosely re-enact Donnie Darko with one of the guys from Twilight (Jackson Rathbone) and a fellow who looks like the other guy from Twilight (Ed Westwick of Gossip Girl). Also features the not-un-Jake Gyllenhaal-esque James Lafferty.

DD writer/director Richard Kelly denounced it as a cheap cash-in and refuses to read the script, watch the trailer, etc. He is of course in the right, but the movie’s not as bad as it could have been. Upon first (and likely only) viewing, I found it tolerable – though not especially sensical or necessary, and often weird for weirdness’ sake in its efforts to ape its source material. Writer Nathan Atkins hits most of Donnie Darko’s key points overfaithfully, and director Chris Fisher borrows style as well as structure (e.g. DD’s atmospheric 1980s UK darkwave montage now returning in 1990s format to the strains of Catherine Wheel, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance). The whole thing’s not necessarily decodable or worth decoding in the manner of DD, certainly an oblique presentation, but one which left viewers wanting to make sense of it. (I have not seen the Director’s Cut, which by most accounts tries to explain away the mysteries and in doing so sacrifices the film’s appeal.)

One further note: this is Matthew Davis. I vaguely remember him from David Twohy’s interesting Below, but neglected the rest of his work (Legally Blonde and Pearl Harbor, how could I pass?), but it struck me during S. Darko that he can presumably be retained for a fraction of Bill Paxton’s cost. I expect to see him in the Paxton roles in remakes of Wild Bill’s work from now on.