A Recommitment To Sparkle Motion

Time traveling with Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly.

While ostensibly some more spooky szn content, Jane Schoenbrun’s creepy and confident I Saw The TV Glow is on another trip altogether. Less scary than profoundly unsettled, its haunted arthouse Pete & Pete sensibility is unlike anything else in your horror algo.

If you enjoyed the suburban ennui and genre experimentation of Donnie Darko, it’s very much “for you.” Schoenbrun and DD creator Richard Kelly’s Interview chat made for a perfect post-watch read, and got me revisiting Darko for the first time in many, many years.

Still goes!

Plus, it reminded me that I once interviewed Kelly as a literal child.

Here’s a school newspaper phoner from November 2001 — a few weeks after my debut Darko viewing, during a fall that was notable for a much different reason.

Definite teen-at-the-press-junket energy, but I stand behind it… I’m still pretty earnest lol! And so is DD, a post-adolescent vibe piece with an increasingly prescient POV.

(Perhaps the craziest bit is Kelly’s casual “I’m just anxious to go make another [movie], we have a couple things lined up,” aka the bonkers big-swing that is Southland Tales. But I will save all my film maudit thoughts for another time and place…)

What's been your take on people’s reaction to Donnie Darko?

It’s been great! A crazy ride in getting it to the screen, I’m just excited that it even got released. People respond to it, people come up to me on the street who I don’t even know, sending me emails and stuff… I’m just glad the movie got out there.

Is it getting wider distribution?

I don’t know, there’s a lot of competition out there now, but I think the distributors definitely want to get it out to as many people as they can.

You worked with [DP] Steven Poster and a lot of veteran actors in this movie. Did they give you any pointers directing your first feature?

Well, Steven’s worked with Ridley Scott and a lot of other directors, and the first thing he said to me before we started the film was, “I want you to forget the age difference, and I want to let you know that I don’t want to be a director.” So to hear that from your cinematographer is a relief, because you know he’s a collaborator and will bring a lot [to the film]. Ultimately, everyone really listened to me and what I wanted, and I was really specific about what I wanted, and it was a great collaboration. Part of being a director is knowing exactly what you want, and being able to let other people interpret your ideas for you. It worked out well for everyone.

Aside from the typical problems associated with making any film independently, were there any specific challenges or hurdles you faced on Darko?

Convincing people that I could direct it. There were a lot of meetings, and people were very skeptical, being a first time director – at the time, I was 25 years old and had never directed anything before. So that was incredibly difficult… by the way, I’m in a coffee shop, so there’s music in the background. If you’re hearing “It’s Raining Men,” know that it’s just the coffee shop.

I won’t hold it against you.

Ha ha. Yeah, convincing people was definitely the biggest hurdle.

One of the things that really struck me about the story – and Jenna Malone even says this in the film – is that Donnie is like a superhero. I know you’ve said that Stephen King was a big influence on the film, but were there any specific comic books that you used as references or influences?

Well, I’m not a giant comic book person, but I knew it was going to be a supernatural kind of tale, inspired a lot by Stephen King’s storytelling style, and I figured because of the comic satire in the story – there’s quite a bit of [those] moments – that if I was going to combine the two, the title of the movie should have a kind of comic book ring to it, a light, comic book style to it. Some of the camera work and the character archetypes reflect that. There’s a very subtle comic book feeling in the air, like the opening shot of looking down on this stylized mist of a town in Virginia. In a way, it’s like Ghost World, which is based on a comic book, but you wouldn’t really know that from watching the film. After I made it, I could sort of imagine a serialized, comic version of Donnie Darko.

It also takes cues from classic teen films of the ‘80s. I know you’ve said Back to the Future was an influence.

Yeah, I think there is a kind of innocence to the film, and we specifically designed it that way. A lot of it was when Drew [Barrymore] signed on, she’s kind of the one who survived the ‘80s, who was horribly victimized by adults, given drugs and put in hospitals. She barely survived, and she became sort of the godmother of this project. There is a kind of idealism in her, even in her later work, and I wanted to make sure the film retained that sense of innocence and that it wasn’t too cynical a film. I think some of that hearkens back to… whatever you think of the ‘80s, they were certainly a much more naïve time than we live in now. It’s a period piece – when you look back on it, there’s a sense of irony.

It’s sort of eerie how many parallels there are between then and now, particularly when you use the footage of the ’88 presidential debate with George Bush Senior. Have you noticed things like that? Especially in the current environment – the other day, when they showed the plane crash, the engines careening through kind of idyllic suburban homes was exactly like the sequence in Donnie Darko.

My brother called me about 7 in the morning and I was sick to my stomach when he told me about what happened in Queens. You assume — like everyone did — that it was another terrorist attack, and I sat there and watched TV, got all these calls from people when the shot of the jet engine in the Texaco station came on. It really freaked me out.

Has that been problematic, as far as the film and the national situation are concerned? Personally, it applied an added resonance. I could identify with that fatalistic, alienated atmosphere that Donnie lived in.

Certainly, since September 11th, we’re going to look at every movie through a different lens. I feel [Donnie] was always intended as a period piece, and I think that when you look back and find parallels to modern life, you can’t take credit for that, or pretend as if you anticipated anything or were trying to comment on it. It just makes you wonder about how life moves in cycles, and how certain movies can make us feel emotions that we’re all going through. If anything, I look at movies as important for escapism, and introspection, and for people to use them as outlets, as therapy. Ultimately, I think we should continue to make movies that explore deep ideas. We should have our popular, escapist entertainment, but I think in independent film, even in studio films, there’s a yearning now to go deeper. (Laughs) They’re playing New Kids on the Block now…

As far as difficult subject matter goes, do you know what you’re going to do as your next project?

I have several things in the works, and we’re very close to lining up one of them. I don’t want to jinx it though! I hope to be making another film early next year.

I thought it was interesting that [in another interview] you mentioned Ted Demme and Denis Leary’s The Ref as a favorite. An inspired choice, but somewhat offbeat. What films are you digging now?

I thought that Ghost World was terrific. This year hasn’t been the greatest for film, but in terms of studio releases, I thought Moulin Rouge was pretty spectacular. I’m not the biggest musical fan, but I was really blown away by what they accomplished. Certainly Shrek. Memento was great. I’m really, really looking forward to seeing Vanilla Sky, what Cameron Crowe’s put together there. Lord of the Rings, clearly, is going to be an event for me and everyone. The Coen Brothers, I’d line up for anything they do. Their new one [The Man Who Wasn’t There] certainly deserves multiple viewings. Their films always age well – that’s something that we find with a lot of our important filmmakers, their films end up aging like fine wine; sometimes they’re not appreciated upon first viewing. I thought Mullholland Drive was the best thing David Lynch has done in years.

It was pretty phenomenal.

I was awed by that film. I went to see it with Jake [Gyllenhall], and as we walked out, I was like “Jake, that makes our movie look like Bambi.”

Have you kept in touch with a lot of the cast?

Yeah, I speak with them quite a bit. No one made any money making this movie, it was a labor of love for everyone, and I feel like we all bonded really well, and all felt as though we contributed to something special. It’s really flattering to have a bunch of actors work for you for scale.

Especially today.

You wish you could pay them something. But it’s the opportunity for them to get to work for a film that they feel really proud of. They get to have a lot of input, it’s not like they’re just throwing something out there. There’s always roles that you have to take to get paid, but these actors are all really special, genuine, nice people, and I’ll work with any of them again.

Do you know if you’ll work with any of the actors on things like the DVD commentary track, if there is to be one?

Yeah, I’d definitely like to get some of the actors back. We’re starting work on the DVD pretty soon, and I’d like to get as many of the actors as possible on there.

Has any thought been given to including some of your short films (Goodbye Place and Visceral Matter) on the DVD? I’ve tried to find them on places like iFilm and things like that, but I guess they really weren’t released outside of your film school.

I don’t know, we haven’t really broached that yet. We’ll have to talk to the media people and see how much room there is on the DVD. You’re kind of leery about showing people your shorts, because it’s like, "well, I was in college…"

And they’re still a learning process.

This next one, I’m not going to put in print to give anything away, but after seeing the film, we were debating why Donnie had to die at the end. I know you want people to draw their own conclusions, and take things away from different angles, but what was your perspective on it… was he making the ultimate sacrifice, being a kind of martyr?

I think that if you look at it one way, he goes into a parallel universe for 28 days that’s all going to collapse upon itself, and the only way to get it back is for the jet engine to come back. So he’s going to bed, laughing, because he thinks that it’s all a dream, that he’s going to roll over and go to bed. And the horn that’s honking is Frank, the guy who just dropped his sister off, driving the red Trans-Am. He’s honking, because he’s remembering this dream he had, and trying to get them out of bed. It’s just this tragic accident. Or, you could look at it like he was meant to die in the accident, and he’s accepted his fate; he’s been given evidence of a divine consciousness, and he’s accepted that. There’s a greater existence for him, and he’s picked up on his own mortality. You can look at it both ways.

I wasn’t kidding when I said that this was my favorite movie of the year. I’m definitely looking forward to what you’re going to create next.

Thanks a lot. You know, urge all your friends to go see it, because I don’t know how long it’s going to be in theaters.

That’s funny, as soon as we got back from the screening, that’s exactly what we did — evangelizing Donnie Darko to everyone we know. Especially because being in the city, there’s no excuse not to see it.

It was tough getting the movie distributed, because people were so weirded out by it. They didn’t know what to think of it, they didn’t know how to market it, and I’m just glad we got to get it out there. It means a lot that people are responding to it. (Laughs) I’m just anxious to go make another one.

I remember hearing about the film two or three years ago when Alex Greenwald (Phantom Planet) got involved. It seemed like a very intriguing kind of film. And since then, there’s been fan sites pop up, Ain’t It Cool News has been a big supporter, and it generated a real anticipation over the course of a few years.

Yeah, it was great to have the support of those guys, there’s definitely a groundswell of people, a younger generation of film fans, who want to keep seeing these types of movies get made, who get disgusted seeing the same thing from studios over and over again. Now, more than ever, I think people really want something different. It’s good to support anything new and different, because it makes it better for getting more of these types of films made.

People will catch on after a while. Like you said, it’s not a real easy sell, but it’s satisfying on so many other levels than just going to see a blockbuster.

It means a lot to me, I’m glad you guys enjoyed it. Keep your ears and eyes peeled for the next one!