S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale (2009)

Simply put a sequel to writer/director Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult film Donnie Darko is a not a good idea. While Kelly developed an elaborate universe for his genera bending mediation on teen angst, such a personal film stands on its own, plus the primary character died at the end. Kelly was not involved in this follow up film, he probably never though someone would have the audacity to a make a sequel. The Donnie Darko magic is just that, a one of a kind thing that happens every so often, develops a cult following, and can’t be conscious replicated; even Kelly himself was unable to recapture his own signature essence in his much anticipated second film Southland Tales, which turned out to be an overproduced, contorted mess. S. Darko on the other hand is not overproduced, rather it is a pointless re-working of the original film, structurally dependent on parallelism to the first, it reminded me of how Home Alone II hued excessively close to the blueprint of the original, and was thusly pointless from a story telling point of view. But the Home Alone franchise is all about seeing inept crooks trip on stuff, while Donnie Darko was actually about story and character development. There is no point to S. Darko, except that actress Daveigh Chase agreed to reprise her rather small role from the original (the only Donnie cast member to appear in this movie), so the film makers felt they had enough of a tie in to warrant this purely money making exercise. This movie is really just a waste of time and effort. So boring and unfulfilling. 1 out of 5.