About this Episode
VYS0019 – It’s a Very, Very Mad World: Donnie Darko – Show Notes
In December 2002 Hine and Buckley met at the Dukes Cinema in Lancaster, Lancashire, UK, for what become one of their most cherished movie-going experiences - to watch an independent film which had already gathered a cult following: Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko is a divisive film popular opinion swings between it being a poignant and magical modern classic to it being amateurish, film school bullshit with an inexplicably great cast (and soundtrack!!!). In this feature length episode (an entire swaggering minute longer than the run-time of the theatrical cut itself!) Hine and Buckley drill down deep into why the film still means so much to them almost 21 years later, what Richard Kelly actually intended the film to mean, why it's actually a '90s masterpiece (despite not being set, made or released in the '90s) and what the "S" in "S. Darko" might stand for... Recorded 16 March 2023.
Warning: Extreme Spoilers For Donnie Darko Follow
Donnie Darko Trailer
Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut
Lancaster, Lancashire, UK
Twin Peaks
Eraserhead Trailer
Wild at Heart Trailer
Lost Highway
Spiderland by Slint
Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins
S(hitty) Darko Trailer
American Beauty Trailer
The Matrix Trailer
Fight Club Trailer
Requiem for a Dream Trailer
American Psycho Trailer
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Trailer
The Fast and The Furious Trailer
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trailer
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
Hallelujah by Alexandra Burke
Mad World by Tears for Fears
Mad World by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews
Mad World by Adam Lambert
Wikipedia page for Intercourse - For the benefit of innocents like Hine
David Lynch Quotes - Here and Here
The Leftovers Trailer
Twin Peaks the Return
Donnie Darko Website - This is not the original Donnie Darko Website, the original used Flash player which is no longer supported by most browsers but can still be found here)
Wikipedia Page for The Lost Experience - The alternate reality game which was part of the TV series Lost
The Philosophy of Time Travel - Do not buy the version being sold on Amazon
The Donnie Darko Book by Richard Kelly
2004 Article from Saloon on Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut
Back to the Future Part II - Doc explains tangent universes
The Destructors by Graham Greene - and remember: that old man could be you in a few years...
Dubliners by James Joyce
Back to the Future Part II - Doc Explains a time-travel-paradox
Independence Day Trailer - the trailer starts with more Tears for Fears
Battlestar Galactica Trailer - Legitimately one of the best TV series ever made (according to Vayse), it's weird that we haven't mentioned it sooner
Campbellian Story Structure
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Michael Andrew’s Soundtrack to the Donnie Darko
Life and Death from Lost by Michael Giacchino
The End Of All Our Exploring from the Leftovers by Max Richter
The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen
Head over Heels by Tears for Fears
Wikipedia Page for Stephen Hawking
Wikipedia page for Stephen King
Wikipedia page for Steven Spielberg
Southland Tales Trailer
Stranger Things Trailer
Guardian Article about the mental health crisis of the late '80s and '90s told with a focus on Prozac - a connection that Hine didn't make at the time of recording was that Prozac was launched in the US in 1988, the year in which Donnie Darko is set...
Blue Velvet Trailer
Nevermind by Nirvana
Bleach by Nirvana
Surfer Rosa by Pixies
Ultramega Ok by Soundgarden
Invisible Lantern by Screaming Trees
Bug by Dinosaur Jr
Superfuzz Bigmuff by Mudhoney
It’s a Wonderful Life Trailer
Harvey Trailer
The Last Temptation of Christ Trailer
Richard Kelly Interview from the Playlist in which Kelly talks about doing more Southland Tales and more Donnie Darko
Watchmen TV Series
Justin Timberlake dance sequence from Southland Tales
The Chumscrubber Trailer
Brick Trailer
Heathers Trailer
The Virgin Suicides Trailer
Napoleon Dynamite Trailer
Wanted Trailer
The Big Lebowski Trailer
The Hudsucker Proxy Trailer
Under The Silver Lake Trailer
A Beautiful Mind Trailer - Released the same year as Donnie Darko
Frank Trailer
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Carmen Daye and Steve Baker
Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious by Eric Wargo
We Can Remember It For You Wholesale: Volume Five Of The Collected Stories by Philip K Dick
The fate of Jim Cunningham revealed and other extraneous Donnie Darko trivia from the mind of Richard Kelly