Eleven years ago, with the release of Richard Kelly’s seminal cult classic Donnie Darko, the thought that I might be one day vying to defend this once prolific director to a dismissive general public and disenfranchised fanbase would have been as counter-intuitive as thoughts come.

Following the theatrical release of Kelly’s freshman effort – which introduced the world to not only one, but two Gyllenhaals – it was widely accepted that the director could in fact do no wrong, and that a long and illustrious career lay ahead as he continued to baffle audiences with his trans-dimensional tales of suburban apocalypse.

Since then, however, everything has changed: a divisive director’s cut, and unofficial sequel and a two poorly received releases later, Kelly is no longer held in such high esteem. He has been derided, his storytelling abilities questioned and his imagination mocked. Nonetheless, with the benefit of hindsight, I cannot help but challenge this new opinion of Kelly as a self-indulgent and impenetrable pulp-existentialist.

Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut

When Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko made its début back in 2001, the cinemagoing public was almost unanimous in its indifference. Well, it would have been if anyone had actually gone to see it. It wasn’t long, however, until overwhelming critical acclaim and persistent word of mouth spread and the film developed a dedicated cult following. With the film’s fans showing an insatiable thirst for more information, eager to make some sense of the film’s most enigmatic complexities, Kelly released a director’s cut in an attempt to maximise his audience’s enjoyment and understanding of the story.

For many, however, the release of the new cut of the movie had the opposite effect, with many viewer’s enjoyment of the film apparently mired by the new and extended scenes. In a somewhat predictable backlash on a film many hadn’t seen coming, stars were hastily deducted and Kelly’s abilities questioned due to a slightly altered pace and an additional 20 minutes of running time. As Kelly delved deeper into his film’s mythology and began to compromise the human element of his story in favour of a greater sense of narrative coherence, the director’s winning streak came to an almost immediate end, and he fell into an underserved disrepute that would haunt his next two features.

But Donnie Darko isn’t a lesser movie simply because Kelly has attempted to elaborate on his initial premise and endeavoured to find a clearer way of telling his story; if anything, it’s gained greater immersive value. The original film was ambitious enough, and while there might be those who miss the margin for interpretation provided by the missing pieces of the puzzle, they underestimate a version of the movie steeped in just as much ambiguity. It’s the same masterpiece, just with a different arrangement.

Southland Tales

The story of Southland Tales‘ troubled production is infamous: lambasted following its début at Cannes, Richard Kelly’s follow-up to cult favourite Donnie Darko re-entered post production for a much needed emergency overhaul – in which the director hacked furiously at a movie rejected by critics as calamitous, self-indulgent and unsalvageable. Even in its heavily edited form, released theatrically eighteen months later, Kelly’s film failed to redeem itself in the eyes of most.

Southland Tales is the sort of movie that features two cars having sex, an unlimited fuel source that can also get you high, and which casts Justin Timberlake only to have him lip-sinc to The Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done. It is a film of criss-crossing narratives, conflicting genres and one which has an opinion on just about everything. A post-apocalyptic satire with a dream sequence musical interlude, Kelly has constructed a sprawling narrative which encompasses everything from reality television and celebrity culture to terrorism, cyber-censorship and surveillance. Not to mention the important topic of teen horniness.

But while it might flirt with pretension and occasionally border on the obtuse, Southland Tales is better for its eccentricities than it is worse off. Kelly has crafted an intricate and rewarding tale that – while initially confounding – has more and more to give with every viewing. Casting actors otherwise pigeonholed, Kelly has wrung interesting – if hardly naturalistic – performances from Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Michelle Gellar, while finding an unexpected emotional centre with an uncharacteristically toned-down and heartfelt double-performance from professional idiot Seann William Scott.

The Box

Kelly’s most recent offering is a comparably personal tale of familial and philosophical conflict. Starring James Marsden and Cameron Diaz as partial representations of his parents, the film asks what you might do if offered extraordinary riches at the expense of the life of a stranger. With the couple’s decision leading them to discover a society rife with conspiracy and their deal with the devil having unforeseen implications for their only child, the two actors wring almost unbearable tension out of a relatively simple concept.

While the hallmarks of a Kelly production are indeed present and accounted for – from the inexplicable water coffins to the mind-bendingly poignant final reveal – The Box makes a conscious attempt to dial down the crazy in order to appeal to a wider audience. Although decidedly more commercial than Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, however, this is no Hollywood sell-out, the film proving characteristically rife with intrigue and underscored by a welcome intelligence.

With one character’s face blown off and another’s toes missing, this is a movie that spends as much time outside the box as it does within. Packing zombies, aliens and a twist that isn’t so much unpredictable as hauntingly inevitable, Kelly has produced another winning blend of genres that successfully transcends its constituent influences to become more than the sum of its parts. When such parts include an ex X-Man and Cameron “The Holiday” Diaz, that’s all the more surprising.

All in all, then, Richard Kelly isn’t some one-hit-wonder turned laughing stock. To write his movies off simply because they fail to live up to the standards set by his original cut of Donnie Darko would be to do his subsequent works a great disservice. He is an auteur, a filmmaker unwilling to compromise his own vision, however impenetrable and non-commercial it may prove. A Richard Kelly film is one that straddles genres, as well as time and space; one which casts actors against type and juxtaposes music with striking visuals; a movie which strains under the very weight of its filmmaker’s limitless ambition, with a bullet in its eye and a paradox at its heart.

With only three such films to his name, I can only hope that there are many more to come. And so should you.

Casting is underway for Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s next film, which is titled Corpus Christi.

Kelly is producing with Eli Roth, and the project will apparently deviate from the skewed stories Kelly has told before. His last film, The Box, didn’t perform as well as was expected, and suffering something of a critical savaging, though for some reason I’ve found myself wanting to sit down with it again as, like his previous film Southland Tales, I always find something to love about his films.

Here’s how Variety describe Corpus Christi,

The Texas-set story concerns a mentally unstable Iraq war veteran named Paciencia “Patience” De La Rosa, who forges a strange friendship with his boss Ralph Salverson, the wealthy and politically ambitious owner of a supermarket chain.

Doesn’t appear to lend itself to the Twilight Zone of the Richard Kelly of old, but I’m pleased he’s still making movies and just as Jackie Brown took what made Quentin Tarantino great and muted the ego somewhat (and emerged as a far more mature, and decent film than was expected) there’s a chance that stripping back the supernatural elements will leave Kelly with just his characters and that’s an interesting prospect indeed.

MTV today bring news that immortal swordsman Connor MacLeod himself, Christopher Lambert, has posted news on the official Highlander Facebook page that he’s been cast in Ghost Rider: Spirit with a Vengeance.

He’ll join Nicolas Cage who’s returns as Johnny Blaze and an impressive supporting cast including the likes of Ciaran Hinds (as the devil) and Idris Elba, who will play an alcoholic warrior monk (?)

Lambert’s career has been quiet of late, with him mostly cropping up in DTV fare and in Richard Kelly’s weird post-apocalyptic folly Southland Tales, although he gained some good notices last year for his role in French filmmaker Claire Denis’ African plantation drama White Material.

It’s good to see him back in fantasy mode however, and this sequel to Ghost Rider (which is being directed by Crank’s Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor) is due to begin production next month in Romania.

If the twisted Southland Tales proved too tangled, and you decided not to see what was in The Box then it’s time to go back to the very beginning of Richard Kelly’s career and the sublime Donnie Darko.

The film which launched Jake Gyllenhaal is a brilliant journey into a parallel Twilight Zone and was one of the earliest defining films of the 21st century.

Now the film has finally come to Blu-ray and HeyUGuys are giving you the chance to win a copy of the Blu-ray, all you have to do is answer the following question using the form below.

Which recent blockbuster featured Jake Gyllenhaal messing around with Time?

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close Monday 19th July at 23.59 GMT
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

Here are the special features,

Feature Commentary with Director Richard Kelly •Feature Commentary with Cast and Crew •Feature Commentary with Director Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith •They Made Me Do It Featurette •They Made Me Do It Too Featurette •They Made Me Do It Art Gallery •Production Diary with Optional Commentary by Director of •Photography Steven Poster •B-Roll Footage •Cast and Crew Interviews •Additional Scenes ◦20 Scenes with Optional Commentary by Director Richard Kelly ◦Deleted and Extended Scenes from the Original Theatrical Cut •Cunning Visions Infomercials with Optional Commentary •The Philosophy of Time Travel •Five Original TV Spots •Original Theatrical Trailer •The Director’s Cut Trailer

Richard Kelly’s latest journey into his own personal Twilight Zone is out now on DVD and we’re given you the chance to win one of three copies of the film on DVD.

If you enjoyed the time twisting Donnie Darko, or the brain melting Southland Tales then there’s an excellent chance you’ll be interested in Kelly’s 2009 film. Starring James Marsden and Cameron Diaz this seventies set thriller begins with a moral dilemma which leads to a bizarre finale.
Check out the Facebook application here: PUSH THE BUTTON. We dare you. But remember – There are ALWAYS consequences…

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win one of these DVDs is answer the following question:

Which Donnie Darko star is about to dabble with the Sands of Time for Disney?

Use the form below to enter.

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only.
• Only one entry per household will be counted.
• The competition will close Sunday 18th of April at 23.59 GMT.
• The winners will be picked at random from entries received.

The usual T&Cs can be found here.

In 2001, Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko opened in theatres. With only a limited release, just 58 screens across the US it wasn’t able to set the box office alight, with a domestic gross of around $520,000, and $4.1M worldwide. When it came to DVD, however, it found a new lease of life. With some interesting extras on the disc, and the release of The Donnie Darko book which included pages from ‘The Philosophy of Time Travel’, we could delve deeper into the mythos of the movie.

 Word spread, DVD’s began to fly off the shelves, and people found a place in their hearts for Kelly’s masterpiece. It provoked discussion, it divided opinions. Most of all, it made people think. Donnie Darko became a cult classic, it made a star of lead actor Jake Gyllenhall, and it catapulted it’s talented director into the public consciousness. Donnie Darko was Kelly’s first feature. He had made Darko on a low budget of less than $5m, and it was the story and thought provoking narrative that made Darko such a popular film.

 The eventual success of the movie meant that Kelly was afforded a higher budget for his highly anticipated follow up, around $17M. Southland Tales was to be an epic story, with some big names attached. Casting and early details about the plot raised some eyebrows. An ex-wrestler, a pop star and Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a tale about an apocalypse, and the end of the world? Trust was put in Kelly by his fans however, after all, Donnie Darko wouldn’t have looked so hot on paper either.

 The movie debuted to an icy reception at the Cannes Film Festival. Following rumours of re-shoots and extensive re-editing, Southland Tales was heavily delayed. A graphic novel series meant to lead in to it’s release was reduced in size, due to Kelly’s struggles with the film. Any name value Kelly had with mainstream movie goers was gone, and it was only the internet fans still waiting for Kelly’s epic. Eventually, Southland was given a very limited release, at just 63 theatres, and grossed just $366,000 worldwide.

 Kelly didn’t get to make the movie he wanted. His real vision had been for a four hour epic, a dream that inevitably had to be compromised. Would Southland Tales have been a better movie if Kelly had had his way? Possibly not. Southland was intrinsically flawed, an over indulgent, over ambitious hodge podge of great ideas and poor execution. Unfortunately, unlike Donnie Darko, Southland did not get a new lease of life on DVD either. There was really not much positive buzz about it even from a lot of the directors staunchest fans.

 Kelly acquiesced to the Hollywood system for his third film, and opted for a more mainstream studio picture. Moreover, his movie The Box would not be based on one of his own original ideas, but on the Richard Matheson shoort story Button, Button. He was compromising his creative vision for a fair budget, and a nationwide theatrical release. The source material was however open to interpretation, and the director was able to put his own creative spin and unique ideas to the story. With a couple of A-list, though not overly expensive stars, The Box was a very conservative project in contrast to his last movie.

 Kelly is a very talented film maker, and internet movie fans were looking forward to his next work. The problem is, the general public, the cinema patrons that push a good opening up to a big opening, don’t know who Kelly is. With limited theatrical runs for Darko and Tales, he has never really hit the headlines. Coupled with the lack of real star power in the movie, and a cerebral storyline that is difficult to convey in a trailer, it was always going to struggle at the box office. And it has, having made just $13.5M in it’s first two weeks, against a production budget of $30M. Worldwide, it will make a profit by the end of it’s run, but only a small one.

 Kelly continues to complement his movies with extra content, in the case of The Box it’s another book, that features in the movie, and is available online. His movies work best backed up by internet material, and insider information. That’s why the failure of Southland Tales and The Box might not necessarily be a bad thing, for fans of the film maker at least. Tales was over indulgent, The Box too much of a compromise. Kelly’s films, his stories and ideas, are just not meant for mainstream audiences.

 If he is forced to go back to basics, with a low budget film and intelligent storyline, it may result in another great film like Donnie Darko. With his ambitions reigned in, and no studio execs looking over his shoulder, Kelly could once again show what a great artist he is. It’s most director’s dream to be able to make the films they want with the financial backing and clout of a major hollywood studio. But the truth is, Kelly is an auteur, and much better off working completely independently. I’m looking forward to his next project, whatever it may be, as it may just be the best film he ever makes.

Bazmann – You can now follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann

Richard Kelly is unable to make a dull film, and the merits of his latest, The Box, point to a director whose commitment is always to his own personal view of the story – not the narrative flow, nor the performances of the actors, and certainly not to giving the audience a coherent and straightforward plot.

The Box is Kelly’s third film and follows the glorious angst-ridden time twister of Donnie Darko and the visually stunning Southland Tales, a post apocalyptic mess of identity and ideas. The Box deals with the slow burning personal apocalypse of two suburbanites, Norma and Arthur (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden), who suffer a sudden loss of fortune and are perplexed when a small package arrives early one morning anonymously which, when opened, contains the titular box. Later that day the ominous figure of Arlington Steward, the owner of the box, appears to offer the couple a choice: open the box and push the button to receive a million dollars, the only catch is that someone, somewhere else in the world, someone they don’t know, will die.

The story by Richard Matheson was successfully adapted (with a significantly altered, and far better, ending) for the Twilight Zone TV series. The story ends with the couple pushing the button and the Steward character returning to collect the box, handing over the money and assuring the couple that the box will be passed on to someone else, someone they do not know. It’s a perfect Twilight Zone fable and the brilliance is of leaving us (and the doomed couple) wondering what happens next.

In adapting Matheson’s story Kelly offers us his explanation of what happens next, and expands the landscape of the story significantly, drawing on his own childhood to bring in NASA’s Viking landing on Mars as Kelly’s father worked at NASA at the time.

What follows is a studio thriller unlike any other, and while the production design and outstanding Hermann-esque score from members of the band Arcade Fire contribute to a tense atmosphere the film is let down by a convoluted narrative which, like Southland Tales in particular, isn’t given any cohesion thereby dispelling the necessary tension.

The fateful line delivered by Frank Langella’s morose and unearthly Arlington Steward that the box with the button, now pressed, would pass to someone they do not know, is given no weight at all, and I’m not sure if it was the script or the superfluous character traits of Diaz’s Norma that made it seem as though she was acting the whole time, but I wasn’t convinced there was any dilemma, nor any real emotional consequences – everything that happens as a result of the button being pressed is just a series of events which confuse.

It is unfortunate that much of the tension and impact of the events was dispelled as my audience broke into disbelieving laughs on occasion, but as we were pulled through the quagmire of the unveiling of the larger conspiracy the focus on the family in the centre was lost, thus when the ending came (eventually – it seemed to jump from one plot thread to the next) it lacked any significance, emotional or intellectual.

I’m a fan of Kelly’s work and I love that he got to make this film, in the studio system for a big budget with established box office stars, but I can’t see it happening again for a while. There were moments in the film that broke any investment I made with the film (the bit when a character emerges from an aircraft hanger inexplicably, the hypnotised zombie dance troupe following Arthur in a library all the time looking as if they’d burst into song) and at the end, when they have to make a decision to save their son you never get the feeling that they ever cared about him as very little time was given to that relationship. And when the whole film balances at the end on the relationship of the parents and their child more care should have been taken to build that relationship up – as a result it ends without any emotion other than relief.

Whether it was intentional or not, Kelly has perfectly replicated not only the look of 1970s suburban America but also the filming style of the time. Slow zooms mix with low and high close ups, and while the pacing of the film is a huge problem the film looks authentic and is an example of Kelly’s versatile directorial style.

It is a brave attempt to encompass the smallest family unit in a huge, otherworldly story and as we find out more about the entity controlling the unfolding grand plan the story disintegrates and is not pulled together by the end. The paranoia is tangible, but is eventually cloaked with the feeling that Richard Kelly knows far more about this story than we do, and has chosen to lead us through this journey showing us only what he wants us to see, and leaving some necessary clues by the wayside.

The Stepford Wives this is not. A great story writ large over a fragmented canvas, and I got the feeling that we, the audience, are the first to step back and see the end result for what it is.

The UK Quad poster for Cameron Diaz’ new movie has been released. We’ve been following this movie for what feels like forever and it’s finally released 4th December. It’s directed by Richard Kelly and also stars James Marsden, Frank Langella. Kelly has previously brought us Donnie Darko so we’re expecting good things!

Click the image to enlarge or click here to view the trailer.

Source: Empire