S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale (2009, Fox)
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From the “unnecessary sequels to films that don’t need a sequel” department comes S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale, a follow up to Richard Kelly’s 2001 Donnie Darko, a film about a teenage boy whose life changes when an airplane engine crashes into his bedroom and disrupts the space time continuum. Donnie Darko was not only imaginative and haunting, but featured touching performances by Jake Gyllenhaal (as Donnie), Mary McDonnell and Jena Malone. This new film, released exclusively on DVD and Blu-ray, picks up seven years after the end of Donnie Darko and follows Donnie’s little sister, Samantha, as she experiences her own mind-bending trip somewhere in the desert.

Having left her home and family back in Virginia, Samantha (Daveigh Chase, reprising the role she originated in Donnie Darko) is on the way to California with her free spirited friend, Corey (Briana Evigan). Fleeing her bizarre and tragic past (the events laid out in Donnie Darko), Samantha is depressed and lost. When the girls’ car breaks down in some remote desert town, they are helped by a pensive, chain-smoking hipster named Randy, played by Gossip Girl star, Ed Westwick, who seems to be channeling Joaquin Phoenix. Randy leads them into town and through his acquaintance the girls easily fall in with the locals. Their first night there, they witness a meteorite crash to earth, and that’s when the weirdness and the similarities to the original film begin. (more…)