Donnie Darko
Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death, follow Frank’s instructions, and try to maintain the space-time continuum.
Described by its director as The Catcher in the Rye as told by Philip K. Dick, Donnie Darko combines an eye-catching cast (including pre-stardom Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Patrick Swayze and Drew Barrymore) and an evocative soundtrack of ‘80s classics. A kaleidoscopic mind-bender, Donnie Darko is a spellbinding cult classic that was initially ignored on release, but which went on to become a huge cult phenomenon.
Southland Tales
Having achieved cult status with Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly returned to the big screen in 2006 with a beguiling and baffling tale of totalitarianism and anarchism set in a post-apocalyptic, near-future Los Angeles: Southland Tales.
In 2008, L.A. stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental chaos. In the middle of the maelstrom, an amnesia-stricken action star (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), an adult film star developing her own reality TV show (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a police officer with a dual identity (Seann William Scott) will find their lives intertwining, whilst humanity edges closer and closer to destruction.
A darkly comic futuristic epic that speaks as presciently to our turbulent times as it did to the American climate in 2006, Southland Tales was an apic, wildly misunderstood flop, but has built a deserved and devoted fanbase in the years since.
Get into the Good/Bad Film Club spirit and meet your fellow filmgoers with 10% off in Tyneside Bar Café on the night of the screening.