"Whatever happens to you, be honest, tell the truth, even if they do look at you funny. They will. But what you gotta understand, son, is that almost all of those people are full of shit."

Donnie Darko, to me, is perfect. You can go ahead and point out flaws to me, I'll say they add to the perfection. Donnie Darko is the film that made me love films. Donnie Darko helped me through my high school years. Donnie Darko was the first character I fell completely in love with. Donnie Darko is the perfect mixture of all my favorite things that there can be in a movie. Do you get my point yet?

Now, I think this is the fourth time I've seen the director's cut. I've seen the theatrical version too many times to count, and I will always always recommend that one over this one, at least for the first viewing. However, I love the director's cut almost as much, I personally don't think there can be too many versions of your favorite thing. And you know, no matter how much redundancy and over-explanation and splurging with the director's creative vision there is, it's like an extra twenty minutes of bonus features incorporated into my favorite movie, along with new ways to see it. Admit it, when there are deleted scenes from a film you really love, you wish some if not all of them were in the movie, no matter how unnecessary. There can't be too much of it. I love it. FUck, I love it. The theatrical version very much holds my heart but this one holds my obsessive, avid-fan-of-Donnie-Darko mind. I prefer the ambiguity of the first one, along with a few other differences, but I also love seeing the director tell the story with additional, mesmerizing visuals and his own vision of how it should be interpreted. Great stuff.