What’s in “The Box”? A stealth movie from “Donnie Darko” director
I confess: I’ve never seen “Donnie Darko,” the much-loved time-travel fantasy from 2001 starring Jake Gyllenhaal. That’s because it never opened in St. Louis theaters, and my DVD copy (which I bought in China before it was available here) is at the bottom of my very high pile of must-see-someday movies.
“Donnie Darko” was directed by Richard Kelly, whose long-delayed follow-up, the apocalyptic “Southland Tales,” suffered a similar fate, screening at film festivals and selected big cities before detouring to the home-video shelves. Ditto for the “Donnie Darko” pseudo sequel, “S. Darko.” So that’s three straight movies connected to a cult-favorite director that St. Louisans didn’t get to watch on the big screen.
That dubious streak will end on Friday, when Kelly’s new movie “The Box,” opens in theaters nationwide. From the trailer (below), I gather that it stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a financially strapped couple who are offered a million dollars to cause the death of a stranger. But I’m not sure–because the studio decided not to screen “The Box” in time for local critics to review it.
I’m starting to suspect that the Richard Kelly oeuvre is like a giant, imaginary rabbit.
The steaming pile of dung that is S. Darko was not directed by Richard Kelly. Instead, one of the production companies (Newmarket is to blame, I believe) rehashed the ideas from the original with a TV episode hack in command to try and make a quick buck.
I’ll be interested to see if The Box is as bad as its advance buzz. If so, perhaps Kelly should exit the business or take a long hiatus to rediscover whatever it was that made Donnie Darko such a fantastic film. He has already failed to distinguish himself as a producer of other’s work, having produced “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” which is among the most amateurish and reprehensible films ever given a national release.