hi! my name is tao or will, im a film student interested in directing and an autistic cinephile
this is just a page for all the films i love and want to ramble about and make a thing for...
heres my main & letterboxd
index
⠀DONNIE DARKO
MYSTERIOUS SKIN
⠀THE BATMAN
tba
donnie darko
Richard Kelly ⠀2001
® ⠀sci-fi / thriller ⠀113m ⠀★★★★★
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25.1.25
starting this off strong with my favourite film of all time, donnie darko. i know this is a cult classic and that a lot of people like it, and honestly i have little reason to have such a strong attachment to it, but i do. ive had a special interest in this film for around a decade now, and through that ive gained so much appreciation for every second of this actual masterpiece.
most of my friend group hates this fucking thing. my mum hates this fucking thing. sometimes i hate it too. it takes up every second of my thoughts. get out of my skin.
i mainly like theorizing and making little headcanons to make the film more enjoyable upon rewatch, especially about the town and their relationships to the incident. im incredibly familiar with the canon explanation, but i think adding onto it or changing little things is fun. theres a ton of different ways to interpret the film past just the tangent timeline. my favourite theory is the town being a massive cult, since almost everything is connected and the ties to god and religion throughout the film arent talked about as much in fan theories. jim cunningham being called the antichrist is a point i think about a lot, since its basically dangling this idea in front of the audiences eyes. jim cunningham and the entire town being in on the secret of time travel, wanting nobody else to know the truth (and lobotomizing the only person who figured it out, roberta sparrow) is just an interesting concept. everything that happens in the town is incredibly interconnected.
i also like my more out there theory that this is all meta. frank represents us, the audience watching the film, and donnie is slowly realizing that he isnt real and that his life will always reset, he will always survive because he is destined to live through the events of the film over and over again.
i just. i really like donnie darko. i like it i like every second of it. i am the #1 donnie darko guy nobody competes actually. donnie :)
ill go into more analysis later... i have a lot of thoughts about every frame of this film.
26.1.25
i like this guy. playing around with gradient maps i can use for this and i think i like this one. very blue with high contrast. frank is a lot of things to me. i find a lot of comfort in his character and i dont really fully know why. some people see him as a villain but i dont, hes complicated but hes not bad. hes not a villain. hes a scared teenager who doesnt want to die, hes just like donnie. and like me. i love him. i went as him for halloween once. hes a well written and complex character, just like the rest of the cast, but it really shows when you watch s darko and realize how easy it is to fuck up his role in the film.
31.1.25
thinking about donnie darko at this moment. sometimes i feel like my autism is too strong and that i come off as strange. maybe thats just the anxiety talking.
i think the relationship between donnie and gretchen is something so fucking interesting. i dont think he does love her, even if thats what the film tries to lead you to believe. the purpose of gretchen is to be a symbol of sex in donnies mind. he tries in multiple scenes to hook up with her, and he continually fails until the last few scenes of the film. its never talked about after, its barely even confirmed that it really happened. i think gretchen loves donnie, but i dont think donnie loves anybody. i think hes capable of it obviously, hes not a robot, but i just dont think he has love for anybody in the film.
shrug its really up for debate. i like the ambiguity of it, thats what makes the film so interesting to me.
btw.. i own /donniedarko which is themed after the donnie darko web arg
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mysterious skin
Gregg Araki ⠀2005
NC-17 ⠀thriller / drama ⠀99m ⠀★★★★★
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26.1.25
mysterious skin is one of those films that most people say they cant watch more than once. 
ive seen so many people say its 'traumatizing' or mentally exhausting to watch. that whats shown makes them feel physically shaken. and thats the point, thats the point of anything that talks about this topic. i find this film so fucking comforting as a victim. i relate more to brian, hes probably one of my favourite characters of all time. the alien abduction metaphor, the representation of hypersexuality in neil, the use of colour. what a masterpiece. every single scene of this is so beautiful.
i first watched it on a train in italy. i was sitting in the aisle row, and i realized pretty quickly how awful of an idea it was to watch this film in public. i pushed through regardless, i couldnt take my eyes away from the screen. i was in a trance. i have never felt so seen by something, not like this. brians story with discovering his trauma, not wanting to accept what it is and trying to pretend that its anything else. his relationship with avalyn where he ends up almost getting assaulted by her, realizing a lot of his relationship leading up was just her trying to get closer. her own trauma with her grandparents dying, leading her into hurting somebody else out of fear. its all too real.
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nothing here yet! check back later.
the batman
Matt Reeves ⠀2022
PG-13 ⠀action / crime ⠀185m ⠀★★★★★
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31.1.25
starting this section because i recently claimed rataalada and while ill probably ramble there too i wanted to have something here. the batman 2022 is just great, masterclass in writing mystery and a detective story. there are such few criticisms i can give to this film, i love matt reeves and what he did with bruce as a character. a younger, scrappier batman who lets himself get shot and hurt and fights like a feral animal. hes sassy and angry and i love every second of it. battinson is my favourite version of the character and my favourite role of his.
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nothing here yet! check back later.