Greatness, blondes, smiles

"If we cannot see the possibility of greatness, how can we dream it?" -Lee Strasberg.

"Cult films, which I'm hoping DONNIE DARKO eventually achieves in status, don't become notorious by recycling material already familiar. It's that one scene in a film you've never experienced, and you'll never see it done again. DONNIE DARKO has these peculiar gems of greatness scattered throughout that makes one forget about the fact that the film they are watching is kind of silly when it comes down to it". Source: www.Davegunn.com

"When Frank makes Donnie flood the school, he allows Donnie to make his major connection with Gretchen, by saving her from getting tormented from the other people from the school. When Frank shows Donnie the nature of time, and the portals and such, he shows Donnie the ultimate nature of the sacrifice he has to make will be, and prepares him for it. [...] He manipulates Donnie to ensure that their world will end, and Donnie can do nothing to manipulate him. When Donnie is hitting at the wall, he is at the barrier between his world, and Frank, who can do whatever he wants". Source: www.Barbelith.com

"On the empty flight back to Elizabethtown, Drew meets Claire: a bored and bouncy flight attendant who engages him in conversation. Claire is what could be referred to as the stereotypical movie female arch-type for the new millennium: a young, cute girl whose life is a mess, but she has the innate ability to look into the souls of the troubled male and see who they really are even if they don’t. I almost blame Crowe for fueling this type, since Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane was one of the founding mothers of this kind of character (see also Natalie Portman in “Garden State”). Source: www.hometheaterforum.com

"Elizabethtown feels like a retread of Almost Famous. A guy (Orlando Bloom, Kingdom of Heaven, Troy) goes on some important life-journey where he meets a free-spirited girl (Kirsten Dunst, Wimbledon, Spider-Man 2) and falls madly in love. This is a huge simplification, but one cannot help notice the similarities between Dunst's Claire Colburn and Kate Hudson's Penny Lane". Source: www.Haro-online.com

"Kate Hudson is wonderful as Penny Lane. She exudes a resilient confidence on the outside, but underneath is a flowing stream of emotion. Hudson does great in releasing that emotion and tucking it back as if it was just a mistake". Source: www.listology.com

Source: www.Thehoya.com"Patrick Fugit’s loyal Paul is a variation of his role as Penny Lane’s good-hearted savior in Almost Famous, and he is equally effective in both roles". "there is a scene where he smiles at Lohman close to the end of the film and that smile says everything you need to know about that character at that moment in the film. It is one of those wordless, crystalized moments in cinematic time that says everything about everything right then, right there". Source: Filethirteen.com

"Donnie stands for finding meaning in the chaos, for creating his own truth in a world without it, for being able to face the unhappy ending with a smile because of the journey to that end. The road of Existentialism--either in the philosophy books or in this film--is a non-rational personal experience that gives hope and meaning to face a reality that is too much to bear and that would ultimately be better off destroyed (either in reality or outside it)". Source: mmsbullpen.blogspot.com

WATCH THIS VIDEO, AN INTERTWINED SEQUENCING OF SCENES OF "ALMOST FAMOUS" AND "ELIZABETHTOWN", PENNY LANE AND CLAIRE COLBURN: