Stephen, Kris & I went to the midnight showing of Donnie Darko at the Inwood Theatre Saturday night. I was never really interested in the film until our trip to London December 2003, when Gary Jules‘ cover of “Mad World” was sweeping the charts there. After returning, I bought the CD, and then several months later the director’s cut was released. This was the second time I’ve seen the film, but I find myself thinking about it frequently. Not in any let’s-decode-the-meaning-because-I’m-a-big-dork-ass-geek-who-thinks-he’ll-be-cool-if-he-understands-this-film-on-a-so-called-deeper-level sort of way. It is, after all, just a film. But as I told Stephen after watching it the first time, Donnie Darko helps me see my own high school experience as more normal: my own grasp of reality–or at least the reality that everyone else experienced/saw–was never that tight. And to see so clearly the hypocrisy and lies of those in authority without any means to confront them is the beginning (and perhaps end) of insanity. Disassociative tendencies still intact. Angst still oozing from every pore. “I can do anything I want….”