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Donnie Darko stands alone:  an edgy, sophisticated science-fiction movie that mixes time travel and nightmarish visions with family drama and ’80s nostalgia. The tangled narrative revolves around the emotionally disturbed Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal), a teenager who strikes up a relationship with a hallucination — a man in a horrid rabbit costume (James Duvall). The rabbit tells him what to do and Donnie does it without question, serendipitously changing history and the future to rescue those who need saving and condemn those who would otherwise go unpunished.

The director’s cut of the movie adds twenty minutes of material that more pointedly connects the dots, but the more the movie tries to explain its internal mechanism, the less provocative it becomes. Mystery is a big part of Donnie‘s charm.  For that reason, stick with the theatrical cut.

The cast is tremendous, especially Gyllenhaal, who gives an Oscar-worthy performance balancing Donnie’s sweetness with his rage, his intelligence with his baser instincts, and his fear with his heroism. Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves, Battlestar Galactica) also gives a beautiful supporting performance as Donnie’s beleaguered mother. The film also features Patrick Swayze as a motivational speaker with dirty secrets, Katharine Ross (The Stepford Wives) as Donnie’s psychiatrist, and a scene-stealing Beth Grant (Speed) as a screechy, uptight teacher with whom Donnie quarrels. Beth gets some of the movie’s best lines, including the now oft-quoted, “Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.”

The ending is a little more puzzling than resolved, but Donnie Darko works so well as an engrossing character drama, you probably won’t mind. Michael Andrews provides a sparse but incredibly effective musical score where a few taps on the piano convey all the love in the universe. He also brilliantly adapts a heart-breaking rendition of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World”. Toss in a surprisingly accomplished visual style from first-time writer/director Richard Kelly and the iconic bunny mask, and you have yourself a bona-fide cult movie phenomenon.

With Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle, Holmes Osbourne, and Seth Rogen.