"I'm voting for Dukakis."

Yes, I did finally get out to see "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut." That's the highly promising first line of the film, which is set in 1988, and might be a multilayered tribute to the year 1988. There are many references, I think, to the movies of that time, actually, oddly, to these three really cool 1989 movies: "Back to the Future Part II," "Heathers," and "The Abyss." But I'm sure there's plenty of much deeper theorizing about what this movie is about, because this is one of those movies that pesters you to devote lots of time to figuring it out. I was thinking for a while that Donnie Darko is a symbol of America (what with all those American flags, Dukakis, and the National Anthem), or maybe it was all a dream, or all a young film buff's manic throwing of everything he could think of into one wild melange--especially everything rabbit-related. A good rule of thumb is: if you liked "Mulholland Drive," you should see this; if not, don't.

UPDATE: John emails to remind me that I hated "The Abyss" when I saw it back in 1989. So why am I calling it "really cool"? Am I just lying again? Let me clarify. The references to "The Abyss" that I saw in "Donnie Darko" were to the special effects at the end of the movie, which really were really cool.