Indie Filmmaker Richard Kelly is Kinda Cute

I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of "Donnie Darko", the 2001 indie sensation starring a then-unknown Jake Gyllenal in a story about....well, I still don't know what it was about. But I kinda enjoyed it's weird, moody style even though it was pretty damn confusing. Something about a schizo high school student who dreams of a big scary bunny that causes a plane crash leading to the end of the world. I do remember there was all this cool 80's music...like real college radio stuff by Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. That I appreciated.

"Donnie Darko" was written and directed by Richard Kelly and, given the subject matter and the artsy feel of the film, I imagined it the feverish work of some real Tarantino-like film geek. Apparently not. Here's a picture of Mr. Kelly (on the left...why are director's always pointing?) from a profile in yesterday's New York TIMES and, suprisingly, the director of this super dark movie is kinda cute. In fact, he might even be borderline hot. Regardless, I am adding him to my Kinda Cute pantheon anyway because he is certainly not how I expected the director of that film to look. To use a pop culture analogy, it's sorta like the reverse of the Susan Boyle effect.

Anyway, "Donnie Darko" developed a cult following and Kelly made another movie called "Southland" which I believe was also about the end of the world, though I didn't see it. Now, he's traded up and done a big studio movie which sounds semi-intriguing. It's called "The Box" with Cameron Diaz playing some suburban mom in the 70's gets a million bucks if she hits a big red buttton that will randonly kill someone in the world. Weird, right? But at least it sounds like it has a plot so I think I'll check it out.