On the surface, this film looks like a goofy claymation film, however it covers a very serious subject - that being Asperger's Syndrome.
As someone diagnosed with Asperger's, it was a bit difficult to watch the story of Max - a sad and lonely middleaged man living in New York. I was able to personally relate to many of Max's social anxieties, even though, like many film portrayals of Asperger's, Max displays the absolute extremes of the disorder. That said,…
Rewatched the film 10 years to the day of my very first viewing way back in 2002. I then wrote a VERY long retrospective post:
www.skonmovies.com/2012/07/revisiting-donnie-darko-ten-years-later.html
I still very much love this film.
It’s been over a decade since I first saw the film and I had forgotten that I wasn’t a big fan of the film’s heavy melodrama. The Hours was heavily lauded when it came out in 2002, with 9 Oscar Nominations, but watching it today, you have to wonder if the multi-era play-like narrative somewhat trivializes mental illness and depression. And don’t get me started about how wearing a prosthetic nose is apparently enough to win a Best Actress Oscar.
In some ways, Ick is Joseph Kahn’s satirical response to the public response of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the town of Eastbrook would rather carry on with their normal lives, even after The Ick reveals itself as a malevolent substance. Ick also seems to be tacking the generational divide between Millennials and Gen-Z, contrasting the early-2000s soundtrack with things such the TikTok “Ick Licking Challenge” or Grace’s boyfriend Dylan (Harrison Cone), who insincerely tries to be “woke” to his classmates. Altogether, Ick ends up being a fun sci-fi horror comedy.
