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Join this week’s guest Walt Bismarck author of the The Walt Right & Founder of The Tortuga Society and I on the eleventh episode of In Kino Veritās — a podcast where the guest picks a film, we both watch, and discuss.
We don’t simply review films but dive deep into their themes, characters and cultural context. In this episode Walt & I discuss the 2001 cult-classic Donnie Darko. Topics include millennial vs gen z archetypes, WASP moralism, schizophrenia, the film’s appeal to Gen Y Art Hoes, and much more.
Enjoy this special Halloween episode!
Where you can stream Donnie Darko
(Use your local library to get a physical copy for free)
Main Points
* Walt Bismarck – Walt Bismarck, Substack writer of The Walt Right and co-founder of the Tortuga Society. Walt discussed his past notoriety in online “racist circles” and his current work on metapolitics, gender, art, and post-political cultural analysis.
* Film Selection & Themes – Walt chose Donnie Darko (2001), citing its atmosphere, moral ambiguity, and prescience. Described it as a millennial anxiety film, more thriller than horror, concerned with fate, masculinity, sincerity, and social control.
* Cultural Backdrop & 1980s Setting – The film is set in 1988, just before the end of the Reagan era and the election of George H.W. Bush. Theon notes the cultural “sincerity gap” and loss of trust that emerged in the ‘90s. The limited post-9/11 release shaped its cult status.
* Donnie as Alt-Right or Left-coded – Walt argued Donnie would’ve been seen as “left-coded” in 2001 (anti-authoritarian, outsider), but in the post-2014 landscape, his disenchantment, critique of institutions, and frustrations with masculinity feel “alt-right-coded.”
* Moralism, Sexuality & Zoomer Cynicism – Walt observed that Gen Z’s revival of moralism makes them less sympathetic to Donnie than millennials were. Donnie’s depiction of unfiltered male desire (especially the hypnosis scene) reads differently now—once “edgy,” now “cringe.”
* Millennial “Art Hoes” & Tragic Masculinity – The film’s blend of boyish angst, spiritual longing, and sincere emotionality appealed to millennial women. Donnie is portrayed as wounded but noble, expressing a masculine yearning without becoming threatening.
* Themes of Time, Fate & Control – Walt and Theon connected Donnie Darko to other early-2000s films like Final Destination and The Butterfly Effect, all wrestling with time loops and attempts to rewrite fate. Theon invoked Nietzsche’s “eternal return” to read Donnie’s final acceptance of his death.
* Schizophrenia & Mythic Heroism – The character of Frank the Bunny as a guide recalls mythic motifs and hallucinatory visions (e.g., Harvey, schizophrenia as creative archetype). Walt noted a feminine cultural fascination with “beautiful doom” and romanticized madness.
* Masculinity & Generational Wounds – Donnie’s relationship to his Boomer parents, school authorities, and female peers represents a millennial struggle to be heard, seen, and taken seriously. Theon described Donnie’s actions as a “will to power” exercised through rebellion and defiance.
* WASP Moralism & Class Signaling – The PTA mothers and their disapproval reflect a bourgeois WASP moralism. Walt and Theon distinguished between aristocratic WASP aloofness and the performative middle-class Protestant moralism that collapsed under new atheism.
