Isn’t it funny how pop-culture has become so focused on the interests of kids under the age of 18 because they can convince their parents to buy them stuff? I mean, surely the phenomenon of companies marketing to minors has been going on for years. Thinking back, I realize that stuff was clearly being marketed to me and lots of that marketing was happening through television. It’s probably common knowledge that kids see stuff on TV and then they want it, right? Well, now there’s the Internet, and I think marketing to kids has grown even stronger. I don’t quite know how or why, but the whole High School Musical obsession and the popularity of people like Miley Cyrus are both marketing monsters that seem to keep getting stronger like a virus as it spreads. South Park even dedicated an entire episode to making fun of the former example of marketing aimed at kids from ages 12 to 16 or so. First off, for good measure, here is an old-school commercial for the Nintendo game the Legend of Zelda. This is the type of stuff that I was exposed to as a kid. That’s right, I’m from the Nintendo generation.

So, one of my favorite movies of all time is Donnie Darko. The movie to come closest to that since 2001 when it was released is No Country for Old Men, but the two could be a comparison of apples and oranges. Sure, there have been lots of other great movies released since 2001, but both of those are excellent and you should watch both if you haven’t seen them. One of the best things about Donnie Darko is the fact that it’s set in the 80’s, so everyone is rocking Hobie shirts and using dated expressions (kind of like in the Zelda commercial above). Also, the sheer contempt that Donnie (Gyllenhaal) has for his school and the world around him was just special. When you’re not a mainstream conformist, sometimes the world around you can cause disgust or seem absurd. I think Donnie Darko speaks to the absurdity of the world we live in, even though it was set in the 80’s. So, take this clip for example. I won’t go into much detail about it, but was just reminded of it with the forthcoming release of the movie Notorious (just because of the song being sampled, really). Sparkle Motion is really hilarious and whenever I think of minors I think of the absurdity of Sparkle Motion. No, No, Notorious.