DUDE. JUST … DUDE.

Box-office failure? Check. Twice, you say? Impressive. Incomprehensible plot? That figures. Director’s cut? You bet. Midnight screenings? Well, OK, then. What you’ve got, here friend, is a cult film. Specifically, Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001), which opens with a jet engine’s meteoric descent into the titular character’s bedroom while he’s off having a late-night tête-à-tête about the end of the world with a giant rabbit named Frank. Then it gets weird. The rest pinballs from vandalism to the 1988 presidential election to new-age gurus to faculty romance to book banning and time travel and Sparkle Motion. (If you have to ask, we already doubt your commitment.) All of which make Darko an obvious choice for the A.V. Club’s New Cult Canon-themed Off-the-Wall Film Series, which is being celebrated all summer on the Rooftop Terrace of the Kansas City, Missouri, Central Library (14 West 10th Street, 816-701-3407). Darko screens there tonight at 8:45. Admission is free; RSVP at kclibrary.org/rsvp/6138 or by calling 816-701-3407.

Fri., Aug. 21, 8:45 p.m., 2009