there are some deep questions to be asked from the overarching plot of donnie - i genuinely think you just dont understand what happened, which is totally reasonable since the movie is just supposed to be taking the ride with donnie, who also doesnt understand whats going on with him. im seriously not the type of person to pretend to see depth in everything obscure, i promise you... i just know that there are genuine existential questions tucked away in donnie. i had to basically write a paper on it trying to explain the plot before i realized exactly how complicated what happened was. its one of those stories that means something completely different depending on which perspectives you come from, alot like catcher in the rye

i bet you if we gave a synopsis of the major themes/plot, you would not think we were talking about the same movie.

you're also only really watching an introduction to the movie if you dont see the directors cut edition. the movie has atleast 3 ways to watch it:

1) watching like a birds eye view of donnies experience and being totally confused and thinking its just an angsty kid who gives off the illusion of depth but doesnt actually do anything important or interesting.

2) realizing what was happening to donnie and piecing together events to realize that everything that went on had a second purpose. he was literally living in a giant play being orchestrated by a force that was embodying itself in his dreams to manipulate him into carrying out a very important action.

3) realizing the implication it had on donnie, identifying donnies motivations and realizing you just watched a scared kid, whos whip smart but lacks any semblance of wisdom or interpersonal skills, having everything that mattered dangled over him to convince him to do something he didnt understand. he drives himself nuts just trying to understand what the fuck hes supposed to do because all he gets are vague hints. hes basically tortured by this force into coming to the conclusion that the world is better off without him. it gave him something to care about so it could rip it away, just because it was the only motivation strong enough to ensure that donnies actions would be 100% predictable. all donnie got were vague hints because he wasnt being asked to do anything - he was being forced into it through careful coercion. its an incredible tragedy that has depth that would usually take muliple movies to lay out.