A lot to unpack here. The acting seems a little goofy and slightly unrealistic given the scenarios, but this works as this isn’t a film that takes itself too seriously. The 80s setting really comes to life with the great song choices and world building. The audio mixing could be better, in scenes with ambient noise it almost sounds like the actors are dubbing. The humour is pretty funny and works well with the characters. The acting is pretty good, but some of the character directions are really odd, and the way they talk and react during some interactions doesn’t feel natural. At the end of the day these are all only small issues, the journey and character study of Donnie is fascinating to say the least. I can definitely see why this didn’t do well at release, and later gained a cult following.