Southland Tales

(2006)

Todd Says:

2 STARS

It seems to me that director Richard Kelly may have fallen victim to his own cult success. After the following that his first movie Donnie Darko gathered, he may have been under the impression that people just want to be confused and befuddled by a movie. The fact is, however, the only thing that I found confusing about this movie was directors intent.

Kelly attempts to trip you up with a rapid succession of partially fleshed out characters double crossing each other faster than the plot can support, all the way through a weak Sci-Fi laden secret agent plot. Top that with a generous portion of real world political partisanship, and two servings of bad dialogue, and the merits of this movie quickly dissolve into the background.

In contrast with the other reviews you'll find here, I didn't find this movie incomprehensible, only convoluted and strained. In short, this one left me feeling like I'd just read the rough draft of a potentially good story.

Alexis says:

1 Star

I am not sure if I should really be permitted to review this movie when I in fact allowed myself to drift off for a few minutes about halfway through. But this movie has left me so disturbed that I just must comment.

After analyzing the movie myself, discussing it with others whom have seen it and reading other reviews on IMDB I have come to this revelation. This movie is too confusing to enjoy. On top of what I find to be some rather bad acting (who knew Dwayne Johnson could act so well until put in a movie with some of Saturday Night Live's most annoying) this movie is so complicated that I have considered if even the writer himself (as mentioned below, Donnie Darko's Richard Kelly writes and directs) understands it.

When I wasn't totally confused I found myself just watching the clock and hoping that the movie didn't seem so slow, hence the desire to fall asleep. When the film began and there was twenty minutes of explaining this post apocalyptic world I thought I might be in for an interesting movie, but honestly it just seemed to fall apart from there. What some have called 'art' when referring to this movie I find to be more of a good vision gone sour.

One cannot just praise movie for trying to be different, for creating something original. That original idea must be good to deserve praise. And where as having Justin Timberlake lip-syncing The Killers in a drug induced state is possibly original, I can't say it was all that enjoyable. There were aspects of this movie that were original and could have led somewhere but most of it was perplexing and some of it all too reminiscent (isn't that the same eye make-up from a certain 2001 movie?)

Perhaps this movie needed a little more fine tuning before Kelly used his Donnie Darko notoriety to make the film. Maybe there are a lot of people who enjoy only being able to understand 20% of a film, but for me this movie just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Chris says:

2.75 Stars

Ok, I have to start off by saying that I'm not always right. I know that may come as a shock, but yours truly sometimes convinces his wife that they will absolutely love a movie based on some very loose criteria.

Case in point: Southland Tales

As the long-overdue second movie from Richard Kelly (you know, the guy whose first movie was a little flick called Donnie Darko) this movie had a lot of expectations from fans and critics alike. Featuring one of those I-recognize-everyone casts including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Stifler, Buffy, Justin Timberlake, The Highlander, Vizzini from The Princess Bride, Tangina from Poltergeist, Dan from Night Court, and more Saturday Night Live alumni than a Wayne's World movie, the film fails to find any sort of identity as the plot is about as confusing as anything I have ever seen.

Set primarily in the not-so-distant future of southern California in July 2008, Kelly uses the setting of a politically charged society in an election year as the backdrop to weave together this "ensemble" film. What Kelly does do well and carries over from Donnie Darko is his use of certain camera angles, slow-motion, and great music to really create a rather unique audio/visual experience.

I could not even begin to explain any more about this movie without going into a lot of confusing detail, so my endorsement is as follows: If you enjoyed Donnie Darko and were able to get past certain elements that never really made any sense, then you may appreciate and enjoy Southland Tales. At 2 1/2 hours long, it's a lot to digest in the style it's presented in, but I did find myself wanting to watch it again soon to see if things made more sense the second time around. So for now, I'm sticking with the 2.75 stars.