Southland Tales (2007)

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I really need look into the backstory about how and why this humongous piece of cr&p came to be. It has a handful of major stars for the time as well as a budget of ....17 million dollars? Something isn't adding up. The actors must have refused a paycheck after seeing the completed product.

An oddly beautiful big old mess of a film that just so happens to be a masterpiece of ideas, visions and social commentary, Southland Tales remains to this day a decade on from its initial release, a barely spoken about oddity that marked what appears to be at present time the beginning of the end of the short but unique career of Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly, who on the back of his beloved cult debut seemingly had Hollywood right where he wanted it only to be shunned from the industry limelight after this opus of a future America was quite literally booed out of the cinema.Premiering to a disastrous reception at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 where it was ridiculed by a hate mongering audience, Kelly's film was originally intended as a near 3 hour journey to the depths and underbelly of a United States where oil has all but disappeared, Karl Marx loving underground movements exist to overthrow the government, a drug known as Fluid Karma is taking over the streets, oh and there's a rip in the time space continuum and vehicle advertisements have taken on a whole new level of odd.Accompanied by a prequel-set graphic novel and armed with more ideas than even the eventually shorter 138 minute released version of the film can handle, there's little denying Southland Tale's bizarre narrative and attitude towards its themes are often off-putting but when one allows themselves to be taken into this vision of the Los Angeles landscape there's both artistic merits, darkly humorous observations of human nature and dare I say it emotional payoffs that rewards repeat viewings.Kelly's grand vision attracted a name cast including Sean William Scott (in one of his better big screen turns), Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Amy Poehler, filmmaker Kevin Smith, Justin Timberlake (who delivers the films best singular scene with a rendition The Killers track All These Things That I've Done) and in a turn that at the time suggested a much more interesting actor than his now become, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in one of his first truly hefty turns as the amnesia suffering celebrity actor Boxer Santoros. Each performer commits to their role and it's quite obvious they all bought into Kelly's vision, it's just likely the studios did not, as after the notorious Cannes screening the film was left to die a slow, barely advertised released that saw it disappear without a trace and left Kelly's career in tatters with only the highly disappointing Cameron Diaz starrer The Box attributed to his name since.Nigh on impossible to explain and very much a film not made for everyone, Southland Tales is without question one of the most misunderstood gems of the modern era from its unique visual feel, intriguing performances, fantastic soundtrack from the one time chart topping Moby and ability to remain constantly engaging even with its overabundance of ideas.Southland Tales is a film fans of cinema should try, and if they hate it their absolutely not alone but for the merry few that find themselves drawn into this odd yet exhilarating world, Southland Tales will make you wish Kelly can one day return to his directing chair to give us once more a film that carves out its own path and is all the better for it.4 ½ floating ice-cream vans out of 5

Version I saw: UK bluray releaseActors: 5/10Plot/script: 3/10Photography/visual style: 6/10Music/score: 6/10Overall: 5/10'Southland Tales' is director Richard Kelly's follow-up to 'Donnie Darko', which has gone down as the hippest film in the mindfuck genre. Unfortunately, unlike DD, it was an utter mess.Although the cast seemed exciting at the time, with hindsight they were nothing more than fashionable: Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has disappointed me after great work on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who was still riding his large wrestling fan-base, Seann William Scott of 'American Pie' fame, and Justin Timberlake. The Rock has made a reasonable go of it, and Timberlake still dabbles in acting, but the others have faded without trace.There are, to be fair, some really interesting-seeming visual and intellectual ideas in the film, but none of them is followed up in anything like the rigorous way that would establish whether they are truly illuminating or just dead ends. At times, the ridiculousness of it all actually made me laugh out loud, and while that could be deliberate, I am really not so sure. Meanwhile, those parts of the plot that are coherent, are actually childishly straightforward, presenting little to even hold the interest.It seems as if Richard Kelly started the project with enthusiasm and excitement, sketching out a raft of ideas to be hammered together with the application of serious work later on. Then the Hollywood system ground him down, sapped his creativity and motivation, and he ended up going through the motions on the rest of the film, agreeing to casting of the latest names without really assessing their suitability, and allowing half-finished ideas to dominate the screenplay.More recently, Kelly made The Box, which slipped out barely noticed, despite having some big names associated with it. I hope it is good, as it would be so sad for the creative talent behind Donnie Darko to fall by the wayside.

I was pleasantly surprised at this film with 'The Rock' & 'Buffy' I really liked it, that I've watched it three times now, each instance having showing someone new my new-found guilty pleasure. I guess I kind of love it! If you like Weird & Interesting films, this is your ride. In the middle of this futuristic adventure, we have one my favourite songs by the band 'The Killers' play alongside Justin Timberlake accompanied by drug-induced mirages of beautiful women dancing together in a full-out music video. They played the whole song...Priceless. It was my icing on the cake. All in all, every scene made me think, the ambiance of the movie had this cool, eerie yet metallic energy to it, one of the feelings that kept me watching, wanting more!