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Lucky
11-02-2007, 05:43 PM
Here's the trailer again: Trailer (http://youtube.com/watch?v=vtp14ikRvxo)

That's not the reason I reposted this thread here, though. Four new clips came out from IESB.net today: Four Clips (http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_ezine&task=read&page=1&category=5&article=3634)

Sven
11-02-2007, 06:42 PM
I watched the trailer for a second time the other day and came to the conclusion that this movie will probably annoy me. I thought both Domino and Donnie Darko were fairly interesting, however, at least textually, so perhaps not. I'd like to get ahold of the graphic novel prequels, though.

MadMan
11-02-2007, 06:55 PM
Even though this film looks messy and utterly crazy, I still want to see it. I think it has the potential to be a rather mind blowing action thriller experience, and at the very least it will be an interesting failure. Which is still better than being a mediocre film that in the end has very little to add and is forgotten a day after.

monolith94
11-02-2007, 10:36 PM
I think it looks like a positive hoot. Especially what with John Lovitz!

Ezee E
11-03-2007, 02:51 AM
I'd like to check it out, but its so long.

lovejuice
11-03-2007, 05:38 AM
I'd like to check it out, but its so long.

indeed. the preview looks actually promising, but i don't know i want to spend two hours and a half watching richard kelly's film.

Mal
11-03-2007, 07:55 AM
I think it looks like a positive hoot. Especially what with John Lovitz!

Owl?

origami_mustache
11-05-2007, 10:50 PM
I think it looks like a positive hoot. Especially what with John Lovitz!

The film had a few funny moments. Lovitz's character was actually quite hilarious.

baby doll
11-06-2007, 12:17 AM
I've been dying to see this since it premiered at Cannes, so I'm glad it's finally getting a release. I just wonder how much the studio cut out. According to Wikipedia, Kelly's had to remove "20 to 25 minutes" and Justin Timberlake's voice-over has been completely re-recorded, though I don't know how reliable that information is.

Lucky
11-06-2007, 02:15 AM
I've been dying to see this since it premiered at Cannes, so I'm glad it's finally getting a release. I just wonder how much the studio cut out. According to Wikipedia, Kelly's had to remove "20 to 25 minutes" and Justin Timberlake's voice-over has been completely re-recorded, though I don't know how reliable that information is.

Very reliable. It's actually only 19 minutes, though. Kelly said himself he wanted Timberlake's voiceover to be more in the Apocalypse Now vein.

lemon
11-06-2007, 03:15 AM
This looks cool in a fight clubish sort of way. I'm excited to see it in theaters.

origami_mustache
11-06-2007, 04:00 AM
the trailer makes it look so much better than it actually is...:(

EvilShoe
11-06-2007, 09:34 AM
the trailer makes it look so much better than it actually is...:(
Ouch!

Doclop
11-13-2007, 03:09 AM
Yeah, wow. I think everyone should see this at least once. It's insane. I hadn't seen the trailer, so beyond the Kelly factor, I didn't know what to expect. It's pretty much kitschy metaphysics for two-and-a-half hours straight. I enjoyed the hell out of it and I will definitely see it again at some point. Impossible to predict who like or dislike this film, a third of the audience walked out and the rest just seemed completely befuddled.

The film does feel a little choppy and the thematics are so bold and so loud that it can become off-putting, but it's certainly not lacking depth. Zany, alien depth, of course. Some of the acting was annoying or bad (The Rock and Mandy Moore, respectively) and several stretches cross the line instead of walk it, but it's really such a dazzling hire-wire act of film that not only is the ambition dizzying, it's effective.

How the hell did this thing get made? Its existence is mystifying.

Henry Gale
11-13-2007, 03:28 AM
How the hell did this thing get made? Its existence is mystifying.

I guess Darko making mad money on DVD and somehow becoming huge with the kids was enough to see past Kelly's crazy unmarketable vision.

But this is very reassuring news as you're describing it to be just the type of thing I hoped it to be. Whether or not it'll play near me is a different story, I still can't wait though.

MadMan
11-13-2007, 03:38 AM
Yeah, wow. I think everyone should see this at least once. It's insane. I hadn't seen the trailer, so beyond the Kelly factor, I didn't know what to expect. It's pretty much kitschy metaphysics for two-and-a-half hours straight. I enjoyed the hell out of it and I will definitely see it again at some point. Impossible to predict who like or dislike this film, a third of the audience walked out and the rest just seemed completely befuddled.

The film does feel a little choppy and the thematics are so bold and so loud that it can become off-putting, but it's certainly not lacking depth. Zany, alien depth, of course. Some of the acting was annoying or bad (The Rock and Mandy Moore, respectively) and several stretches cross the line instead of walk it, but it's really such a dazzling hire-wire act of film that not only is the ambition dizzying, it's effective.

How the hell did this thing get made? Its existence is mystifying.This short review makes me want to see it now more than ever heh. It sounds really inspired.

Lucky
11-14-2007, 11:57 PM
This film is 42% rotten overall right now, but 63% fresh with the cream of the crop critics. I always think it's interesting when there's a wide margin between the two like that.

Henry Gale
11-26-2007, 02:13 AM
W. T. F.

I think that is all I can really say right now.

Lucky
11-26-2007, 08:22 PM
Southland Tales - (Richard Kelly, 2007)

I have followed this film's production for nearly two years now, so I want to use that as a caveat before I say anything further. I already knew the actors and their basic roles, I had practically already seen the first half hour of the film by watching all of the clips that were released, and I had read the first graphic novel which gave some depth on the background of the protagonist.

Having said all of that, I did not find the first two acts of the film nearly as hard to follow as some have lead on. In fact, I was thoroughly enjoying the unique storytelling with a tone and atmosphere that I truly cannot eloquently put into words. There are complaints that the film's ideas never cohere into a solid storyline, but that's obviously not the objective at hand here. It's truly a bizarre palette of ideas; it's like being at the most surreal party of your life with a multitude of waiters carrying a tray with exsquisite hors d'oeuvres. Try this new perpetual motion theory of energy, try a scandal with an amnesiac action star with major political ties, try a new drug that's being tested on American soldiers, try a government established movement that makes the Internet a completely supervised domain, try soul-splitting leaps into the 4th dimension, I think et cetera is a necessary expression when describing this movie. And that's the problem.

You get full. By the third act Richard Kelly has already bombarded you and you've done your best to stay afloat. That's when the chaotic curtain begins to fall as the film starts to scramble in every direction. It's not just a BANG! that's the end of the world. It's like being pummeled to death with ridiculous theories and religious allusions by the lightning fists of Bruce Lee. In the last twenty minutes you just end up giving up and gaping in dumbfounded awe (and not in a good way). Curiously enough, the final act contained my favorite moments in the entire experience. Rebekah Del Rio's version of The Star Spangled Banner is eerily poignant, and there's a dance sequence that unexpectedly gives a touch of heart to the whole picture. The cinematography is also pretty stunning in the final act with a glorious tracking shot to introduce a glamorous 4th of July party on a Megazeppelin. I still don't know if I have enough faith in Richard Kelly to believe that the final act I saw was intentional chaos, but I absolutely feel that I owe the film a rewatch on DVD.

*** or 7/10

Henry Gale
11-26-2007, 09:25 PM
Very well put. Everything you said was almost exactly what I feel now after my initial shock of it, especially regarding the final minutes.

But yeah, the ending is so all over the place, it's really hard at that point to figure what ridiculousness was supposed to be found that way and what was actually getting entirely out of hand as well as what was actually sincere on Kelly's part. Having said that, the conclusion to the story and whole thing's completely surreal and unique atmosphere (the two things I see people complaining the most about) are what won me over in the end.

Lucky
03-19-2008, 05:54 AM
I want to bump this thread so this one doesn't get lost forever in the case that a new one gets created the next couple days.

Ezee E
03-19-2008, 06:57 AM
It's uniquely awful so far, which is sort of a compliment. In a way where i can't tell if it's just really overdirected, or if it's fixing the script. There is a ton of voiceover that is simply telling us the story.

I will watch the next half tomorrow.

Qrazy
03-19-2008, 07:21 AM
I loathed Donnie Darko, so unless it downloads itself onto my computer and beams directly into my retinas I think I'll give it a miss.

origami_mustache
03-19-2008, 08:03 AM
It's uniquely awful so far, which is sort of a compliment. In a way where i can't tell if it's just really overdirected, or if it's fixing the script. There is a ton of voiceover that is simply telling us the story.

I will watch the next half tomorrow.

I think a lot of the voiceover was an unavoidable way of presenting the necessary exposition within the first 3 chapters of the graphic novel, but I agree "uniquely awful" is an accurate description.

transmogrifier
03-19-2008, 09:15 AM
I loathed Donnie Darko, so unless it downloads itself onto my computer and beams directly into my retinas I think I'll give it a miss.


I don't know; by the sounds of it, it is an active fiasco, which I think is as educating as any masterpiece. It's certainly preferable to a well-made, mainstream borefest of tedious cliches, such as Fracture or it's ilk.

Qrazy
03-19-2008, 10:12 AM
I don't know; by the sounds of it, it is an active fiasco, which I think is as educating as any masterpiece. It's certainly preferable to a well-made, mainstream borefest of tedious cliches, such as Fracture or it's ilk.

Probably so, but I have another 200 films left on 1001 films to see before you die that are preferable to both! :)

transmogrifier
03-19-2008, 12:25 PM
Probably so, but I have another 200 films left on 1001 films to see before you die that are preferable to both! :)

If you were boner, you'd have them all knocked off by the end of next week. Slacker.

Ezee E
03-19-2008, 07:01 PM
Yeah, I have no idea what to think of this one as there are moments in the movie that range from great all the way to mind-numbingly awful. I have a feeling that Richard Kelly is probably a great director that wrote a horrible script. Or, he's trying too hard.

The movie is ambitious though. I'll give it that.

I probably will not watch it again though.

Qrazy
03-19-2008, 11:14 PM
If you were boner, you'd have them all knocked off by the end of next week. Slacker.

I'm shooting for the end of the summer.

MacGuffin
03-19-2008, 11:15 PM
I got this in the mail today from Netflix, and it's only one hour and forty minutes. They must have cut a lot out. That does seem to be rather unfortunate, but I'm still highly anticipating watching it.

Derek
03-19-2008, 11:35 PM
I got this in the mail today from Netflix, and it's only one hour and forty minutes. They must have cut a lot out. That does seem to be rather unfortunate, but I'm still highly anticipating watching it.

I have it from Netflix too and I think it's just a misprint on the sleeve, a mistake I've noticed on several other films I've rented from them. On the site, it's listed at 144 minutes, so I'm assuming that's the cut on the DVD. Should be watching this in the next few days.

Sycophant
03-19-2008, 11:37 PM
Yes I do, Derek.

Derek
03-19-2008, 11:40 PM
Yes I do, Derek.

Are you sure? Think it over a little longer.

Sycophant
03-19-2008, 11:49 PM
Are you sure? Think it over a little longer.It's true. I even notice when they change.

MacGuffin
03-19-2008, 11:57 PM
I have it from Netflix too and I think it's just a misprint on the sleeve, a mistake I've noticed on several other films I've rented from them. On the site, it's listed at 144 minutes, so I'm assuming that's the cut on the DVD. Should be watching this in the next few days.

Yeah, I think that's happened to me before in the past. Amazon lists it at 144 minutes as well, so hurray! Even if that is still significantly shorter than the festival cuts (could there be a director's cut off in the distance as it was with Donnie Darko?), 144 minutes isn't so bad.

Ivan Drago
03-19-2008, 11:59 PM
It's true. I even notice when they change.

Uhh....what?

Sycophant
03-20-2008, 12:05 AM
Uhh....what?
I mean, it's not like everyone notices, I know. But "no one" is an exaggeration.

If every teenager and early-twenty-something decides Southland Tales is the most important movie ever made, it could very well get a director's cut release in a couple years. If not, Kelly might have trouble getting projects made.

D_Davis
03-20-2008, 12:25 AM
I am so confused.

Henry Gale
03-20-2008, 12:50 AM
I'm confused too, but what I do know is:

The Kelly's early cut (the Cannes version) was around 2 hours and 40 minutes long.

The theatrical cut was 2 hours and 24 minutes (144 mins.)

The DVD cut is the same length as the theatrical, but the back cover length of 104 minutes is simply a typo (one which they may have done purpose in the hope of not scaring people away from the actual runtime).

Watashi
03-20-2008, 12:58 AM
Hmm.....


No one reads these things

MacGuffin
03-20-2008, 01:00 AM
The DVD cut is the same length as the theatrical, but the back cover length of 104 minutes is simply a typo (one which they may have done purpose in the hope of not scaring people away from the actual runtime).

I doubt it. Since it did shitty in theaters, I'm not convinced they're releasing this with hopes of reaching out to mainstream audiences. You'll either get people confused at the cast list (which is quite the surreal ensemble) and shunned away by their involvement with the subject matter, or you'll get the less biases. Those who are either fans of Donnie Darko or of movies in general.

trotchky
03-20-2008, 02:22 AM
It's a pretty interesting film that I'm finding difficult to pigeonhole with a star rating. Every time I start writing about it I end up not being able to articulate my thoughts; probably because I don't really know what they are yet (and I've already watched it two times). It kind of makes me think of Glamorama: the Movie, but at the same time it's pretty different than that. It is "perfectly of our time," that's for sure. It's very funny and at times pretty astute in its satire, like the news report of the resistance movement cutting off thumbs to register false votes in the election. I guess I agree that it collapses under its own weight by the end. I don't really know what else to say about the film, and I have a lot of conflicting feelings about it. I haven't felt this...confused?...by a movie in a while. It's very difficult to wrap my head around.

Qrazy
03-20-2008, 02:27 AM
Those who are either fans of Donnie Darko or of movies in general.

Those things are mutually exclusive. ;)

MacGuffin
03-20-2008, 02:33 AM
Those things are mutually exclusive. ;)

:lol:

Nah! You know, it's been awhile since I've seen the movie (even though I've seen it so many times), but as what I recall of it, it takes teen angst and looks at it from a whole 'nother kaleidoscope. If that makes any sense. Basically, it does stuff beyond what the average teen comedy does every week.

origami_mustache
03-20-2008, 02:39 AM
If not, Kelly might have trouble getting projects made.

His next project, The Box (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Box_(2008_film)), sounds like it could be interesting and much more commercial. It's probably for the better that it's an adaptation, although I'm not sure I can stomach Cameron Diaz.

Derek
03-20-2008, 03:02 AM
Hmm.....

Oh, got it. I was really confused there for a while. I changed my avatar and couldn't think of anything to go along with it. I panicked...what can I say!? :eek:

trotchky
03-20-2008, 04:54 AM
Is "pimps don't commit suicide" just satiric, or is it meant to be taken seriously on some level?

Henry Gale
03-20-2008, 06:38 AM
Is "pimps don't commit suicide" just satiric, or is it meant to be taken seriously on some level?

I took it as the characters' (and even the film's) final step in becoming the realized version of the ridiculous screenplay they made by falling into their own pre-determined roles of how the world ends. Which overall I took as a way of the film saying something along the lines of how the powerful and famous (though they maybe not the most intelligent) have control over the future through their status and popularity if they tap into anything political in their art... or... something.

So basically it was meant to be taken as serious as the rest of the film takes itself. Which would be another thing to debate/decide.

ledfloyd
03-20-2008, 06:49 AM
So, I think I kinda loved this.

I don't understand people's beef with the end. I thought the last hour was easily the best part of the film. I thought the beginning was terrible and it slowly got better until it erupted in a fountain of satiric pop culture craziness.

I would love to see a Director's Cut of this with Timberlake's original voice-over. Because the voice-over was easily the worst part of the film. The first ten minutes just seemed to be rehashing the comic books.

Regardless of how you feel about the film itself, I think you have to at least be willing to admit in inhabits a rather awesome vision of the future.

Edited to add: I just read J. Hoberman's review, and he seems to imply that the Cannes cut didn't have voiceover at all...

trotchky
03-22-2008, 03:22 AM
I wrote a somewhat lengthy review that I'm kind of scared of posting here. :x

I think it's safe to say that if Southland Tales isn't the best American film of the decade, it's the most American film of the decade.

origami_mustache
03-22-2008, 03:56 AM
I wrote a somewhat lengthy review that I'm kind of scared of posting here. :x

I think it's safe to say that if Southland Tales isn't the best American film of the decade, it's the most American film of the decade.


Some people agree with you...your last comment reminded me of Amy Taubin's take on the film:

"Southland Tales nails the dystopia-of-the-spectacle in which we are living right now, as profoundly as Godard and Warhol did in the mid-Sixties. If Kelly is less of a prophet than I fear he is, and civilization continues to spiral downward without imploding, then years hence, this is what we'll look at when we want to remember 2007."

...but this review dismisses the films defenders pretty well and I tend to agree with it.
http://www.reverseshot.com/article/southland_tales

trotchky
03-22-2008, 04:31 AM
...but this review dismisses the films defenders pretty well and I tend to agree with it.
http://www.reverseshot.com/article/southland_tales

The only part of that I disagree with is what the author calls "equal opportunity offending": I don't see the "neo-marxists" as a criticism of incompetent liberals so much as a lack of serious political opposition in the US. He's pretty much right about everything else, though, and I don't think I'll feel comfortable liking this movie anymore.

ledfloyd
03-22-2008, 04:40 AM
I wrote a somewhat lengthy review that I'm kind of scared of posting here. :x

I think it's safe to say that if Southland Tales isn't the best American film of the decade, it's the most American film of the decade.
I don't agree with that. While I enjoyed more than I disliked. It's undoubtedly flawed. And whilst I understand it's supposed to be flawed, it's flawed even by those standards. To me, it feels like looking at genius from an angle. If something swung around and brought it into focus it could've been amazing. I almost want to clean it up and shoot my own version, cause I feel like it's so close to being great, but it missed by a little and that hurt the film alot.

I read that reverse shot review, I don't like the digs at Big Lebowski. I'm not a pothead and that film gets better with every viewing.

trotchky
03-22-2008, 05:11 AM
I don't agree with that. While I enjoyed more than I disliked. It's undoubtedly flawed. And whilst I understand it's supposed to be flawed, it's flawed even by those standards. To me, it feels like looking at genius from an angle. If something swung around and brought it into focus it could've been amazing. I almost want to clean it up and shoot my own version, cause I feel like it's so close to being great, but it missed by a little and that hurt the film alot.

I read that reverse shot review, I don't like the digs at Big Lebowski. I'm not a pothead and that film gets better with every viewing.

So, in what ways is it flawed and how you would improve it? I already know that it sucks, now that I read the reverse shot article (not being sarcastic), but I want to know your views.

ledfloyd
03-22-2008, 05:16 AM
i think sucks is pretty harsh. or maybe not. i'd have to watch it again to be more specific. but it felt to me there were alot of scenes that were just a few degrees off. almost like they were slightly out of tune, and it seemed to me with a little coaxing it could work. also some things would need to be toned down. the scene with sean william scott in the ice cream truck at the end seemed to be dragging on far too long and was way too exaggerated.

i agree with taubin and rosenbaum that it is a portrait of america. the satire makes it a more effective portrait than if it was just a michael bay movie or something. the excess of it is distinctly american as well. i don't think it makes it a great film though. i'd probably give it three stars but i feel like it's impossible to rate this film without dividing by zero.

monolith94
03-22-2008, 05:48 AM
The connections between "Southland Tales" and Philip K. Dick are pretty blatant. The Roland/Ronald thing is a riff on A Scanner Darkly, the last name Taverner is drawn straight from Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. And just to hammer the point in, they have a policeman say "flow my tears." I don't think this is so much a dopey film about political dystopia as it is a dopey satire of conky scifi meta-literary plots. Either way, it's a dopey film.

monolith94
03-22-2008, 05:59 AM
I'd agree with a previous poster that this film's very existence is mystifying. I don't see hollywood funding any future film projects of Mr. Kelly's. He's going to have to go underground. Better buy a bolex, dude.

Derek
03-22-2008, 06:25 AM
Either way, it's a dopey film.

It's a dopey film, an absolute mess and seems to celebrate its narrative incoherency, yet it's still the kind of film I'm glad exists even if it's as a failure. But honestly, it never felt like Kelly had control of the material, or even wanted control of it, as he was content to throw his various zany, futuristic/apocalyptic ideas like spitballs at a chalkboard, hoping enough of them stick. Unfortunately, most of them did not.

monolith94
03-22-2008, 06:29 AM
The Justin Timberlake music video section was kind of fun, I have to admit.

origami_mustache
03-22-2008, 06:48 AM
So, in what ways is it flawed and how you would improve it? I already know that it sucks, now that I read the reverse shot article (not being sarcastic), but I want to know your views.

Wow, the review swayed you that much eh? I guess I've had that happen a few times as well.

Lucky
03-23-2008, 07:38 PM
I'm glad the film held up on my rewatch. I still rate it the same and I still don't believe Kelly had any sort of grasp on his climax, but I have to say it's a very entertaining 2 1/2 hour movie. I never find time to be bored with it.

MacGuffin
03-24-2008, 02:07 AM
This might be a masterpiece.

trotchky
03-24-2008, 02:14 AM
This might be a masterpiece.

Yes, I agree, even if it's an unintentional one.

I've decided that that reverse shot website is basically the insomnia.ac of film criticism: the staffers are literate, but they're assholes. Furthermore, I don't agree that the film needs a verifiable ideology, or that it's bad just because it's an "actual" mess.

Sycophant
03-24-2008, 04:06 AM
I don't know what the hell to do with this movie.

EDIT. A couple more thoughts.

Duane Johnson: Probably gonna be a major superstar, if he isn't yet. Possibly gonna be a great actor. Either way, amazing screen presence.

I swear Mandy Moore isn't usually such a terrible actor, but good Lord.

This movie might have tried to kill me. I don't know. I really just don't know.

number8
03-30-2008, 08:31 PM
So, I am completely in love with this movie.

DavidSeven
03-31-2008, 07:13 AM
So, yeah... no. Forget it. This "thing" is not worth the effort.

I'm somehow perversely glad I saw it though.

DavidSeven
03-31-2008, 07:26 AM
The film might be getting a generous additional 1/2 star because Kelly wisely played it as a balls out comedy (...right?). Under those circumstances, there's tons of gray area in regards to intentional and unintentional comedy.

balmakboor
03-31-2008, 05:06 PM
Well, for what it's worth, I wrote a review yesterday. You can read it here:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/30/135433.php

(Look close. I quoted one of you guys.)

Rowland
04-01-2008, 01:26 AM
I have this arriving from Netflix tomorrow. I'm actually sorta excited.

Boner M
04-01-2008, 01:38 AM
I kinda can't wait for this, especially after one blogger compared it to O Lucky Man!

number8
04-05-2008, 12:44 AM
Where can I find "Teen Horniness is not a Crime" on MP3? I want it as my ringtone NOW.

D_Davis
04-05-2008, 01:18 AM
I'm watching this tomorrow.

Should be fun.

monolith94
04-05-2008, 03:55 AM
I'm watching this tomorrow.

Should be fun.
Please help me substantiate my claim that this film is largely a satire of P.K.D.

D_Davis
04-05-2008, 04:03 AM
Please help me substantiate my claim that this film is largely a satire of P.K.D.

I thought the exact same thing when I saw the first trailer.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 12:02 AM
This movie is awesome.

First of all, it's a total love letter to Philip K. Dick.

Kevin Smith's character is Phil Dick - his name is Simon Theory.
He looks exactly like PKD, but with a long beard. There is absolutely no mistaking the resemblance.

One of the characters' last name is Taverner - as in Jason Taverner from Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said...

Speaking of which, one of characters, a policeman says "Flow my tears."

It's also about a celebrity who loses his identity and is hunted by some strange government force - again, Flow My Tears.

The film is basically an adaptation of Flow My Tears,... mixed in with some VALIS, Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, and The Simulacra.

I loved just about every minute of it.

It is an awesome experience, and was totally made for people who admire PKD's writing.

It captures the atmosphere of PKD's worlds better than any of the films based on PKD's books.

The way the characters all seem to be on their own trip - they occupy the same physical space, but they are actually each experiencing their own version of reality.

And just how PKD captured the essence of 1960s Berkley in his SF, this film captures the essence of So. Cal. in the 2000s.

I cannot wait to watch this again, and again.

balmakboor
04-06-2008, 12:12 AM
It is an awesome experience, and was totally made for people who admire PKD's writing.

This doesn't inspire me to become one of those people.

megladon8
04-06-2008, 12:18 AM
Richard Kelly said he was going for "Andy Warhol meets Philip K. Dick" with this movie.

I haven't seen it yet, but this is encouraging! I have to admit, I've mainly avoided it for the cast.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 01:05 AM
This doesn't inspire me to become one of those people.

I think that people who are well versed in Dick's literature will get a lot more out of this film. The whole thing is like a big inside joke for Dickheads.

number8
04-06-2008, 01:06 AM
It has the most awesome cast this side of awesome casting.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 01:10 AM
Richard Kelly said he was going for "Andy Warhol meets Philip K. Dick" with this movie.


If you read Flow My Tears..., Ubik, VALIS, and The Simulacra, and then watch the film, I think you will greatly appreciate it, at least appreciate it more than having not read any Dick.

I really want a commentary for this film.

I just watched it with 2 other Dickheads, and we were in total heaven.


And the cast is great. It has some awesome performances.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 01:15 AM
The film also possesses the same kind of unhinged energy that Dick's best books do. However, Dick was, almost always, able to reel things in and deliver a more coherent and powerful narrative, where as Kelly kind of loses control. However, I will almost never fault a director for just letting it rip, and dammit does Kelly let it rip.

Man, I almost want to watch it again tonight.

number8
04-06-2008, 01:24 AM
Man, I almost want to watch it again tonight.

This was what I felt right when the end credits rolled. "I need to watch this again, RIGHT NOW." Alas, I had to return it. I think I'm going to buy the DVD.

megladon8
04-06-2008, 02:56 AM
And the cast is great. It has some awesome performances.


Really?

Reading Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Jon Lovitz and Christopher Lambert's names all in the same movie nearly made my head explode.

ledfloyd
04-06-2008, 03:38 AM
Really?

Reading Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Jon Lovitz and Christopher Lambert's names all in the same movie nearly made my head explode.
i think he cast people to their weaknesses. as opposed to casting to strength. and it worked.

i think the movie falls apart at the very end with the taverner's in the van. but other than that i really really like it in all its glitzy ridiculousness.

monolith94
04-06-2008, 04:06 AM
More like a pale, palid, vaporous imitation of PKD...

Sycophant
04-06-2008, 07:19 AM
This thread is dangerously close to becoming a lovefest. I may have to eject.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 01:56 PM
More like a pale, palid, vaporous imitation of PKD...

I don't think so at all.

The film captures the essence of PKD better than any film I've seen.

I'm going to go buy the DVD and watch it again today.

Ezee E
04-06-2008, 04:10 PM
After I saw this, I knew it would be loved by Match Cut.

trotchky
04-06-2008, 05:43 PM
i think the movie falls apart at the very end with the taverner's in the van.

How?

Sycophant
04-06-2008, 07:24 PM
Well, if all you say is true, D, I wish they had warned us non-Dickheads that there would be almost nothing of value for anyone not interested in this nutty tribute.

But I'm beginning to think I saw a different movie. While there were some decent notes in the cast, none of them seemed to be taking place in the same universe, let alone the same film.

ledfloyd
04-06-2008, 07:26 PM
How?
in an over the top film i thought that moment was too over the top. and all the crazy verbal exposition going on seemed kinda hamfisted to me. like they were compressing a bunch of plot into some hysterical dialogue.

trotchky
04-06-2008, 07:35 PM
I thought that moment was the only logical culmination of the Dude Where's My Car? stoner comedy aspect that undermines the philosophical art house aspect. It's both self-parody and a big "fuck you" to people who accused Donnie Darko of pretentiousness. Kind of clever.

megladon8
04-06-2008, 09:30 PM
I'm actually one of Donnie Darko's intense lovers.

While some have avoided Southland Tales due to his involvement, that's probably my #1 reason for wanting to see it.

I thought Donnie Darko was a brilliant look at teenage angst, filled with an array of colourful characters and great ideas. It really spoke to me during my teen years, and I think I'll always love it for that.

It's also one of my definitive "summer movies".

Every year there's one or two movies that I watch on almost a daily basis for about a month during the summer. This was that movie in 2004.

It also has one of my favorite soundtracks ever.

balmakboor
04-06-2008, 10:12 PM
All I can say is I hope PKD's writing is a heck of a lot better than this tribute to his writing or I'm going to be sorely disappointed when I get around to him.

ledfloyd
04-06-2008, 10:14 PM
All I can say is I hope PKD's writing is a heck of a lot better than this tribute to his writing or I'm going to be sorely disappointed when I get around to him.

it is. don't let anything dissuade you.


I thought that moment was the only logical culmination of the Dude Where's My Car? stoner comedy aspect that undermines the philosophical art house aspect. It's both self-parody and a big "fuck you" to people who accused Donnie Darko of pretentiousness. Kind of clever.

i dunno. there's absolutely no doubting this film is pretentious.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 10:22 PM
All I can say is I hope PKD's writing is a heck of a lot better than this tribute to his writing or I'm going to be sorely disappointed when I get around to him.

Oh, it/he is. This is not a tribute to his writing, his prose, but it is a a film that captures the essence of Dick's themes and worlds.

Huge difference.

I wouldn't read 26+ novels or devote such a large portion of my life studying an author who stunk.

However, reading PKD will open your mind and eyes to Kelly's film, and you will probably appreciate it more and see it on a whole new level once you do.

Derek
04-06-2008, 10:25 PM
All I can say is I hope PKD's writing is a heck of a lot better than this tribute to his writing or I'm going to be sorely disappointed when I get around to him.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I've always wanted to get around to reading something he's written, but this thread hasn't exactly increased that desire.

Derek
04-06-2008, 10:27 PM
Oh, it/he is. This is not a tribute to his writing, his prose, but it is a a film that captures the essence of Dick's themes and worlds.

Huge difference.

This is good to hear. I'm glad you clarified. :)

balmakboor
04-06-2008, 10:30 PM
It just seems to me that Southland Tales is a really terrible movie that can be appreciated on a certain level if one is tuned into what Kelly was trying to do. I can say for sure that Southland Tales is the living definition of cult film.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 10:32 PM
I was thinking the exact same thing. I've always wanted to get around to reading something he's written, but this thread hasn't exactly increased that desire.

Spend some time in the sci-fi thread. I've written extensively about a few of his books and given recs, and so have a few others (as a matter of fact, I just posted a review for Dr. Bloodmoney). As the biggest Dickhead I know, I find the comparisons between this film and my favorite author's books to be fascinating and enlightening.

It's like somebody finally got it right. Somebody finally captured on screen the milieu of Dick's world and some of his themes. Once you read Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Ubik, VALIS, and The Simulacra, I bet you will understand what I am saying.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 10:35 PM
It just seems to me that Southland Tales is a really terrible movie that can be appreciated on a certain level if one is tuned into what Kelly was trying to do. I can say for sure that Southland Tales is the living definition of cult film.

In my opinion, Southland Tales was tailor made for people who have a grasp on Dick's work.

I am sure Kelly was shooting for a larger audience, but it sure does feel like a film that targets a small niche.

And I am very happy to be a part of this niche, because it was an awesome experience.

D_Davis
04-06-2008, 11:24 PM
I thought of a good way of putting it:

Southland Tales is not representative of Dick's skill and craft as an author. The film will not prepare you for his greatness, nor will it allow for greater insight into Dick's work.

However, reading Dick's books will give you greater insight into this film and might allow you to see the film with a better understanding or appreciation.

Melville
04-07-2008, 12:26 AM
I was thinking the exact same thing. I've always wanted to get around to reading something he's written, but this thread hasn't exactly increased that desire.
I had my first experience with Dick a couple weeks ago. It was pretty good... But let's talk about books. Based on the one book I've read by him, I think Dick's sentence-by-sentence prose is pedestrian in the extreme, his characters very thinly sketched, and his themes somewhat bluntly dealt with. However, he does some great things in his paragraph-by-paragraph prose (i.e. he uses some great larger-scale techniques, even if each sentence sounds clumsy), his thinly sketched characters are sketched very purposively, and he does come up with some interesting ways of exploring his themes. So I'd say that he's definitely worth reading.

D_Davis
04-07-2008, 12:50 AM
Dick's prose was wildly inconsistent, but when he hits his mark there is nothing else like it. It's not always great, but it is almost always unique. Especially his dialog.

His prose stretches from merely serviceable to incredibly masterful, but his themes and ideas are almost always in a league of their own.

He is an author to read for themes and ideas, and not the style of the actual writing.

If you're looking for stylistic SF, you'd be better off turning to Sturgeon or Harlan Ellison.

You should definitely read more Melville, and I suggest the VALIS trilogy - VALIS, Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

Melville
04-07-2008, 02:31 AM
You should definitely read more Melville, and I suggest the VALIS trilogy - VALIS, Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.
Yeah, if I read anything else by him, it will probably be VALIS.

DavidSeven
04-07-2008, 06:19 AM
I think if the Scary Movie/Epic Movie/Date Movie team decided to do a parody of David Lynch adapting Philip K. Dick, it would probably look something like this film. Maybe more entertaining though.

Ezee E
04-07-2008, 11:20 AM
I think if the Scary Movie/Epic Movie/Date Movie team decided to do a parody of David Lynch adapting Philip K. Dick, it would probably look something like this film. Maybe more entertaining though.
Zing! Awesome.

D_Davis
04-07-2008, 01:05 PM
I think if the Scary Movie/Epic Movie/Date Movie team decided to do a parody of David Lynch adapting Philip K. Dick, it would probably look something like this film. Maybe more entertaining though.

:lol:

balmakboor
04-07-2008, 05:44 PM
In my opinion, Southland Tales was tailor made for people who have a grasp on Dick's work.

I am sure Kelly was shooting for a larger audience, but it sure does feel like a film that targets a small niche.

And I am very happy to be a part of this niche, because it was an awesome experience.

That's a good way of putting what I was trying to say with my cult film comment.

I hope it didn't seem like I was trying to beat you up for loving this film. I have a secret. I really and truly wanted to love it myself and I was actually liking it for about 10-15 minutes. Then it lost me and had me totally worn down and weary by the end.

My teenage daughter thought Southland Tales was pretty funny. She liked it. Maybe she's ahead of me on this one and I'll catch up to her in a few years.

D_Davis
04-07-2008, 05:53 PM
My teenage daughter thought Southland Tales was pretty funny. She liked it. Maybe she's ahead of me on this one and I'll catch up to her in a few years.

I think Kelly really resonates with the teen and early-20s crowd. I am well above these ages, but I do recognize this. I truly think he is on that particular wavelength, and he is making films for this specific slice of our modern society. I think he alienates older people. I think he makes films that people over the age of 35-40 will have a hard time "getting."

There comes a point as we get older that we look at the younger generations and we realize that, finally, we are really different from them. I think that Kelly has tapped in to this particular zeitgeist.

As far as DD goes, I think it is merely okay. I loved it at first, but over the years I have grown less fond of it. The Smurf diatribe is wretched, as is a log of the dialog, but the film still possesses something special. However, it is almost an unwritten rule that if you were between the ages of 16 and 22 when this film came out, you HAVE to love it. I know this isn't the case for everyone, but it really seems like it.

It's that generation's Heathers, or The Wall, or Rocky Horror. It really speaks to their mindset, and I see Southland Tales representing this same demographic.

Kelly makes cult films without the sense that he really trying to. His films feel genuine, and I don't get the sense that he is insincere with his efforts. I think he really has something to say to and about the people who gravitate towards his films.

I haven't fully formulated this thesis yet, but I think there is something here.

balmakboor
04-07-2008, 06:00 PM
Kelly makes cult films without the sense that he really trying to. His films feel genuine, and I don't get the sense that he is insincere with his efforts. I think he really has something to say to and about the people who gravitate towards his films.

One thing I definitely give Kelly is complete sincerity.

You're probably right. I didn't like DD either. But boy oh boy do I ever love Pink Floyd the Wall and Heathers.

Ivan Drago
05-15-2008, 02:45 AM
Eh, I'm not a Dickhead and I enjoyed the movie.* The film as a whole is interesting, from its themes to its ideas, and I agree with fazozupow's idea that the film is intentionally bad in order to acheive a sense of incoherence and anarchy. I also enjoyed Kelly's visual style, like I did with Donnie Darko. Hell, the more I think about the film, the more I like it.

* It felt weird typing that.

Qrazy
05-15-2008, 02:50 AM
As far as DD goes, I think it is merely okay. I loved it at first, but over the years I have grown less fond of it. The Smurf diatribe is wretched, as is a log of the dialog, but the film still possesses something special.

It's ability to incite rage in it's viewer towards it's creator?

Qrazy
05-15-2008, 02:52 AM
That the film is intentionally bad in order to acheive a sense of incoherence and anarchy.

Trying to be bad is never a good idea.

trotchky
05-15-2008, 06:46 PM
i dunno. there's absolutely no doubting this film is pretentious.

I don't agree.

Pop Trash
05-15-2008, 08:12 PM
I really liked this movie and put it in my top ten of 2007. A lot of the casting seems conceptual and is less about whether or not these people are good/bad actors but more about our reaction to them as celebrities. I fully admit knowing next to nothing about PKD other than seeing the movie adaptations, but to me this seemed like Kelly's homage to certain types of cult/sci-fi movies that came out in the 80s: Brazil, Repo Man, Buckaroo Banzai, Back to the Future, Highlander, Dune, etc.

transmogrifier
05-18-2008, 07:30 AM
What a stupid, stupid film.

transmogrifier
05-18-2008, 08:58 AM
I should post more clarifying my thoughts, but after finishing it, I had one of those rare "What the fuck am I doing wasting my life watching movies?" moments, and that readily extends to writing about them as well.

But I will say it is a mammoth piece of total hollow bullshit that may, should I be charitable, be attempting to mimic contemporary pop culture malaise, but sweet good lord fuck, wouldn't it have been wise to at least attempt a coherent thought, scene or even line reading as well, as sop for those of us who like our films to be engaging on a simple narrative level, or who like to think movies aren't so deadening literal that you can only depict cutural devolution and spiritual crisis with cinematic devolution and basic structural crisis within the film. Kelly proves himself to by a true oxymoron, the ambitious hack, wanting to stake out a little bit of cinematic ground to call his own (and I assume trying to convert his name into an omnipresent filmic adjective - "Like, oh my God, that film was sooo Kellyesque") but with absolute no mastery of film at all.

Dead & Messed Up
05-18-2008, 09:28 AM
I should post more clarifying my thoughts, but after finishing it, I had one of those rare "What the fuck am I doing wasting my life watching movies?" moments, and that readily extends to writing about them as well.

But I will say it is a mammoth piece of total hollow bullshit that may, should I be charitable, be attempting to mimic contemporary pop culture malaise, but sweet good lord fuck, wouldn't it have been wise to at least attempt a coherent thought, scene or even line reading as well, as sop for those of us who like our films to be engaging on a simple narrative level, or who like to think movies aren't so deadening literal that you can only depict cutural devolution and spiritual crisis with cinematic devolution and basic structural crisis within the film. Kelly proves himself to by a true oxymoron, the ambitious hack, wanting to stake out a little bit of cinematic ground to call his own (and I assume trying to convert his name into an omnipresent filmic adjective - "Like, oh my God, that film was sooo Kellyesque") but with absolute no mastery of film at all.

I like this. This is good.

This is true.

Pop Trash
05-18-2008, 09:53 AM
I should post more clarifying my thoughts, but after finishing it, I had one of those rare "What the fuck am I doing wasting my life watching movies?" moments, and that readily extends to writing about them as well.

But I will say it is a mammoth piece of total hollow bullshit that may, should I be charitable, be attempting to mimic contemporary pop culture malaise, but sweet good lord fuck, wouldn't it have been wise to at least attempt a coherent thought, scene or even line reading as well, as sop for those of us who like our films to be engaging on a simple narrative level, or who like to think movies aren't so deadening literal that you can only depict cutural devolution and spiritual crisis with cinematic devolution and basic structural crisis within the film. Kelly proves himself to by a true oxymoron, the ambitious hack, wanting to stake out a little bit of cinematic ground to call his own (and I assume trying to convert his name into an omnipresent filmic adjective - "Like, oh my God, that film was sooo Kellyesque") but with absolute no mastery of film at all.
Southland Tales is one of those films where people's "criticisms" are exactly what I liked about the film.

transmogrifier
05-18-2008, 09:59 AM
Southland Tales is one of those films where people's "criticisms" are exactly what I liked about the film.

Well, sure, if you liked hollow pieces of posturing trash, then I'm sure you couldn't feel any other way.

Sven
05-18-2008, 11:40 AM
Well, sure, if you liked hollow pieces of posturing trash, then I'm sure you couldn't feel any other way.

The clue is in the screen name.

transmogrifier
05-18-2008, 11:42 AM
The clue is in the screen name.

As subtle as the movie.

Winston*
05-18-2008, 11:45 AM
I'm so going to watch this movie and love it.

transmogrifier
05-18-2008, 11:58 AM
I'm so going to watch this movie and love it.

Smokin' Aces is coming up soon. :)

Pop Trash
05-19-2008, 04:13 AM
The clue is in the screen name.
This board is lacking a sense of humour. :rolleyes:

Pop Trash
05-19-2008, 04:16 AM
I'm so going to watch this movie and love it. That's because it is awesome. It is the end of cinema and the beginning of cinema. This film is Thomas Edison having spit lubed anal sex with Michael Bay.

Sycophant
05-19-2008, 04:33 AM
The fact that people flat-out enjoy this film irritates me.

That doesn't happen often, but yes, I can be that fucking petty.

transmogrifier
05-19-2008, 08:15 AM
The fact that people flat-out enjoy this film irritates me.

That doesn't happen often, but yes, I can be that fucking petty.

I'm like that all the time. About everything.

Sven
05-19-2008, 11:52 AM
This board is lacking a sense of humour. :rolleyes:

What are you talking about? My comment was a jest. It proves the board's sense of humor. I think, perhaps, that maybe it is you...?

Qrazy
05-19-2008, 12:05 PM
Well, sure, if you liked hollow pieces of posturing trash, then I'm sure you couldn't feel any other way.

I would like to take this moment to say... I'm a huge fan of the phrase... sweet good lord fuck.

transmogrifier
05-19-2008, 03:22 PM
I would like to take this moment to say... I'm a huge fan of the phrase... sweet good lord fuck.

As am I.

trotchky
05-19-2008, 11:41 PM
The fact that people flat-out enjoy this film irritates me.

That doesn't happen often, but yes, I can be that fucking petty.

I feel similarly about Speed Racer.

Kurosawa Fan
05-19-2008, 11:44 PM
I might watch this tonight. Actually, I'll probably just end up watching the Red Wings game. But if they're getting crushed or doing the crushing, I might switch to this before the night is over.

Pop Trash
05-20-2008, 05:21 AM
I feel similarly about Speed Racer.
Word.

number8
05-20-2008, 05:24 AM
I feel similarly about Speed Racer.

Me too, but the opposite, directed at the critical consensus.

Anyone who doesn't like Speed Racer can choke on my incorrigible dick for all I care.

Boner M
05-24-2008, 01:43 PM
Kelly makes cult films without the sense that he really trying to. His films feel genuine, and I don't get the sense that he is insincere with his efforts.
I agree with the opposite of this.

transmogrifier
05-24-2008, 02:18 PM
I agree with the opposite of this.

Actually, I can't really get a sense whether he is sincere or not, and that's the problem - his two films (ST especially) are all over the place in a very bad way; they can't cohere and the ridiculous parts take away from the straight-faced scenes and vice-versa.

Winston*
05-24-2008, 02:22 PM
I almost rented this tonight but then I thought "wait a minute, I don't actually want to see this movie", so in the end I did not rent it.

Boner M
05-24-2008, 02:39 PM
Actually, I can't really get a sense whether he is sincere or not, and that's the problem - his two films (ST especially) are all over the place in a very bad way; they can't cohere and the ridiculous parts take away from the straight-faced scenes and vice-versa.
He seems dead serious about the film in the 'making of' on the DVD, often to a cringe-inducing degree. One thing that particularly puzzled me was when he said something to the effect of how wanted to 'use comedy to create discussion amongst the audience'. I think it's the absolute lack of a sense of humour in the film that makes the whole film fall so flat; all it has is the most tried and obvious cliches indicating that it's supposed to be comedic, rather than containing any semblance of wit. Not to mention that fact that he seems to have a barely rudimentary understanding of his numerous concepts, just vomiting them on screen in the hope that the audience'll do the heavy-lifting. There's not one line of dialogue that doesn't seem written and delivered for the purpose of being added to some IMDb retard's signature; even the film's only lively moment (the Timberlake musical interlude) is pretty much lifted from The Big Lebowski. Then there's the Mulholland Drive references, Kiss Me Deadly playing in the background on TV (it's like, totally intertextual!)... the whole thing is a series of cult film tics, stitched together carelessly like it was made as an example of 'postmodernism' for five-year-old's.

Pretty much everything that annoyed me about Donnie Darko, combined with the irritatingly self-conscious zeitgeist-raping of Don DeLillo's White Noise, multiplied by a billion and smeared across 2 1/2 hours. A miserable, joyless film... kind of made me go off movies while watching it.

Ezee E
05-24-2008, 02:43 PM
I almost rented this tonight but then I thought "wait a minute, I don't actually want to see this movie", so in the end I did not rent it.
Wonderful story.

Pop Trash
05-25-2008, 09:07 AM
He seems dead serious about the film in the 'making of' on the DVD, often to a cringe-inducing degree. One thing that particularly puzzled me was when he said something to the effect of how wanted to 'use comedy to create discussion amongst the audience'. I think it's the absolute lack of a sense of humour in the film that makes the whole film fall so flat; all it has is the most tried and obvious cliches indicating that it's supposed to be comedic, rather than containing any semblance of wit. Not to mention that fact that he seems to have a barely rudimentary understanding of his numerous concepts, just vomiting them on screen in the hope that the audience'll do the heavy-lifting. There's not one line of dialogue that doesn't seem written and delivered for the purpose of being added to some IMDb retard's signature; even the film's only lively moment (the Timberlake musical interlude) is pretty much lifted from The Big Lebowski. Then there's the Mulholland Drive references, Kiss Me Deadly playing in the background on TV (it's like, totally intertextual!)... the whole thing is a series of cult film tics, stitched together carelessly like it was made as an example of 'postmodernism' for five-year-old's.

Pretty much everything that annoyed me about Donnie Darko, combined with the irritatingly self-conscious zeitgeist-raping of Don DeLillo's White Noise, multiplied by a billion and smeared across 2 1/2 hours. A miserable, joyless film... kind of made me go off movies while watching it.
Yeah I agree...it's a pretty awesome film.

Qrazy
05-25-2008, 09:16 AM
I almost rented this tonight but then I thought "wait a minute, I don't actually want to see this movie", so in the end I did not rent it.

This is also how I feel except that I did not almost rent this tonight.

Boner M
05-25-2008, 10:10 AM
Yeah I agree...it's a pretty awesome film.
Stop that.

trotchky
06-02-2008, 05:31 AM
Here's a "review" I wrote of the film a while ago:


Still hung-up on the apocalypse but more topical than ever, Richard Kelly now holds a mirror up to the forces shaping the American psyche in an absolute trainwreck of pop culture, media, “high” and “low” art, consumption, and political discourse. Kelly has his finger on the pulse of our collective unconscious, tearing away fragments of every issue endlessly vying for our attention and tossing them in a blender; the result is a roaring, barely coherent cocktail of fury and merriment.

The film opens through a home video camera; the kid holding the camera points it at his reflection in a mirror, and an American flag billows halfway out of the frame; it’s an appropriate opening image for a film that’s all about, again “holding a mirror up” to our camera-filled, media-saturated society. Still looking through the child’s video camera, we drift onwards and, in what is one of the most impressive sequences in recent cinema, the production values of the diegetic footage quickly ramp up – color correction, then steadicam, etc. – culminating in a Hollywood staging of a nuclear bomb. In these first few minutes Kelly addresses, at once, the fine, often invisible line between our news and our entertainment, the staginess of media and its disparity with respect to truth, a legacy of cinematic documentation, the inherent dishonesty of the camera.

From there we move on to minutes-long exposition delivered by way of voice over and a gigantic news screen, kicking off a visual motif that lasts throughout the film, recognition that even in our popular entertainment this is how information is relayed in the 21st century, baby.

The film continues to play as a veritable state of the union address, lamenting – with tongue firmly in cheek at all times – everything from the movies we watch to the men we allow to ruin the world: a tense racial situation in a police car merges into scatological Dude Where’s My Car? humor; an “actor-turned-soldier” and Iraq War veteran sits on a camera/gun turret, acting as director/god as he narrates for us and occasionally shoots/shoots major characters; porn stars have televised round-table discussions on “the major issues facing us today;” the resistance movement, formed in the wake of a government-regulated internet, is based in a surf shop in Venice Beach (the movement’s piece de resistance involves cutting off fingers to register fraudulent votes in the 2008 election); The New York Times is said to have reported that ‘God is Dead’; presidential candidates negotiate the release of paparazzi footage of an actor with strong ties to the Republican party, before deciding “we don’t negotiate with terrorists”...All the while Kelly never strays far from self-parody, in this, the most tonally bizarre movie to come out of Hollywood in ages, mashing together cheap action/stoner/horror commodities with art house film – the director of Donnie Darko has cast Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Justin Timberlake, and The Rock, for fuck’s sake.

Southland Tales is totally fucking insane, a 50-lane pile-up lacking shape or form or reason. To pretend that this is a “good” movie, in any conventional sense, is to be blatantly full of shit; it’s more like the barely-sane ramblings of a homeless man who’s seen too much and is god damn afraid to be alive, or an explosion of everything boiling to the surface in America; in a perverse way, it’s the only sane reaction to an insane culture, and if the choice came down to shooting up a school or making Southland Tales, well, I guess we now know which route is best (it’s the latter, if I’m being too ambiguous). Could the movie have been better? Fuck yeah, it could have. It could have had something resembling structure, it could have been sweeping instead of just kind of sitting there, it could have pushed harder. Could 9/11 have been avoided? Maybe, in a different world, a better world; "a better, loving world"; the possibility of that world, however, will never come again. Or, to put it a different way, the stage had been set; decades, centuries of action had brought us the point where this would happen. It brought us to the point where Southland Tales would happen, too. For better or worse this should go down as the definitive cinematic statement of the beginning of the 21st century.

ThePlashyBubbler
06-02-2008, 06:25 AM
I really wanted to like this, but the whole thing just felt so lifeless. A friend of mine actually tried defending the film by noting that "it's supposed to be bad!"

Pop Trash
06-02-2008, 09:14 PM
That was an awesome review MGS. Probably that and J. Hoberman's are the best assestments of this film I've read. :cool:

Rowland
08-10-2008, 12:04 AM
Alright, so I'm half an hour into this... does it get better?

transmogrifier
08-10-2008, 12:12 AM
Alright, so I'm half an hour into this... does it get better?

I want to say yes, just to make you watch the train wreck in its full glory.

But no.

Dead & Messed Up
08-10-2008, 03:22 AM
Alright, so I'm half an hour into this... does it get better?

Fast-forward to the Killers Busby Berkeley sequence.

Then eject the disc.

And urinate on it.

Sycophant
08-10-2008, 05:07 PM
Alright, so I'm half an hour into this... does it get better?

Did you get to the part where The Rock is twiddling his fingers nervously? That's pretty much the best thing the movie has to offer.

baby doll
08-16-2009, 07:48 PM
I watched an hour and a half of this last night, and it's pretty bad. Not only is it stupid, not funny, and bogged down by endless exposition, it's not interesting. The elements are there (amnesiacs, porn stars, identical twins, Wallace Shawn and Booger from Revenge of the Nerds), but they never achieve take off. Everything in the movie feels theoretical rather than lived in. We never get enough of a sense of what it's like to live in this futuristic corporate police state to understand why there are revolutionaries who want to overthrow it; and even though there's supposed to be a world war going on, it never affects any of the characters' lives in the slightest. Of course, the best way to critique a movie is to make another movie, and the movie this film wants to be is A Scanner Darkly (which I think was even at Cannes the same year).

Spinal
08-16-2009, 08:06 PM
This is on Netflix Instant Watch. I wonder how long I could last.

Pop Trash
08-16-2009, 08:16 PM
*sigh*

Kurosawa Fan
08-16-2009, 08:19 PM
This is on Netflix Instant Watch. I wonder how long I could last.


It's a train wreck, so you'll last longer than you think.

baby doll
08-16-2009, 08:22 PM
It's a train wreck, so you'll last longer than you think.If nothing else, it's a historic flop. (But not in the sense that Intolerance, Heaven's Gate, Dune, Ishtar, and Gigli are historic flops, because those are all good films.)

Pop Trash
08-16-2009, 08:25 PM
Man...Southland Tales is so much better than fucking Dune.

baby doll
08-16-2009, 08:32 PM
Man...Southland Tales is so much better than fucking Dune.Dune, once you get past the cheesy effects and exposition and soliloquies, is a genuinely exciting, strange, beautiful film. Southland Tales never comes to life.

eternity
08-16-2009, 08:38 PM
Watched this again last night, coincidentally.

This movie is so awesome.

D_Davis
08-16-2009, 08:38 PM
Man...Southland Tales is so much better than fucking Dune.

Of course it is. It's a masterpiece. Watched it again a few weeks ago, and loved it again.

baby doll
08-16-2009, 08:47 PM
It's a masterpiece.*sigh*

D_Davis
08-16-2009, 08:53 PM
*sigh*

It's le sigh.

megladon8
08-16-2009, 08:55 PM
I really should get around to seeing this at some point.

baby doll
08-16-2009, 08:59 PM
I really should get around to seeing this at some point.No, you really shouldn't. It's not an interesting film, even in a "How the hell did this even get a release?" sort of way. I mean, Abel Ferrara's post-The Funeral films aren't releasable in North America, but this is?

megladon8
08-16-2009, 09:01 PM
So yeah, I really can't wait to see this movie at some point.

Hearing that it's very PKD-like certainly makes me excited. I just can't stand several of the actors involved.

I'm sure I'll like it, though. D has rarely steered me wrong.

Dead & Messed Up
08-16-2009, 09:03 PM
I'm sure I'll like it, though. D has rarely steered me wrong.

That's cause he's been saving the gas for this trip. Whoo-boy.

number8
08-16-2009, 09:08 PM
Did I ever profess my love for it here? If not, then yes, it's definitely an amazing film. One of the best of 2007.

baby doll
08-16-2009, 09:08 PM
Hearing that it's very PKD-like certainly makes me excited.Like Pop Trash, I only know Philip K. Dick's works from the movies, but why not simply watch A Scanner Darkly? And if you've seen it, watch it again.

EvilShoe
08-16-2009, 09:10 PM
I loved this. It's so committed to its silliness that I found it a joy to watch.

"I'm a pimp, and pimps don't commit suicide."

baby doll
08-16-2009, 09:12 PM
One of the best of 2007.2007 was an awesome year for movies, but this was not one of the better films. I'll take Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Boarding Gate, The Darjeeling Limited, La France, Gone Baby Gone, Hairspray, I'm Not There., In the City of Sylvia, Jellyfish, Lust, Caution, The Man From London, Margot at the Wedding, Milyang (Secret Sunshine), Paranoid Park, Persepolis, Silent Light, Les Témoins, Le Voyage du ballon rouge, We Own the Night, You, the Living, or any one of a hundred other movies over this piece of dreck any day of the week.

eternity
08-16-2009, 10:06 PM
Anyone know where I could find this shirt?

http://www.lashorasperdidas.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/justin-timberlake-southland-tales.jpg

I would give someone a signed blank check for it.

Ezee E
08-16-2009, 11:53 PM
My brother called me and said that this was the worst movie he has ever seen.

Skitch
08-17-2009, 12:09 PM
Anyone know where I could find this shirt?

I would give someone a signed blank check for it.

I could make you one for about $4.50. :|

Lucky
08-17-2009, 09:33 PM
This movie gets better everytime I watch it.

transmogrifier
08-17-2009, 09:39 PM
This movie gets better everytime I watch it.

Well, constant exposure to pain does increase your pain threshhold, so.....

Sycophant
08-17-2009, 09:50 PM
Since this thread is pretty much glib hit-and-runs these days, I'll post this photo essay I posted on my blog (http://www.whatnotstudios.com/2009/07/only-good-things-about-southland-tales.html) a little while back:

The Only Good Things About Southland Tales
A photo essay by John D. Moore

http://www.whatnotstudios.com/shit/southland1.jpg
Fig. 1. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson twiddling his fingers


http://www.whatnotstudios.com/shit/southland2.jpg
Fig. 2. The twiddled fingers of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

StanleyK
08-17-2009, 10:53 PM
The Only Good Things About Southland Tales

Honestly, his finger twiddling got on my nerves pretty quickly (so did the rest of the movie).

Cult
08-18-2009, 01:55 AM
Honestly, his finger twiddling got on my nerves pretty quickly (so did the rest of the movie).

Yeah, he overdid it. It was his one character trait, so I guess he just decided to milk it for all it was worth. I generally like The Rock, but this was a hideous movie, and he certainly couldn't save it. Nor could has-been comedians or ambitious musical sequences. Or anything, really.

Sycophant
08-18-2009, 02:05 AM
It is thanks to Dwayne Johnson's twiddling, that I can say this movie gave me literally minutes of enjoyment.

Lucky
08-18-2009, 02:22 AM
Even if I didn't find the movie enjoyable, I would have enjoyed every minute SMG was onscreen. This or The Air I Breathe is the best she's ever looked outside Buffy.

Cult
08-18-2009, 02:26 AM
Even if I didn't find the movie enjoyable, I would have enjoyed every minute SMG was onscreen. This or The Air I Breathe is the best she's ever looked outside Buffy.

Cruel Intentions.

number8
08-18-2009, 02:39 AM
I'm getting a cavity from grinding my teeth over these comments.

Boner M
08-18-2009, 02:42 AM
I got a cavity in my brain from watching this film.

Rowland
08-18-2009, 03:01 AM
Embarrassingly clunky to watch from beginning to end, as if Kelly completely misunderstood what made his debut so promising (hinted at with his ill-judged Director's Cut), only to magnify its less effective elements, suggesting the sort of doodle Donnie and his buddies may have scribbled together after their first exposures to mind-bending literature.

Ezee E
08-18-2009, 03:39 AM
I got a cavity in my brain from watching this film.
This.

And I also preferred SMG in Cruel Intentions.

trotchky
08-18-2009, 03:40 AM
dis movie iz pretty grate. i think i might like it more than donnie darko, although it's definitely due for a rewatch. i'll probably buy it dirt cheap some where, some time.

number8
08-18-2009, 05:44 AM
Liking Donnie Darko over this is some priority fucking upping, old chums.

transmogrifier
08-18-2009, 07:58 AM
Liking Donnie Darko over this is some priority fucking upping, old chums.

Is it okay if I hate both? Because I hate both.

number8
08-18-2009, 08:18 AM
Is it okay if I hate both? Because I hate both.

I suppose this is preferable.

Skitch
08-18-2009, 12:18 PM
I quite disliked Southland Tales...I think it grated on me because it was sprinkled with some totally awesome moments, and some excellent ideas, and flooded with terrible bits of both. I so wanted to like it. Maybe I should give it another chance.

Pop Trash
08-18-2009, 10:01 PM
I can't fucking wait for RICHARD KELLY'S THE BOX. :pritch:

number8
08-19-2009, 03:35 AM
I can't fucking wait for RICHARD KELLY'S THE BOX. :pritch:

Yeah. It looks absolutely fantastic. Even after Cameron Diaz spoiled the twist.

D_Davis
08-19-2009, 03:38 AM
I'd say it looks pretty good even after I found out Cameron Diaz was in it.

Pop Trash
08-19-2009, 04:44 AM
I'd say it looks pretty good even after I found out Cameron Diaz was in it.

Yeah, but in fairness she is also in the best film of 1999 as voted by Match-Cut.

number8
08-19-2009, 05:26 AM
Was that Any Given Sunday or Being John Malkovich? I prefer the former.

megladon8
07-24-2010, 02:27 AM
I've tried 3 times now to watch this and just can't get through it all the way.

I find parts of it utterly, stunningly brilliant.

I find other parts laughably terrible. Particularly the Justin Timberlake lipsinking of my very favorite Killers song. That was kind of painful.

I'll get through it eventually. It really does feel like a Philip K. Dick novel. But there are things there that...ugh...just drive me batshit crazy.

Sycophant
07-24-2010, 02:40 AM
I find parts of it utterly, stunningly brilliant.

Name one.

megladon8
07-24-2010, 02:47 AM
Name one.


The fake-yet-real confrontation between Jon Lovitz and the two pretending to have a domestic dispute.

The Rock's performance, which is really, surprisingly good.

And the entire concept of "Fluid Karma" I found really interesting.

Sycophant
07-24-2010, 03:00 AM
My reaction upon coming in here and seeing that there were new posts in this thread:

http://www.whatnotstudios.com/shit/southlandtalesreaction.jpg

Sycophant
07-24-2010, 03:03 AM
Ok, meg. At least you recognize it's mostly awful.

My thoughts re: The Rock can be seen in my photo essay of August 2009 (last page).

Pop Trash
07-24-2010, 06:26 AM
A few days ago, I saw Justin Timberlake shooting a movie in Central Park. There were a bunch of teeny-bopper girls hanging around to get a peek at him and I remember specifically thinking that the only thing I would be able to really talk to him about was how awesome I thought Southland Tales was. Funny that this thread was resurrected.

MadMan
07-24-2010, 08:49 AM
I should buy this movie and watch it again, for the following reasons:

1) Most of the damn movie didn't make any freakin' sense.
2) I was entertained by the parts that made sense.
3) Despite maybe being about the end of the world, I'm sure there was some other meanings involved. Plus, I didn't care for my previous review, and a rewatch would help.
4) The Rock's best performance (out of the movies of his I've viewed) is in this, along with Sean William Scott. Hell even Sarah Michelle Geller is good in this. Why, I donno.

Derek
07-24-2010, 09:29 AM
Madman should not buy and watch this movie for the following reasons:

1) This movie is not very good.
2) There are many movies that are much, much better that Madman really wants to see but doesn't have time for.
3) Not watching this movie again provides 2 hours where Madman can watch one of these new, better movies he really wants to see.
4) Buying this movie would cost a lot of money.
5) Renting a better movie would cost a lot less money.
6) Money and a good movie > less money and a crappy movie.

Spinal
07-24-2010, 05:14 PM
I should buy this movie and watch it again, for the following reasons:

1) Most of the damn movie didn't make any freakin' sense.
2) I was entertained by the parts that made sense.


You just said in the other thread that it's not important that films make sense.

Qrazy
07-24-2010, 05:22 PM
You just said in the other thread that it's not important that films make sense.

http://blogs.theage.com.au/schembri/bruno.jpg

'Do you think consistency is important?'

Spinal
07-24-2010, 05:28 PM
'Do you think consistency is important?'

Those two posts were made within five minutes of each other.

Sven
07-24-2010, 05:32 PM
Those two posts were made within five minutes of each other.

Stop trying to pin down the mystique of Madman.

[ETM]
07-24-2010, 05:48 PM
Stop trying to pin down the mystique of Madman.

It's always a gambit.

MadMan
07-24-2010, 09:35 PM
Stop trying to pin down the mystique of Madman.There is no mystique.


You just said in the other thread that it's not important that films make sense.I don't remember saying that. And I don't think I just said that the movie should make sense, but rather that it didn't make sense, although I'm sure some meaning can be found (I still think its about the end of the world, but hey that doesn't mean I'm right).


Madman should not buy and watch this movie for the following reasons:

1) This movie is not very good.
2) There are many movies that are much, much better that Madman really wants to see but doesn't have time for.
3) Not watching this movie again provides 2 hours where Madman can watch one of these new, better movies he really wants to see.
4) Buying this movie would cost a lot of money.
5) Renting a better movie would cost a lot less money.
6) Money and a good movie > less money and a crappy movie.I could make an argument against all of these, but its not worth my time or energy. So basically I'm too lazy to make a proper response. Haha!




Oh, wait.....:|

PS: I already bought 6 Criterions, all that are supposed to be fantastic (well I've already seen two of them, and they are great). So there's that.

Grouchy
07-24-2010, 09:45 PM
Yeah, Madman, don't waste your time seeing this again.

[ETM]
07-24-2010, 11:24 PM
I could make an argument against all of these, but its not worth my time or energy. So basically I'm too lazy to make a proper response. Haha!

Again the classic MadMan response.:lol:

transmogrifier
07-25-2010, 12:18 AM
Yeah, Madman, don't waste your time seeing this again.

I agree. Of all the films in the world to watch, Southland Tales for the second time seems willfully perverse. It's a shitty, shitty film. Ambitious, to be sure, but it fails miserably. I'm glad Kelly gave it a go, but boy, he missed the mark.

Derek
07-25-2010, 12:52 AM
I could make an argument against all of these, but its not worth my time or energy. So basically I'm too lazy to make a proper response. Haha!

Hmm, in particular then, I'd be fascinated to hear how not watching this movie wouldn't provide you with 2 more hours of free time, how renting a movie could cost more than buying Southland Tales and how less money and a crappy movie is better than more money and a better movie.

eternity
07-25-2010, 01:32 AM
Southland Tales greatly benefits from repeat viewings.

Eat my fuck, etc.

Qrazy
07-25-2010, 01:35 AM
Those two posts were made within five minutes of each other.

I was making fun of Madman. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_ePERLvK4)

MadMan
07-25-2010, 05:08 AM
I was making fun of Madman. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_ePERLvK4)I'd be honored if it was from Borat. Bruno isn't as funny.


Hmm, in particular then, I'd be fascinated to hear how not watching this movie wouldn't provide you with 2 more hours of free time, how renting a movie could cost more than buying Southland Tales and how less money and a crappy movie is better than more money and a better movie.I rented it previously for only $2 something, and last time I check I'm sure at most it costs $10 to buy. But hey if I spend about a 100 dollars on six Criterions, I am surely giving my money to a cause worthy of my time. Hurray! /Sarcasm mixed with not giving a shit.


;275432']Again the classic MadMan response.:lol:Actually that post was making fun of my typical reponse....


Yeah, Madman, don't waste your time seeing this again.Why not? I thought it was good enough to warrent a second viewing.

Qrazy
07-25-2010, 05:29 AM
I'd be honored if it was from Borat. Bruno isn't as funny.

I thought he was funny on the show.

MadMan
07-25-2010, 07:11 AM
I thought he was funny on the show.Well the movie was somewhat funny, but its shtick ran a bit thin. I imagine the character is far more hilarious in smaller doses.

[ETM]
07-25-2010, 12:45 PM
Actually that post was making fun of my typical reponse....

The fact that we couldn't tell makes it classic on its own.

Lucky
07-25-2010, 07:02 PM
I just rewatched this the other day. Still stand by that it's one of the most entertaining 2.5+ hr movies out there.

MadMan
07-26-2010, 03:51 AM
;275538']The fact that we couldn't tell makes it classic on its own.If you say so.

Also I'm obviously going to love the Justin Timberlake mouth lip syncing The Killers' "All The Things I've Done" scene, if not only because of the song but also due to the cool visuals and the chorus line girls.

Qrazy
07-26-2010, 03:59 AM
If you say so.


I could tell M. I could tell. :)

MadMan
07-27-2010, 06:32 AM
I could tell M. I could tell. :)Success! I think....