Rewatch: Southland Tales

I probably shouldn’t admit that I own Southland Tales on Blu-ray. It’s not a good movie by any means, but inspires thought and creativity throughout – no matter how pointless it may all seem.

Critics and audiences notoriously panned this film. Even fans of Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko were unimpressed. But, how do you follow such a cult-hit like Donnie Darko?

You go all out. It’s almost tradition or insanity for modern independent directors to bite of more than can chew after a magnum opus of a film. Think Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain following Requiem for a Dream or even Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York.

The over-ambitiousness is endearing and often viewed as self-indulgent. However, these films always tend to reach cult status eventually.

The biggest problem with the film is that it’s hard for the audience to detect the satirical take trying to be achieved as the plot seems to only derive from nonsense. The main casting of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake is questionable enough.

The supporting cast of John Larroquette, Bai Ling, Kevin Smith, Cheri Oteri, Jon Lovitz, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garofalo and Will Sasso is more than enough proof that Kelly meant for his epic to not be taken seriously.

If only the captivating could simply overshadow the bad, boring and pretentious scenes. For example, the handheld cam scenes at the beginning are almost better than anything else. The Liquid Karma-vision scenes echo Donnie Darko SFX as well as the slow-paced musical montages (wonderful score by Moby).

Kelly was going for Lynchian humor, but Kelly’s humor isn’t as full of odd wit. Though, it is as absurd as satire can be, it’s too abrasive and not seemingly self-aware. The Blu-ray is worth it for those surprisingly good CGI moments and the inclusion of the prequel graphic novel is a nice touch.

7/10