Ever wonder what WOOD happen if Ed Wood was given the task of directing a movie about the apocalypse AND he had to direct it as though he had the multiple directing personalities of David Fincher (fight club) and David Lynch? Well, no, most people don't wonder that. But that is what watching Southland Tales is like. In fact, it's as hard to watch as it is to turn away, simply because I could not imagine what was going through director Richard Kelly's mind when he wrote and directed this bizarre and awfully acted and executed, uh, movie? In horror movies you keep watching so you can scream, "don't go in the closet!", in this movie I kept watching so I could chuckle, "what the hell???"
When I watched it I was reminded of other movies like "Salton Sea" and "Death Sentence". That is, big budget Hollywood movies that think they've figured out the current formula that has made some indie movies into cult classics and directors like Quentin Tarantino and his fan boy posse of directors in cult classic icons. The most obvious ingredient of the formula? Cameos and odd roles for obscure or larger than life or forgotten actors. For an elaborate example; Justin Timberlake plays an Iraq war veteran who was also a victim of friendly fire, he owns an arcade called "friendly fire", he's a 50 cal. machine gunner who watches over Venice beach California, oh yea, he is also the entire movie's narrator who recites versus of the book of revelations and other clues about the movie's plot (which don't help in the confusion). Furthermore, the Highlander series' Christopher Lambert plays death that comes riding on a pale horse, and in this case, the pale horse he rides is a white ice cream truck from which he sells high powered arms. Let's see, Mandy Moore and John Larroquette play puppets of the anti-Christ who is played by Wallace Shawn (you'd know him if you saw him). Michelle Buffy Geller plays the modern day renascence porn-star and awkwardly socially conscious reality TV show host, while her counterpart is played by "The Rock"- who is at the center of the events that lead up to the end days. More actors include the cast of Mad TV as the antagonists, only a brief cameo by SNL TV's Janeane Garofalo (whose character is in the movie for 2 seconds, but given a character name), the lady who once said, "This House is Clean", in the movie Poltergeist the guy who played "Booger" in "Revenge of the Nerds", and many many more.
The Plot? I dunno? I thought it was stupid and overly complex- it tried to be clever and ended up being (for an honest lack of a better description) retarded. The main plot is about how The Rock (who plays an actor in the movie) and the Porn-Star write a script together about how the world ends. And like in the movie "The Pelican Brief" and "Stranger than Fiction" the script IS actually a prophetic document of how the world ends and how the characters react in the movie. And as the characters describe what their script is about, things in the script are actually unfolding in the so-called reality of this movie. Meanwhile, there are subplots within this movie that are intertwined or supposedly suppose to meet the main plot at a crossroads- no doubt at was to be the climax of the movie. However, it all gets confusing and becomes nothing more than a bunch of non-sense and senselessness when each story begins to arrive together. You will say a lot, "I don't get it", "That makes no sense", or "how did that happen, when that other thing happened before", while watching this movie.
However, it's is such a magical train wreck of story writing, character building and acting- The Rock seems possessed by the acting abilities of William Shatner while the rest of the cast seems uncomfortable with the dialog and how to animate themselves during their lines- that the movie becomes really really entertaining. The sudden and bizarre breakdown into a musical staring Justin Timberlake really grinds in the absurdness of the film. The poor choice in CG (Computer Graphic) fonts for chapter titles and the poor timing and choice of popular indie songs laminate over the glossiness of what was probably suppose to be a big box office grosser. Richard Kelly has already succeeded as an indie cult film director with Donnie Darko, but I think Southland Tales- by accident rather than intelligent design- will be considered his masterpiece... and one of those movies kids of future generations will go see at the weekend midnight movie and laugh and laugh.
When I watched it I was reminded of other movies like "Salton Sea" and "Death Sentence". That is, big budget Hollywood movies that think they've figured out the current formula that has made some indie movies into cult classics and directors like Quentin Tarantino and his fan boy posse of directors in cult classic icons. The most obvious ingredient of the formula? Cameos and odd roles for obscure or larger than life or forgotten actors. For an elaborate example; Justin Timberlake plays an Iraq war veteran who was also a victim of friendly fire, he owns an arcade called "friendly fire", he's a 50 cal. machine gunner who watches over Venice beach California, oh yea, he is also the entire movie's narrator who recites versus of the book of revelations and other clues about the movie's plot (which don't help in the confusion). Furthermore, the Highlander series' Christopher Lambert plays death that comes riding on a pale horse, and in this case, the pale horse he rides is a white ice cream truck from which he sells high powered arms. Let's see, Mandy Moore and John Larroquette play puppets of the anti-Christ who is played by Wallace Shawn (you'd know him if you saw him). Michelle Buffy Geller plays the modern day renascence porn-star and awkwardly socially conscious reality TV show host, while her counterpart is played by "The Rock"- who is at the center of the events that lead up to the end days. More actors include the cast of Mad TV as the antagonists, only a brief cameo by SNL TV's Janeane Garofalo (whose character is in the movie for 2 seconds, but given a character name), the lady who once said, "This House is Clean", in the movie Poltergeist the guy who played "Booger" in "Revenge of the Nerds", and many many more.
The Plot? I dunno? I thought it was stupid and overly complex- it tried to be clever and ended up being (for an honest lack of a better description) retarded. The main plot is about how The Rock (who plays an actor in the movie) and the Porn-Star write a script together about how the world ends. And like in the movie "The Pelican Brief" and "Stranger than Fiction" the script IS actually a prophetic document of how the world ends and how the characters react in the movie. And as the characters describe what their script is about, things in the script are actually unfolding in the so-called reality of this movie. Meanwhile, there are subplots within this movie that are intertwined or supposedly suppose to meet the main plot at a crossroads- no doubt at was to be the climax of the movie. However, it all gets confusing and becomes nothing more than a bunch of non-sense and senselessness when each story begins to arrive together. You will say a lot, "I don't get it", "That makes no sense", or "how did that happen, when that other thing happened before", while watching this movie.
However, it's is such a magical train wreck of story writing, character building and acting- The Rock seems possessed by the acting abilities of William Shatner while the rest of the cast seems uncomfortable with the dialog and how to animate themselves during their lines- that the movie becomes really really entertaining. The sudden and bizarre breakdown into a musical staring Justin Timberlake really grinds in the absurdness of the film. The poor choice in CG (Computer Graphic) fonts for chapter titles and the poor timing and choice of popular indie songs laminate over the glossiness of what was probably suppose to be a big box office grosser. Richard Kelly has already succeeded as an indie cult film director with Donnie Darko, but I think Southland Tales- by accident rather than intelligent design- will be considered his masterpiece... and one of those movies kids of future generations will go see at the weekend midnight movie and laugh and laugh.