Discuss: 'Southland Tales'

I found it totally incomprehensible, but still kind of enjoyed it. I'm a huge Donnie Darko fan, and ST wasn't nearly as great as that movie, but it had its moments. I keep meaning to read the graphic novels and give the movie another try, hoping it will reveal itself as a masterpiece (although I'm sure no amount of additional material can account for Jon Lovitz and some of the other inexplicable aspects of this movie). If you're a patient viewer, the movie's worth seeing for such flashes of brilliance as the pimp line, the car humping commercial, and Sarah Michelle Gellar's socially conscious porn star.

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Saw it. Sat through the whole movie scratching my head and going WTH? I think there was just way too many storylines going on, then inner meshing to make any sense at all. But that's just my opinion.

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Loved it, not as much as Donnie Darko, but I thought it was easier to understand. The music scene was incredible. I'm not sure why it gets so much crap.

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

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Personally, I felt Southland was a very good film. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I really enjoyed it and enjoyed thinking about it afterwards.

At the time (after viewing) I recall thinking that, if watched in the segments of the chapters it is broken into with time away in between, it might have made more sense to me.

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I'm also trying to muscle through reading The Watchmen. I'm wondering if I'm too old too appreciate it. Southland Tales was a very cool film, I was most impressed with the performances. Crazy, futuristic, bizarre. An interesting look for folks with an open mind.

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The more I think about this movie 1) Justin Timberlake? 2) Would the world really be less violent if it'd do more cardio? and 3) Why do I flashback on Dr. Stranglove when I watch this? I liked the damn thing. Kelly said once he had the perfect script for Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.. so many people in the same device seems right up his alley.

"don't commit suicide." send my bonus points to charity.

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I have to say that I was rather disappointed, after loving Donnie Darko... I think I'd have liked to see the original concept (a commentary on Hollywood) before it got bloated by seemingly every other statement and political conspiracy he felt the need to include.

In the end it seemed like the film didn't know what it was trying to say at all; or maybe it was trying to say too much and got tongue-tied. In the end, I had no clue what I'd just watched, or what I was supposed to take away from it.

That said, the Justin Timberlake trip-scene featuring the Killers song was amazing, and probably worth the price of admission in and of itself. :)

And incidentally, I didn't find the 'pimps don't commit suicide' dialogue as amusing as the rest of you apparently did. Then again, I've always been mystified by the whole "I'm a pimp" thing. Maybe it's a gender thing.

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I thought it was awful. There's a part of me that wants so much to like it that I try to dig and find good things about it, but when I stop, sit back, and open my eyes I realize it's a just a really bad movie. It tries way too hard and none of the film's apparent meaning comes across at all and requires "extra features" explanation.

Yeah, I guess when I think about it Donnie Darko was the same way. It was left to ones own interpretation. That just didn't work with this film though.

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Commit suicide!
JT isn't a perfect narrator, but that Killers music video (that's practically what it is) is awesome. It helps that I love that song.

The movie was supposed to be massively epic, and that was somewhat its downfall, but its also what allows us to laugh at it (or along with it) and enjoy the thing. it's definitely flawed, but not unwatchable. The Rock and SMG are funny. SWS having a clone was awesome, as I watched the movie sitting next to my own twin brother. You can let yourself forget the super-cheesy stuff in the big moments, mainly at the end.

Overall, it was a nice idea that went haywire, but its still fun.

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"Southland Tales": Well... interesting but ultimately head-scratching. All in all, kind of a mess.

"Watchmen": Great graphic novel back when I first read it in the mid-80s. Still great. Look forward to the film.

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One the best films ever made about our last 8 years in apocalyptic America. Rock gave an awesome performance as the amnesiac main character juxtaposed with the powerhouse cast (Justin Timberlake's fantasy sequence to the Killers tune was jaw dropping, Jon Lovitz automatonic cop was hilarious, Curtis Armstrong was the perfect mad scientist echoing his 80s roles, Nora Dunn and Janeane Garofalo perfect comedy timing) and script right out of the Donnie Darko meets Dr. Strangelove meets War Inc. lexicon. I'll agree that a pre-requisite is having some context before you view it. For example, a good understanding of political satire and what Richard Kelly is about. He's a product of the 80s and this movie was as good if not better than any Robert Zemekis or Spielberg film but with balls of steel and dialogue to analyze for years to come. Five stars.

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"Southland Tales" was an insanely ambitious attempt to smash complex layers of pop culture commentary in with the dense threads of the comic, while maintaining the comic feel, but in an HD world...whew!! -and people bemoan its being a bit messy?

Kelly's view of our world is disjointed and strewn and Texan sized. He's held a big mirror up to us, but it reflects back so much that its hard to stomach and swallow that vision, without overwhelm and confusion. That is, if the viewer came ready to think hard from the get-go. [and hey, let's face it, lots of us don't want so much of the hard-thinkin' in our action entertainment.]

Well, those who appreciated "Donnie Darko" should have seen this coming. Kelly gets the keys to the candy store and, like young Orson Welles w/ "Citizen Cane," he's going to flex and run a bit. Maybe attempt something unprecedented. -Perhaps so accurately ridiculous and profane that we are loathe to stare into it for too long, to think too deeply about the implications we're peppered with...

"Tales" is brilliant on so many levels: getting televsion cliches and graphics down so perfectly that you almost miss the jokes; stunt-casted / against-type-casted icons playing comic caricatures, reflecting clownish sterotypes that people are purposely trying to ape in real life [omfg]; references, sef-references, parody upon bloated cliche upon sad f*cking truth... Paris H-, I mean SMG, for instance.

Self-indulgent? When you get to tell your own story your own way? Perhaps this queasiness is from our being fed formula for so long. Unpredictable? Thank god. If it feels choppy, I say the clarity is waiting in that 3 hour monster he set out to make....
3 Hours? Let me at it. I cannot WAIT to experience being challenged again. Here we have the rare gift of a new auteur who doesn't pre-suppose his audience to be dolts. Who refuses to insult our intelligence, but instead challenges us to a semiotic duel.

I'll tell you what a Pimp WILL do: Pimps take 3 hours of mess to Cannes. Like Greenaway with "The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover"... if they're leaving 10 minutes into it, you must've done something new, something right.

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About time you read Watchmen, Will. We'll have to discuss it in depth some time.

Southland Tales was one of the films of 2007 (along with I'm Not There) that I was most anticipating and actually did a bunch of preparation prior to seeing it. I downloaded the 41-track promo soundtrack that was apparently issued at Cannes, read the 3 graphic novels, re-watched the theatrical and director's cut of Donnie Darko with all the commentaries, and watched Domino (3 times to also listen to both commentary tracks) and Kiss Me Deadly for the first times.

I'd heard all the negative reviews from Cannes and from the secret screening that happened at Fantastic Fest but was sure that I would get the film and appreciate on a level that those who had seen it blind hadn't. I found the graphic novels to be really well-made. There was this great alternate future that was well-realized and I could easily see the characters being brought to the screen by who Kelly had cast (except Will Sasso as Fortunio Balducci. He didn't work at all in my opinion).

When I finally saw the film, what really made me dismayed (at least thinking about it a year later) is how much of the elements from the graphic novel were dropped and didn't feature into the story at all. Characters that had so much interesting backstory had maybe 5 minutes of screen time and next to no lines. I couldn't get a handle on some of the performances and the editing of some scenes. As I left the theatre I knew I'd enjoyed parts of the movie, but I certainly couldn't defend it and I didn't "get" the movie the way I thought I would.
It's interesting that since the film was written as a blending of so many elements, sort of a pop culture cuisinart, that as I watched it I felt that I was constantly picking out various elements that I had seen in my research. "Oh, there's that great Moby track 'Water Pistol'" and "That split American flag is on the cover of Two Roads Diverge."

All that said, I'm definitely going to watch the movie again and will buy the Blu-Ray disc one of these days (though I wish the first cut and some more behind-the-scenes stuff was on the disc). I think Dwayne Johnson did a great job and this film along with The Promotion and Role Models renewed my interest in Seann William Scott. The soundtrack/score is fabulous and if the film is viewed through a Warhol aesthetic of delighting in seeing familiar actors in against-type roles, the film works, but overall it was a fascinating let down. Here's hoping The Box is fantastic!

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Liked it. Didn't love it but found it interesting, very funny and unconventional enough to keep my attention. Not sure why people hated it so much when there are far worse films released constantly. Hell, did anyone sit through the American remake of Infernal Affairs? That was a bland film with nothing interesting in it...

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I find it ironic that many of these overly long reviews call the film self indulgent.

Southland Tales was the most interesting mess I've seen on screen in a long time to the point where I couldn't help but love it. It's not for everyone, but goddamn did I love the crap outta that movie.

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Movie was insane. All I remember was the song "All These Things I've Done" and some nonsense happening.

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A brilliant film. What the naysayers don't understand is that, like Dr. Strangelove, the entire thing is a joke and is parodizing itself in the process of parodizing our culture. That's what's so damn funny about it! People don't seem to understand that.

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The first time I watched Southland Tales, I was kind of disappointed, I didn't think it really came together all that well.

But for some reason I wanted to watch it again... and again.

And it remains one of those films I can watch over and over again... which probably means that I really do enjoy it.

Was it a mess? Yes. But an incredible mess.

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