Southland Tales

I give the film a 3 out of 10 because it does have some sharp moments where some sort of vision glimmers through. I particularly enjoyed watching Jon Lovitz shattering type. And it's good to see Nora Dunn and Will Sasso on the big screen.

But for the most part, this feels like the world's most expensive B-movie. It has a lot of scenes, most of which are professionally lit and well-composed through the camera, and they feature actors reading lines. And that's all there is - the parts don't add up to a whole.

I like weirdness and I like apocalyptic themes. I like social/political reflection and cinematic chaos. I don't require a movie to present a nice, tidy narrative arc. I do, however want to be drawn in, I want to believe at some level in what's happening on screen. And this movie didn't do that for me. None of these scenes are ever going to happen. They don't depict, or reflect on, a world in which we live. They're supposed to, but like a badly-drawn portrait, the resemblance isn't quite there. All I see is a bad rendering.

I honestly can't understand where all the positive hype for this movie is coming from. I suspect a case of the emperor's new clothes. If you genuinely enjoyed this film, I say the more power to you. Having made it to the end, I think it's a dud.

...after you have landed an indie hit? If you had a gazillion of incoherent opinions about the world and your homeland? If you are mad, confused and overwhelmed about/by the politics and the society? If you have watched too many movies and wanted to integrate your influences all over the place at any sacrifice? If you wanna sell your -in the core- interesting, exciting, weird but overall half-baked ideas that were maybe influenced by some bizarre dreams you had or just popped into your mind after you had too much LSD? Well, you might go and shoot something like Southland Tales. Of course everyone has his own opinion and no one should judge artistic devices and expression since it's entirely subjective and there are no rules to it. So arguing over tastes and opinions is really senseless. But having read many reviews mentioning "real genius" and "a masterpiece", I would like to respectfully disagree. To me it felt like a missed shot at achieving something big, something which was supposed to be an avant-garde and unprecedented work so it would become a cult movie. And when it got horribly out of control, all you can do is trying to patch the whole thing up and sell it so that the intented result was exactly this: "a profound sci-fi satire, an artistic mindfuck".

Too many wildy combinated ingredients doesn't make the soup taste any better. Intention and execution are really two different pairs of shoes.

The real failure of this film isn't that it's overcomplicated in terms of plot. It is definitely overloaded with plots and subplots, characters, and various allusions to the arts. Its downfall is that it uses its central theme of media criticism as an excuse not to present its ideas coherently -- it critiques an incoherent form in an incoherent way. Pot Kettle Black.

The primary thing that keeps the film from succeeding as a whole is its constant shifts in tone. While the filmmakers might argue that they are aping/satirizing the way we get information through the media, it makes for a rotten experience at the cinema. Some scenes are sketch comedy, some are ponderous (in a good sense), there is a bit of action and bit of fun with setting of the film. Without a truly riveting lead character or other weighted focus point it falls apart -- really by the conclusion of the film it's just white noise.

The casting is meant to be part of the media critique, but it's works against the film to keep thinking, 'hey -- that's the guy from Revenge of the Nerds and Moonlighting again', and keeps you distracted from the plot and characters' relationship to the plot. When thinking of this aspect of the film AFTER viewing it's a straightforward idea -- hey the filmmakers are saying that the government is using entertainment to keep us from following the real news, man! But during the actual experience of watching the film, the casting starts one thinking of Mars Attacks or dare I say it, Cannonball Run......

The lighting was very flat, which I assume again is part of the 'fast food media' critique - but ugly is still ugly. Especially considering Donnie Darko I was expecting something worth looking at visually. There are some big IDEAS presented visually, but they are not visually interesting in a formal sense. There has to be SOMETHING for the audience to hang its hat on beyond an idea. Cinema is a sensate experience, not merely an intellectual one.

I look forward to reading about this someday in Scott Tobias's "My Year Of Flops - Redux" on the Onion AV Club....

I liked this enough to tell you in the first sentence that it would have been a candidate for one of only two 4-star ratings I give per year.

If you are an average viewer, you will be put off by the apparent narrative incoherence, the seeming lack of center and the childish nature of some of the devices. That's all fair enough. But let me point you to two things that make it for me.

The first is that it is inherently cinematic. It makes about as much sense when the sound is turned off. Indeed I watched the whole thing through this way once and it actually makes more sense. There's lots of cinematic nesting: movies about movies; videos, narratives and disguises within. There's lots of causality denoted visually. You will find scores of quotes from other films, many more than those "parody" teen movies. And you'll discover many of your favorite intelligent but not famous actors.

That would be enough for me, but there's something else. In fact, though the story is confusing, deliberately made so through how it unfolds, it does make complete sense. It makes as much sense as, say, "The Matrix." I wish it didn't, but there you are. But its the way the story slips about that is pretty wonderful. You see, a narrative works by the way the pieces connect.

Usually we don't have to work because the way the pieces connect is the way they happen in real life: the causal flow of the narrative telling is the same as in the story. But the detective story, and modern noir changed that and now we have a variety of causal connections that can glue the bits together. Even these you don't normally notice unless the writer — as here — makes the shifts between bits cover a greater distance than usual.

Pay attention to this. Greenaway uses reference to number sequence. Barney uses progress through the sexual encounter, clever that. Lynch provides these discontinuities by having characters shift selves — a technique of discovery. Joyce — who in a way is the gold standard because he reified this sort of art through cognitive plumbing connection — depends on notational congruence. All these are exciting as getout in the hands of their masters.

But this is different, more rooted in noir, in cinema. These elements are connected in ways that only read in film.

Here's what I mean: film has evolved a set of notions we call noir. These capture two worlds; the world of the story where the laws of the universe seem to be deliberately arranged by strange occurrences, "mistakes" and coincidences to play havoc with key characters. Then there is the (usually implied) second world where those laws are manipulated and we the viewers sit. In almost all noir films, this effect only occurs in the long form, meaning that it is apparent when seem over the whole story.

Now look here. For all intents, there is no long form here, just a sequence of medium- sized events, each of which contain rather than follow the previous ones. This form was pioneered (I believe) by Altman. The narrative glue of the whole is how the segments slip against one another. We have "Magnolia" that plays with this concept as well, this slipperage. Its the connection that conveys the world. Its subtle and homeopathically powerful as a result.

Now this. Its another step forward in that the connection between elements involves changes in the way the world works. Each shift is not just between story segments that don't make sense, they don't make sense BECAUSE of the nature of the transitions. Many of these transitions involve a change in the laws of the universe. Its as if you were playing chess as a chesspiece, and the rules of the game changed according to the patterns of the pieces on the board. The whole thing would make sense afterward when seem as a whole, but the chessmen will be baffled.

What this does is build an ordinary noir with the two worlds: story, and gods. But it cleverly puts the viewer on the chessboard as someone at the mercy of the rules. Its no accident that the inspiration is Philip K Dick (who invented this sort of reverse introspection), that the key magical plot device is the magically named "fluid karma," and that the mascot is Bai Ling, who was our Béatrice Dalle surrogate for a while.

I want to give this a four, but I do think that the two others from this year are more important.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This film has one of the most offbeat ideas I've ever come across.They are so unique in a way that they make Donnie Darko look cheap.But it has the same problems like any other film with outstanding ideas.It lacks a definite focus.

I got a chance to get a look at the film at the Cannes festival where it was premiering to a bunch of critics who pretty much didn't like it.And there's no surprise to that.Although,you have to admire Kelly's attempt on something way out of anyones imagination.The film is given a very different approach and it will go down in history as the most offbeat/outstanding failures.He has it all,a mind blowing story,that we hardly get, watching the film the first time, great characters,excellent writing,sets,music,cinematography and perhaps a decent directing.

Kelly surpasses any one's expectation when you go into details about this film.But he leaves a chilling disappointment when you actually watch the entire film ,which is longer than it needs to be.He misses his audience from the very beginning.It seems like he is lost in a cloud of ideas and never gave a hard thought on how to put them on screen,and most importantly ,how will people interpret those issues he is trying to depict.

The story,I don't know how to put it,is kind of out of my reach.It requires repeated viewing to fully understand the plot,but if you do get it, it could turn out to be a cult classic.The sad thing is that I didn't quite get it.Okay,here goes....The film is set in the year 2008,about the downfall of the American society,the economy,and major environmental disaster which is taking place.The whole world is at the brink of destruction,war ,poverty and all those issues are getting more and more serious,and in between these events, a number of Characters are having problems of their own.A Boxer is an action star who seems to be amnesiac and somehow he meets this porn star Krysta ,who is starting her own reality show.David Clark ,who is a police officer with a secret to a conspiracy within the government.And all their stories intervene and chaos begins and confusion reigns.

Trust me ,I didn't get what was going on the first 30 minutes,then it kind of made sense and I knew what Kelly's intentions were.He was trying his ass out to bring us something new but loses everything and never achieves what he could achieve.

I would say this film had massive expectations from audiences ,me personally.Donnie Darko was a film unlike anything I've seen before and it was unique in a number of ways.Here he tried but fails miserably,and in total embarrassment.Kelly somehow may have been affected by the failure of Domino ,which he wrote.But I have to say, you guys should check this film out.For his first film's sake.I mean there is a lot to watch here,the sets are highly creative and a splendid Cinematography in aid.There are some wonderful comic moments and a number of interesting dramatic and exciting moments,even when ideas were floating all over the film.The films main problem is that it doesn't decide what to do.How to present it's story,it's full of confusion and hardly will there be a positive reaction to Kelly's execution.I really found the film somewhat frustrating at time and also somewhat astonishing.It had its moments but it never tries to be the next big thing.For one thing,the characters were underdeveloped,and I had no idea what Kelly was trying to prove.There are hardly any explanations,but I believe if you watch it several times,there is a great chance that you might actually get it.And then you can call it classic.

Performances are okay.The Rock underplays his part,Gellar is fine as a porn star turned reality TV host.And as usual Sean Willaim Scott ain't funny.And the rest of the cast is quite comme si comme sa!

Overall,a film that should join "I heart Huckabees",or "Life Aquatic" as being different and unique on the surface but from the inside it's all shallow and bland.And yes utterly confusing.An interesting disappointment ,I guess.

OR,

Maybe because it was only half complete and everything was jumbled,and mismashed.That's why I didn't get it.Or maybe something else.