Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician

Dudes,

This movie is tight and has all the elements that make a great movie. Including, great characters, original soundtrack and story to begin with. This movie transports me back to a time when me and my friends used to hang out around Los Angeles, Glendale and other places. It rules with memories and I hear a second Southlander is in the works. If you want to laugh your ass off, get this DVD. This movie is like Beck's-Mello Gold. I hope that makes sense.

Peace

DP

This film is the very definition of what independent film should be. It has a carefree attitude that you cannot help but be carried along with. The acting is far above what you see in the majority of DV features. Everyone involved takes it seriously as a film and not some shot on a weekend flick. Rory Cochrane is excellent in his role of Chance the Keyboard player and makes a fine tour guide through a strong ensemble cast of actors and musicians. Beck and Lawerence Hilton-Jacobs particularly stand out as Bek and Motherchild respectively. It remind me of John Landis' "Into the Night" from the early eighties as a surreal journey through a subculture of L.A. More then worth tracking down

This film is fun and enjoyable once you get past the horrible film quality. Hanft's earlier film, "Kill The Moonlight" looks way better than this film, due to that film being shot on 16mm and this one being shot on what looks like video. Beyond that, the film is fun, pretty stupid and contains some excellent characters and freaky situations. Beck is really good as "Bek" and the scene involving him (the new age keyboard party) seems like it was written with "Midnite Vultures" era Beck in mind. There are some funny situations and Beth Orton is pretty sexy in it. Overall, if you like weird, low budget movies, late 90s "indy" rock, Beck or any combination of these things, you will enjoy the film. I'll admit, I didn't like it at first, but the end I was enjoying it. (Maybe this has to do with the fact that I was also drinking cheap wine.)

This is a film that would potentially seem to have a lot going for it, with a lo-fi vibe and super-hip Cameos from the likes of Beth Orton, Beck, Elliott Smith, Hank Williams III and Billy Higgins. The basic idea of the film is also promising: struggling indie musician finds his dream instrument (a vintage synthesizer) in the classified ads, only to have it stolen from his car whereupon he goes on a quest through LA's suburban sprawl to try to recover it, meeting various hipsters and eccentric SoCal characters along the way.

The filmmakers seem to be aiming for a cult classic along the lines of "Repo Man" meets "Tapeheads". The problem is that, with the exception of Rory Cochrane in the lead role and Beck, Beth Orton and Ione Skye in minor supporting roles, the acting is almost universally bad. In particular, co-star/co-writer Ross Harris is very poor in the role of Cochrane's best friend, over-acting in every scene he's in (which is way too many).

Overall, the film's dialogue is not much better, although there are a few pretty funny lines and situations here and there through the 80 minutes.

To sum up, I don't know whether this is a film school final project or merely a very amateurish attempt to make an indie feature. If it's the former then a lot can be forgiven, otherwise if it's the latter then it's pretty much a debacle.

What a great original movie! Also, hilarious!!And the music is awesome! This movie has so many different moments.Have watched this movie hundreds of times because it reminds me of me and my friends. It is just like reality in my life. It keeps a great pace. Rory Cochrane plays a cool slacker dude looking for his '69 moletron. He and others get hosed by the weirded out LA crowd, looking for the moletron. It is the money, dudes and chicks! So many different music artists. I highly recommend to all that like good alternate music and original independent films. Way to go Steve and Ross who both wrote and directed the film. Ross' music can also be heard throughout the movie. Peace djtodd