It's a total multimedia train wreck (graphic novels, feature films, internet websites), but that isn't inconsistent with the project.
It's a very difficult film to talk about: the plot is convoluted and
crammed almost beyond capacity with pop culture, cinematic, literary,
religious, cultural, political (and others!!!) references. It's a film
made by a true artist and probably suffers from the expectations
inherent to a feature film, even if it only has limited distribution. I
still haven't completely digested this epic work. I probably need to
see it a few more times before I can confidently talk about it, so here
are some links to other people's reviews of it:
J. Hoberman for The Village Voice:
"Southland Tales recognizes the protocols of the National
Entertainment State, but, flirting with sensory overload and predicated
on a familiarity with American TV, political rhetoric, and religious
cant, it's a movie without a recognizable genre or ready-made
demographic."
Melissa Anderson for Time Out New York:
"A doomsday scenario that takes
on Iraq, the endless war on terror, the idiocies of political movements
and the aggressive vacancy of pop culture, Southland Tales is one of the smartest, funniest, most audacious—and most mournful—films of the year."
Manohla Dargis for The New York Times:
"Certainly Southland Tales has more ideas, visual and intellectual, in
a single scene than most American independent films have in their
entirety…"
Andrew O'Heir for Salon.com:
"…to my taste the plot, characters and actors are just the architectural
framework over which Kelly has spray-painted an impressionistic
tapestry depicting post-9/11 America as it might have been, or might
yet become, or might really be if we could only see it clearly."
And here is a special Austin-centric treat. An interview with the
director by Spencer Parsons for The Austin Chronicle:
"Southland Tales
is personal in an obsessive, intricate, and utterly careless mode, more
common to Book of Revelations-inspired murals made from bottle caps
than to star-studded Indiewood product. It doesn't so much raise more
questions than it answers as it suggests the feeling of far more
questions than it can raise, without knowing remotely whether that's a
good thing or bad."
If you know what's good for you, go see this film. It's an "important"
piece of work. I don't doubt it will become a cult classic. And I doubt anybody will actually see it. It's that good.
3 comments
This film doesn’t need to be digested it needs to be forgotten. a very hollow piece of celluloid.
taken from a much more sensible review.
“Every time Kelly manages to build up a halfway decent head of comic froth — as in a fast-talking sequence wherein Boxer is reunited with his estranged wife (Moore, very funny) and in-laws — he blows it with some god-awful portent or “statement.” You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Justin Timberlake lip-sync a ridiculous Killers song, true, but watching it you might wish you’d never lived, period. When I first saw this picture I figured it as the bilious result of an imaginary drinking match between Philip K. Dick and Thomas Pynchon; second time around, it’s clear that Kelly fancies himself some kind of cross between Stanley Kubrick and Alan Wolfe. Fat chance on either count, particularly the Kubrick — Kelly’s camera placement and framing are at best textbook and at worst calamitously mediocre.
A good number of this film’s defenders, incidentally, have been taking Kelly’s cue and making noises that those who aren’t with the program “don’t get it” or somehow resent it. The normally sensible J. Hoberman of the Village Voice took the latter tack, which is disappointing — what’s there to resent, really, about puling, know-somethingish post-adolescent angst? In any case, to paraphrase Robert Christgau, I dare you to spend money to find out which camp is right.” – Glenn Kenny for Premier
I’m gonna side with the camp that says you really didn’t get it. Though the casting is directly referencing that of a teen movie, this is isn’t meant to be a conventional comedy, or even a satire of conventional comedies. The fact that there are funny moments is incidental. If the film seems hollow, that’s because American culture is an ultimately empty experience. That’s the core of Kelly’s film, and he communicates in both beautifully subtle and unsubtle ways. I will never forget the Rock drinking from an unbroken six pack of beer while a rabid fan demands to fellate him. Genius.
It’s like Matthew Barney and David Lynch and the guy who made Repo Man all got together and tried to make a really fucked up story. So much going on. So Many layers. Kelly is Genius!!! All the haters need to get a life. Just cause you don’t understand it don’t mean it’s bad!