A few incarnations ago, way back in the early days of 2005, I started a movie review site. My first post was a preview of the movies I was looking forward to in the upcoming year, and number one by far was Southland Tales, from writer/director Richard Kelly. His first film, Donnie Darko, was one of my favorite movies at that time, and I couldn't wait to see how he would follow it up. The year came and went, but no Southland. 2006 started, and again this was my most anticipated movie, as I was now certain it would be released by year's end. Sure enough, it was submitted to Cannes in May, seemingly guaranteeing its impending release. But the reception at Cannes was a disaster, and suddenly no one knew what would become of Kelly's second film. Another year passed with no release in sight. Even the most steadfast Kelly fan would be dubious at this point, and I was certainly getting frustrated. Good or bad, I didn't want to wait any longer to see this film. But finally, after nearly four years of patiently waiting, I was able to see Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. No movie has provided me with such a rollercoaster of anticipation and dread, and reviewing it in light of all that has happened over the years proves no easy feat.
Southland is essentially about a group of people in Los Angeles all interacting in the final three days before the end of the world. At the center of it all there is amnesiac actor Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), porn star turned media mogul Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and mysterious twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner (Seann William Scott). Going any further than that would be both difficult and useless: so much happens to so many people that describing it would both spoil it and color it with my own interpretations. Suffice it to say, it is something along the lines of Brazil mixed with Donnie Darko and Starship Troopers.
So I guess the big question is "Is it a disaster like we've been told?" In short: no. It is a very, very flawed movie, but not one without its charms. It's a case of Richard Kelly's ambition getting too far out of control, resulting in a project he was not able to fully have a handle on. I suspect the biggest problem most will have is that it is nigh impossible to fully get it without reading the companion graphic novel, which sets up the first half of the story. Unlike Star Wars, which can start on Episode IV and make sense, this one is fully dependent on the viewer's knowledge of how everything got to where it is at the film's start. The quick introduction at the beginning is simply not enough. Thankfully I was familiar with the prequel story, so I was able to fully grasp what was going on. But most people won't ever read the prequels, and thus, will not appreciate much of what happens.
Kelly has said he wanted to cast people in roles you wouldn't associate them with, and that tactic surprisingly works for the most part. Dwayne Johnson (no longer "The Rock") is good as the befuddled, loopy action star. I always have found him to be a charming actor, and I hope this film proves to be a leap in a new direction for him. Sarah Michelle Gellar brings a quirky ferocity to her porn star character, and I would argue she gives the best performance of the film. It could have been just a ditsy idiot, yet it never is. There is depth to Krysta that is always shining through. Seann William Scott was extremely subdued and contemplative as the Taverner twins, and not once did I think of him as a comedic actor. In fact, for a film that is meant to be a satire, he is possibly the only character that isn't meant to be funny at all. The supporting cast is all very eclectic, with Jon Lovitz shining as a truly scary racist cop and Wallace Shawn enjoying himself as the bizarre creator of a new source of energy known as Fluid Karma. Some might not like the fact that everyone is playing against type, but for the most part they all succeed (Mandy Moore, however, plays her spoiled senator's daughter character way too over the top, and is the weakest part of the cast).
Unlike Darko, where every element seemed to fuse together into one great product, here things don't flow so naturally. For example, Kelly's seemingly preternatural ability to use sound and music in his last film is wasted here. The often beautiful score from musician Moby seems like an afterthought, always used in unnatural scenes. And with the exception of a scene featuring a Pixies song, none of the song choices stand out either. Kelly's interspersal of cutaways, news footage, maps, and other visual elements to tell his story are often relied on too heavily in place of simple storytelling. While they help to create the sense of a real, lived-in world, they become too much of a crutch for his overly ambitious story. And perhaps most disappointing is his lack of strong characters. In Darko there was a sense that each character has something important to add to the story, yet here so many characters are expository or superfluous. You get the sense that Kelly had a film so big in his mind, that no single element of the film got the full attention it deserved, resulting in a film full of deficiencies.
The tone of the film is something that I had some serious contentions with: this thing has mood swings worse than a newborn child. It's a satire, yet it wants us to take it seriously, especially at the end. It's OK to have some funny, lighthearted moments (even end of the world movies need some humor), but entire characters are meant to be over the top and goofy. So when the end hits, and we are supposed to take some sort of special meaning from the final scene, it falls flat. Either make an end of the world satire like Dr. Strangelove, or make a serious-minded look at how me might bring about our own downfall; you can't have it both ways.
Yet in spite of all these flaws, I liked it. I think. I appreciate Kelly's ambition, his steadfast determination to create something different. I wasn't bored, and there were some truly shining moments (Justin Timberlake's musical number set to a Killers song was a lot of fun). I wish it could have all worked out, and I am very curious to see the half hour of footage left out of this final version. It probably won't make the film better, but it sure would be interesting to see if Kelly was able to reign in his film in the final months. I don't think it's the disaster many have claimed it to be, but it's not especially great, either. I am pretty sure I've never anticipated a movie as much as I have with this one - which wasn't helped by years of delays - so it is hard to gauge my true feelings for it. It could soar in my mind over the coming months, like Darko did after I first saw it. Or it could completely collapse as I get more and more removed from the insane buildup in my mind. But right now, at this moment, I see Southland Tales as a gloriously flawed cornucopia of ideas, and one that I am glad to have finally put behind me after all these years of waiting.
