Southland Tales - from Richard Kelly

[FilmBoy77]

i guess you all have seen the trailer already: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809233751/video/4164037/standardformat/

i hear this has been getting bad reviews and from the looks of this trailer i think i'll wait to see what everybod else says about the movie.

i liked donnie darko btw.

here's a better quality version: http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/09/20/must-watch-richard-kellys-southland-tales-trailer-finally/

[BryantStanton]

Meh, unless I hear raves from people, I'll wait for the DVD.

I wasn't a big fan of Donnie Darko as a whole, but I would still give Kelly another chance to see what he has to offer.

That said, I really don't know what the hell is going on in the trailer.

[FilmBoy77]

yea, and seeing that justin timberlake is one of the stars, after seeing black snake moan, i think i'll wait for DVD too.

[dvpixl]

feels like a cyberpunk film with a political twist.

[NickMilo]

Checked it out the other night, and I was enjoying it immensely untill the about the last quarter of the film where the movie basically fell apart.

On the drive home I called one of my buddies and told him how bad I thought it was.

Later on that night though, I started to think about it some more and some things slowly made more sense, and the more I thought about it, the more it started to grow on me. Went on the IMDB message boards, and reading through all the theories, and seeing all the sides/takes on the story really helped in piecing the whole movie together.

In all, its guaranteed to be quite an experience. Whether its a bad one or a good one is up to the viewer. Alot of the meaning in the film is left open to interpretation and there are some scenes that wont make sense till seeing it the second time/third/forth... And there are also some scenes that make you think WTF was Richard Kelly smoking when he wrote this??

Granted the movie does have its flaws, but I'm thinking that it might be the result of re-edit Kelly did because of the negative press recieved from the cannes premiere. Hopefully when it comes out on DVD it will include the 20 minutes cut out.

If you want a movie that sums up everything in a nice easy to understand package, than this isn't for you. Im definitely gonna check it out again just to see what take I'll get from it this time around.

If you're looking for a theater showing it around you, look here:
http://schedule.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/films/southland+tales/

[Cheesesailor77]

i didn't like donnie darko, and i wasn't interested in this until I saw the trailer just now. Looks interesting to me

...that cast is going to keep me away though, sry :(

I'll wait for the rental

[Mark Harris]

I am a pretty big fan of Donnie Darko which, though flawed, is still very interesting and fun. I kind of dig movies that are flawed because they reach a little too far at something different and maybe don't always get there. Felt the same way about Primer, which I think(as messy as it is) is the best time travel film ever made.

I just saw Southland Tales last night at Pioneer. I don't get it, except that it's pretty obviously modeled on the Book of Revelation.

At first glance, it feels like it needs about half an hour cut. It felt really long, and it feels like all that time could have been spent making more sense.

DD and Primer, on the other hand ended very quickly in my eyes, and left me going: "Wait, what just happened?" while I was still excited enough about them to investigate their meanings and try to unravel their plots.

This one also, though I LOVE the cast, lacked much of the heart that carried DD. That film dripped with empathy for the lead, and this one did not. DD felt more emotional to me, and this one felt ONLY like an intellectual exercise. Not surprising that it comes with some graphic novel prequels, because that was about the level of the characterizations. It felt too comic book to really let you care about any of it.

Also, while I am not one of those who hates VO, this one had WAY too much. I guess the studio added that. but again, seems like all of this could have been made much clearer in the script ahead of time.

The JT music video to the Killers was pretty fucking awesome though. And of course, John Laroquet simply kicks ass. Now, THAT is bold casting. :)

[FilmBoy77]

if it comes to my city and i'm completely bored or whatever, i may go see it for the hell of it since he's from my hometown. i have low expectations so maybe it'll hold my interest.

[c.g._eads]

This movie................ was SO bad. Embarrassingly bad. Dreadfully bad. Bad in every definition of the word. I am going to say this with not a hint of hyperbole. This guy should never be allowed to make another movie again.

Now for those who are saying, "Well, everybody already knew it was bad. Who cares?" No, this movie was beyond what you've heard. It's literally what you'd expect a first year kid in a low-rent film school to come up with as his first short film. Like the one where the student touches a camera for the first time. There are film school staples like, "I had a strange dream last night...." followed by the exposition of a long really weird dream that is ALWAYS fascinating to the person who thought it up, but is beyond stupid to anyone else who hears it. There is 20 minutes of exposition to open the film, but get this -- You still don't know what's going on?? The whole idea of exposition is that you EXPLAIN. If people aren't going to know any better what's going on after 20 minutes of explaining it, just take that whole 20 minutes out. You saved us 20 minutes. There's a moment early on that epitomized what I hate about this guy. Someone's walking around a 4th of july party with a video camera and we're the POV of the video camera. As we see all the people eating, playing, talking, we move by this woman on a chair and she's holding a squirt gun. She points the squirt gun at the camera and pulls the trigger. Water shoots out onto the lens. She then LOOKS UP at the director (who was clearly behind the cameraman) and says "Ooops! I'm so sorry! I didn't know it had water in it!" But the camera keeps going around and our visionary director decides to KEEP THE TAKE. Because he's soooooooooo auteur! He sooooo values performance and spontenaity over technical achievement! And he's soooo avante-guarde! This is exactly why I hate this guy, that he beleives he's so different and gifted that he can just throw mistakes up on the screen and people will laude him for his originality. Taking that a step further, during an explanation of yet another storyline that made no sense, he decided to use STORYBOARDS to explain the backstory. Clearly these were original storyboards for the movie that he didn't have enough money to shoot so he thought, "I'll just do what nobody's done before because I'm Richard Kelly and I'm a genius and I'll actually JUST USE THE STORYBOARDS instead of shooting actual footage. It's genius!" God do I hate this guy.

Worst of all, this movie managed to do something to me that few movies do. It managed to make me drift off. I'd realize that 40-60 second chunks had gone by and I hadn't been paying attention. Cause it just went on. And on. And on. And don't get me started on the casting. This had to be the single worst casting I have ever seen in a movie. There were like 30 SNL alums. Why?? It didn't even bring an odd quality to the film. It didn't bring a surreal quality to the film. It brought a, "Why are you casting these actors in your film?" quality to the film. These people don't work regularly for a reason. The stars as well. The Rock did not fit. Stiffler did not fit. Buffy - what was she doing in the movie?? I have no idea. Justin Timberlake with bad hair, bad make-up, a bad snarl, and terrible acting, did not fit. Nobody in the entire movie fit. Casting isn't just about casting people that fit each role. It's about finding people that work well together and play off each other. Nothing about this cast gelled at all.

And I know that others will say, "Well I'd rather watch one spectacular failure like Southland Tales than a thousand big-budget souless Hollywood flicks." Trust me. You wouldn't. After getting not halfway through this movie, you'd be begging for the next "Big Momma's House". You would craaaave "Step Up 3: Oh No You Dihint" This guy deserves to be purged of his right to make films. He is an abomination as a director. This guy is stealing one of the elusive 80 directing opportunities a year, that some of the top guys on this site deserve way more than him.

In summation, avoid this movie at all costs. And avoid Richard Kelly's future movies as well.

disclaimer: chris holds nothing against film school. He is thinking himself of going to film school.

[Bsmith]

so what did you really think of this movie?

[Wild Imagination Films]

Along with Donnie Darko which I have watched twice, I thought to myself, "If they are paying this clown to make these god-awful movies, where's my paycheck?"
I don't understand the draw or the interest anyone has in anything this guy does. It strikes me as a bad case of the Emperor's New Clothes. Not very often do I just flat out slam a movie, but man, this movie just plain sucked.
(Too much?)

[FilmBoy77]

so i watched this since you guys revived this thread and i didnt make it past 35 mins. wow this sucked so bad. so uninteresting it felt like he was making it up as he went along. i'm taking it back to the store tomorrow. wow it's so bad, i know i have a shot now, thats the kind of thing that motivates me. i cant even believe it made it into Cannes....i guess they just accept movies based on names and hype.

[pdsage10]

Holy crap this is the biggest piece of sh*t that I have ever seen! Why would people have wasted thier time working on this horrible film? Turned it off after 20 minutes.

[David Jimerson]

Just watched it tonight.

My wife started fidgeting after half an hour, and it was a tough, tough slog to get through to the end.

Here's a classic example of why you need to tie everything together for your audience . . . this thing had no ending. I guess you're supposed to figure it all out for yourself, but what you're left with is a big mess of confusion.

A lot of talent in this film. All of it wasted. It was pointless.