Review of Southland Tales (2007) by Rob — 12 May 2009

Richard Kelly's portrayal of Los Angeles drowning under the weight of its own decadence is clearly a film that is close to his heart. He fought tooth and nail to make it and fought even harder to get it released. Watching the film it becomes abundantly clear that at no point did anyone yell "stop!" or provide him with any kind of context or perspective. As LA implodes from excess so does this film.

The film is a cornucopia of flash, dazzle, colors, music, sound, false modesty, feigned depth and exposed hypocrisy, no doubt how Kelly views LA. No target is spared, at least in his eyes: the leftists are as stupid overzealous as the rightists, activists are as shallow as celebrities, cops are as bad as criminals, etc. The problem is he slings mud left and right to no apparent purpose. He seems to feel this satire when it is really little more than farce. While I admire its schizophrenic tone and its refusal to play by the rules it is sadly a lot of sound and fury ultimately signifying nothing.

The film wears its influences on its sleeve (everything from "Strange Days" to Tool's "Aenima" to "Dr. Strangelove") and its batshit crazy cast (ranging from Miranda Richardson to Jon Lovitz) actually works in favor of the film's anarchic tone. On the face of its fantastic trailer, however, this mess is at best a complete disappointment. If there is an indisputable silver lining it is this: Richard Kelly is the real deal. Only someone who aimed for the sky could have failed to spectacularly.