Review of Southland Tales (2007) by Aaron P — 05 Mar 2009

Boy Richard Kelly is on a seriously bad 'shroom trip or in need of some major therapy. This film is a complete mess of ideas, vaccuous product-placement, garrish set-pieces, big-name actors, cultural icons and pop-trash ephemera. The plot (such as it is) completely jettisons halfway through to become a Philip K Dick-esque story directed in turns by both Lynch and Kubrick, from a script written on an etch-a-sketch by a 12-year-old with ADD. The pace is just all wrong (for which I mostly blame Moby's off-kilter droning score). The cast alone must have cost an insane amount of cash, not to mention the special effects. A break-out performance from Dwayne Johnson does nothing to save this melange. The 3-star rating is for providing me with an interesting evening of cinema that made me laugh on several different levels. Sure, it's entertaining with some laugh-out-loud moments (usually at spotting another celeb in a role you never thought they'd be seen dead in!), but ultimately it's all a very expensive folly.

But then I didn't like DONNIE DARKO the first time I saw it either...

EDIT: on second viewing it seems no better. I think it may become a cult classic in a decade or so, but not to those of us that experienced it the first time around.