Review of Southland Tales (2007) by Hugo S — 11 Jan 2009

SOUTHLAND TALES (2007).

Dir. Richard Kelly.

Cast. Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle GellarI would like to begin my review with a gentle what the fuck. Southland Tales was first released at the Cannes film festival in 2006 with poor reviews, its runtime was over two hours and a half. It spent time on shelves and being recut, some people thought it would never see the light of day despite a big campaign that had graphic novels for the first three chapters and also three chapters that would take place after the movie. The film actually tells the middle part of a big epic story imagined by Richard Kelly.They might have cut in the runtime for the theatrical release, but Im not sure it helps the film at all. Its confusing, never engaging and non-sense. Im not sure what the message is, if there is one, although I imagine it has something to do with politics, I simply couldnt care to pay too much attention.It is hard to tell wether its supposed to be a big epic political drama or a satire, or a comedy. Genres get mixed up badly. The acting is very average, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is bad more often than none. No on seems to play in the same tone, creating a confusion wether this should be taken seriously or not. And whats with all those SNL cast members ?Richard Kelly obviously has some love for science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick. There is an obvious inspiration, but Dick was a better story teller and Kelly is pretentious. The plot is boring and the science-fiction element seems to come out of nowhere. I wish it could have at least been bad enough to laugh at it, but it simply was just plain wrong and found it hard to stand. One positive point to end this review, the music is quite good and so are the tunes chosen.