Southland Tales (2006)

[MichaelDeeley 11]

I enjoy this film. It's a surreal piece of political satire with dream logic. The graphic novel prequels help establish the world, but really don't make the movie clearer. It's so bizarre, I'd love to hear the group go nuts trying to figure it out. It could be another Zardoz.

[Let'sAllGoToTheWindow! 75]

Having watched this in it's entirety not too long ago, I can safely say that, yes, it's interesting and filled with great moments for the crew to discuss, but I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. It's such a SLOG to get through, with such little take away.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

Having watched this in it's entirety not too long ago, I can safely say that, yes, it's interesting and filled with great moments for the crew to discuss, but I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. It's such a SLOG to get through, with such little take away.

 

I completely agree. This isn't like David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, in which the dreamlike quality of the film was interesting and the seemingly tangential narrative pieces were connected. Southland Tales simply meandered, as if it was being written and directed as the filmmakers went along. Add to this, it's fuckin' boring. This supposed edgy film simply sat around the house.

[Let'sAllGoToTheWindow! 75]

 

 

I completely agree. This isn't like David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, in which the dreamlike quality of the film was interesting and the seemingly tangential narrative pieces were connected. Southland Tales simply meandered, as if it was being written and directed as the filmmakers went along. Add to this, it's fuckin' boring. This supposed edgy film simply sat around the house.

 

Well, I don't think the film is lazy, I actually think it's broader points are smart and woulda been interesting to flesh out back when it was released. Now that some years have passed and attitudes have shifted those skeletal ideas seem flimsy and obvious targets for the post-9/11 Bush years.

 

One problem is the story, the characters, and the world Kelly built barely connect with those ideas. They frankly don't make any sense at all. Kelly wanted to tell a Sci-fi story about current socio-political issues, and then filled in the blanks with the most confusing, absurd, nonsensical shit imaginable.

 

This is on top of the misguided intention that, yes, he's trying to create a tone similar to Lynch's Mullholand Dr without any real experience doing that. A world that could be funny in one moment, tragic, mysterious, romantic, dreamlike, or nightmarish in another. But this was Kelly's 2nd feature film, he'd never experimented like that to this magnitude before, and as it turned out was not very good at it. So instead of creating a dreamlike atmosphere that draws the audience in, it's just boring.

 

And that's the biggest problem of all. It's fucking boring!

 

For a movie with such a plethora of amazingly odd shit in it (a music video of Justin Timberlake covering The Killers, Jon Lovitz as a completely believable badass, glowing orbs in palms of hands, doppelgängers, SMG as a pornstar, Kevin Smith in old man make-up, The Rock acting like Daffy Duck for the entire film, a teen blowing up a Zeppelin with a rocket launcher on top a floating ice cream truck!!!!) it's SOOOO FUCKING BOOOORING!!!

 

Sorry. I've been holding in that rant for some time, but I feel better now.

[MichaelDeeley 11]

My DVD only has one special feature: Each of the actors is asked what the movie's about. No one has the same answer. I think that's very telling.

[hebmskebm 7]

Bumping this, because I need to hear Jason & June's reactions to this glorious insanity. Just chug some beers, blast "All These Things That I've Done" and let 'er rip...

 

Since The Rock & Jon Lovitz have been prominently featured on the past two podcasts, it would make perfect sense to do a film that has both of them.

[TrashGod 0]

I MADE A SHITTY ACCOUNT ON THIS SHITTY FORUM JUST TO SAY I'M GOD DAMN DISAPPOINTED IN YOUS THREES FOR NOT DOING A SOUTHLAND TALES EPISODE

[DanEngler 5249]

On Minisode 163.5, Paul said the following:

 

I'm guessing that you might have put Southland Tales in here. That's a movie that people talk to us about all the time. I'm gonna tell you right now, we have some friends involved with Southland Tales, so we've held off from doing Southland Tales simply because of our personal relationships. Yes, we are a biased podcast.

The end.