“This is the way the world ends.”
Southland Tales has “cult film” written all over it. The director’s previous effort also was a cult film, but it made more sense in its own way. This film starts off interesting but collapses under its own weight, but that might be from missing the full experience.
First off I have to say that director Richard Kelly has designed a complete multimedia experience for this film. He starts off with a graphic novel prequel and continues it onto a website. The movie even starts off with “Chapter four” indicating that you’ve already missing something.
The problem is that this reviewer, and most of the audience, doesn’t really know this till later if they bother to do the research. It might help the appreciation of the film but you won’t really discover any of that till later. The plot is a convoluted one, but I’ll try and hit the high points.
On July 4th 2005 a terrorist group detonates a nuclear bomb in Texas and sets the United States into a state of panic. Cut forward to 2008 and the government has formed the USIDent agency that watches every aspect of daily life. The agency was formed by Senator Bobby Frost (Holmes Osbourne), but his wife Nana Mae (Miranda Richardson) keeps her eye on the operation 24/7.
Their daughter Madeline (Mandy Moore) is married to action star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). The problem is that Boxer has vanished in the desert and when he shows back up he’s lost all memory of the desert adventure. When he does return he’s fallen in with Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a porn star and reality show star (who mutters such wonderful tripe as “embrace teen horniness now”).
The Neo-Marxist underground has kidnapped Hermosa Beach police officer Ronald Traverner (Seann William Scott) and replaced him with his twin brother Roland. Ronald is driving the returned Boxer around so that he can see the ins and outs of police work since he’s written a script about the end of the world that revolves around a police officer called Jericho Kane, a part that he’s going to play.
The oddness arises that the world is actually ending and a cavalcade of strange characters, including those mentioned, are going to bring about the actual end of the world and all takes place in the part of California called the Southland.
Southland Tales takes its cues from the biblical Book of Revelations, which is quoted throughout the film. What you might not see at first is that several characters represent figures, such as the Antichrist, Whore of Babylon, etc., found in that biblical tome. I’m not sure that these connections are that obvious unless you know about them (as I learned after watching the film).
As I said before, Richard Kelly a graphic novel prequel and even labels the film chapters starting with “four,” the first three are the graphic novels. Perhaps digesting all of the parts the movie will make more sense, but if you’re an uninformed viewer or just don’t know about the other parts I think that you’ll be scratching your heard for most of the picture.
I thought the film started off blissfully deranged, but felt it lost momentum before the final credits rolled. I could change my mind if I looked at the graphic novel but didn’t have that chance.
There are some good performances and some quite strange. The film has an air of a cult piece, but Kelly’s Donnie Darko was a more complete picture and this one is somewhat fragmented. I did like it (even if confused by the Repo Man-ish ending) but think that most viewers will dismiss it outright.
Southland Tales is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.40:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a 30 minute making of called “USIDent TV: Surveilling the Southland” and the 9 minute “This is the Way the World Ends” animated film.
Southland Tales tries to be something akin to Donnie Darko but falls somewhat short. Maybe the full experience needs to be had to fully understand what Kelly was trying to do but if you’re renting the DVD you probably won’t know about the other components. Although followers of cult movies may well be seeing this one pop up on lists in the future, well until the world ends that is.
Southland Tales is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 31st release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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