Monday, November 19, 2007

Southland Tales

what.
Justin Timberlake watches a movie plot get sucked into the fourth dimension in Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales"

Saw Southland Tales today in Pasadena, could one of you geniuses please explain this movie to me because I was too dumb to figure out anything beyond the fact that there were a lot of song lyrics used as dialog, and a lot of winks and nods to other cult movies(like his own Donnie Darko, Repo Man, Fight Club, Suicide Circle, Adaptation, Starship Troopers, and a bunch more that I can't remember right now).

In fact most of the stuff I remember after watching the movie are clever cutie-pie moments that seem designed to create another cult movie like the ones he is paying homage to.

Like a lot of the people who are saying this movie isn't very good I am a Donnie Darko fan. Unlike Donnie Darko though, this movie doesn't work using the "Interpret your own ending" technique. The story leading up to the strange ambiguous ending in Darko holds up on its own. At the end of that movie I was hoping that things would turn out well for Donnie and when they didn't I was sad.

There is no character that we feel any kind of attatchment to or sympathy for at the end of this movie.

I wanted to like the movie and there are funny moments in it, but if someone could kindly explain the meaning of the ending, or even the middle or the beginning to me I could switch sides on this thing. You know, hop back on board the Richard Kelly is Brilliant Express.

Until I get the Cliff Notes for this it recieves 99 out of 100 stars. (more stars is worse)

1 DAY LATER EDIT:

The internet arguments by movie nerds about this seem to be divided into two major camps: people who didn't understand the movie and didn't like it, and the people who didn't understand but liked it anyway. My prediction is already coming true, legions of douchebags pretending to "get" the film in order to seem cool.

Problem is that I have yet to see a proper explanation or breakdown of the plot.

Maybe all the explanatory storytelling is in the Cannes version of the film? Apparently the version most of us are seeing in theaters is missing almost half an hour of footage. (involving Kevin Smith and Janeane Garofalo's characters)

1 comment:

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