Southland Tales

A mindless theatre and the creative masturbation of Richard Kelly, who believed too much in his much-vaunted genius. I could write about his ham-fisted attempts at political agitprop and ideological insight, about the dubious comparisons with Lynch, but in the end I will paraphrase an excerpt from Jiří Peňás's four-year-old review of Fatherland, which speaks to my soul and fits Kelly's work perfectly: "All is dominated by vagueness, underdevelopment, approximation, and perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a work of art: that it is not really about anything, because it can be about anything.” It is also possible to sit snobbishly or cluelessly in front of Southland Tales and pay homage to its originality (arbitrariness is usually original) and mysterious atmosphere (something that has no meaning is a huge reservoir of mystery). Above all, for me, Kelly's film is a testament to great auteurist self-centredness. An infallible filmmaker throws into the work whatever comes into their head, let the viewer be amazed. Doesn’t make sense? Then it must be a parable. It’s boring? I'm sure there's a message in there. Flaws? It will be that surrealism then. PS: I’m still looking forward to Donnie Darko. (29/03/2008)

Day One: I turned it off after forty minutes because I just didn't understand what was going on, let alone who was with who. Day two: I didn't give up and devoted the rest of my time to it. I guess now I do have an idea about who's with who and what, but the mound of useless characters simply defeated even Kelly’s genius, about which I now have strong doubts. Appreciating porn and making a satire of your country’s foreign policy can be done in a better way, I think. The Rock's charisma, Sarah Michelle Gellar's girlishness (someone get her into real porn! :)) and Moby’s fantastic music keep me somewhere around neutral. The feeling that I should devote two and a half hours to Kelly again is strong, but I am somehow afraid that he will reward me in the same way as the first time. At least no one’s going to take away its title of the "weirdest" and "WTF?" film of the last few years. (04/03/2009)

Moby, as usual, intensifies the atmosphere, Sarah is as beautiful as ever, but Richard Kelly, this time sitting in the director's chair, is playing the role of a joker who enjoys making a mess and then joyfully wading in it. I still don't understand what path I should have taken, why the cars are having sex, why the character Krysta got so much space, and most importantly, how Rock and Scott managed to maintain a serious face even though they couldn't understand what was going on. Stay away from futile attempts to imitate Lynch's masterpieces. (08/08/2009)

At times perfect, at times a little too wacky for my taste. I was very surprised by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who plays really lifelike, as did Seann William Scott. (30/04/2008)

If someone came up to me saying they'd never seen any movie, I'd put Southland Tales on. If only because I'd have to explain to him what porn is. I'm dying to explain porn to someone... (18/10/2011)

My first encounter with Richard Kelly-the director. I quite liked his screenplay for "Domino," I had heard a lot about it, but this is quite a big disappointment. A pseudo eventful film set in the future, where a lot happens and yet nothing really happens at all. A film that has epic dimensions and yet is incredibly small. And the worst part is, a film that claims to be as intellectually encompassing as the Bible, and yet it is empty. This is what happens when someone wants to create a great story but goes their own, completely different way, because they think it is the best. Sometimes it simply isn't. (21/03/2014)