Southland Tales (2005) 6/10

Southland Tales was directed by Richard Kelly, the director of Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko was the indie breakout hit and launched Jake Gyllenhaal's career. From this amazing success Kelly wrote and directed Southland Tales, a film that was shelved immediately after its completion because the distributor didn't know what the hell to do with it. On the shelf it sat until it was unceremoniously released into limited theatrical spots and finally now sneaking in on dvd. I now know why the film was shelved.

Southland Tales is strange. And not artsy David Lynch strange. Or even fun Terry Gilliam strange. Its just a film that doesn't seem to know what it is. Is it a dark comedy? An apocalyptic sci-fi flick? A futuristic political film? A deeper philosophical film? Perhaps all of the above, or none of the above. Strange indeed.

Southland Tales is set in 2008, which makes it sadly already dated. America is at war with Iraq, Iran, Syria, and north Korea. We are now being patrolled by military gunners placed in strategic metropolitan areas. The Internet is also being controlled by the "evil" republican party to stop terrorists. We also have run out of gas but the good news is we've invented a perpetual motion machine that uses the ocean's waves to power cars. The Rock plays a military commando that has lost his memory and is now shacking up with a porn star played by Sarah Michelle Geller. He's written a script that he wants to direct and star in. There's also a neo-marxist terrorist organization using footage of The Rock with the porn star as blackmail against the republican party. Yeah, there's alot going on here.

That in itself is a bit of an over generalization of the plot as well. Beyond the strange script the cast is strange as well. Actors include The Rock, Sheri Oteri from snl, John Lovitz, the highlander Christopher Lambert, Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore, and John Larroquette to name just a few. The film is long too, running at around 2 hours and 15 minutes. That's over 2 hours of head scratching. The film is easy to follow but the motivations of each character become confusing and the ending is just plain strange. Sorry to use the word strange so much but really, its the best word at my command to even begin to describe the film.

In the end this is for more adventurous film watchers and lovers of Donnie Darko and perhaps The Rock only. Check it out if you're looking for something unclassifiable yet still mainstream enough to not be an art film. Strange.

Overall - 6/10