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Southland Tales

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Southland Tales (2007)

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Reviews Counted:91

Fresh:33

Rotten:58

Average Rating:4.5/10

Consensus: Southland Tales, while offering an intriguing vision of the future, remains frustratingly incoherent and unpolished.

Runtime: 2 hrs 24 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

US Box Office: $227,365

Synopsis: Director Richard Kelly’s follow-up to 2001’s surprisingly popular DONNIE DARKO is a sprawling dystopian satire featuring an all-star cast and a storyline that splinters off into strange and... Director Richard Kelly’s follow-up to 2001’s surprisingly popular DONNIE DARKO is a sprawling dystopian satire featuring an all-star cast and a storyline that splinters off into strange and unexpected places. The film begins with a nuclear explosion in Texas, which sparks a full-scale war between the U.S., the Middle East, and North Korea. Kelly’s central character is action-movie star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who is suffering from a bout of amnesia upon returning from the desert. His reasons for being in the desert are hazy, but he’s hooked up with porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and together they have written a screenplay about the end of the world. Santaros tries to prepare for the film by taking a ride with a cop named Taverner (Sean William Scott). But the cop is actually Taverner’s twin brother, who is working for a shadowy group of neo-Marxists who are trying to overthrow the government. Meanwhile, a brilliant scientist (Wallace Shawn) unveils an incredible new energy source, the end of the world as predicted by the Book of Revelations draws ever closer, and Justin Timberlake (who plays an Iraqi war veteran) provides a voiceover that fills in some of the gaps. As the film builds to its explosive climax, the reasons for Santaros’s time in the desert become clear, and the various strands of the plot are brilliantly woven together. SOUTHLAND TALES is packed with ideas, tangents, song-lyrics-as-dialogue (in particular, "Three Days" by Jane’s Addiction), cameos from established stars, and plenty of references to the post-9/11 political landscape. Kelly’s film is bursting with imagination, and it will undoubtedly need multiple viewings for everything to sink in. Comparisons to films as varied as Richard Linklater’s A SCANNER DARKLY and David Lynch’s DUNE are valid, but Kelly’s movie inhabits a wonderful world of its own, and is one of 2007’s most unique and inspiring pieces of filmmaking. [More]

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nora Dunn

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nora Dunn, Christopher Lambert, John Larroquette, Bai Ling, Jon Lovitz, Mandy Moore, Holmes Osborne, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Lou Taylor Pucci, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Kevin Smith, Justin Timberlake, Abby McBride

Director: Richard Kelly

Director: Richard Kelly
Screenwriter: Richard Kelly
Producer: Sean McKittrick, Bo Hyde, Kendall Morgan, Matthew Rhodes
Composer: Moby
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for Southland Tales

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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A subversive and annihilistic satire on America, lurching from black comedy to farce, from dramatic insight to superficial jokes

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment 1 Comment
04/26/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The brilliance of Southland Tales is inextricable from its flaws, if indeed they are flaws.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
11/08/09
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Has the galvanic pulse of a filmmaker trying things out, failing, and trying again

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/25/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

It's the sort of experience you feel embarrassed about even though you had nothing to do with it, because it's not just a mess, it's a pretentious mess

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
07/29/09
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

This is not just another hodgepodge of a movie that's all noise and excess; writer/ director Richard Kelly has a point here; he has plenty to say.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
12/30/08
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

The type of incoherent, indulgent muddle that can only emerge from the mind of someone who is quite talented.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
12/27/08
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com

entirely misdirected, and the film never gels or even makes sense

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
08/17/08
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

Although it's by any reasonable means a flawed film, Southland Tales demands watching, if only for its cinematic achievements.

Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | comment Comment
07/31/08
Sean Gandert
Sean Gandert
Paste Magazine

Sets up such a pretense of intellectualism it fools its audience into believing it's on a plain they can't understand...

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
05/03/08
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

When it's not being obstinately stupid, Southland Tales is just difficult to watch.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
03/21/08
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

While Donnie Darko is a fine film regardless of your level of sobriety, Richard Kelly's sophomore effort most definitely is not.

Full Review Source: Washington City Paper | comment Comment
03/06/08
Tricia Olszewski
Tricia Olszewski
Washington City Paper

I hope Kelly's career survives Southland Tales, unless, that is, he plans to make more movies like this.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
01/10/08
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

They've left it late, but writer-director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) and his team have gone and scooped The Independent's Worst Film of 2007 award – against stiff competition, too.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
12/07/07
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Frustrating and finally rather pointless.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
12/07/07
Xan Brooks
Xan Brooks
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Whether this is a demented B-movie or a comment on demented B-movies is hard to say. It is horribly fascinating, if not for the full 150 minutes.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
12/07/07
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

The film has a dated feel – it has more in common with 1960s-style wacky satire than the cutting edge of 21st-century cinema.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
12/07/07
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A hypnotic disaster that's truly fascinating - if only for all the wrong reasons.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
12/07/07
Saxon Bullock
Saxon Bullock
Channel 4 Film

There's too much sizzle and not enough steak.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
12/07/07
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC

Southland Tales finally emerges as an admirably bold dud. Trying to sum up EVERYTHING that’s wrong in the world in one kaleidoscopic go, it’s messy, misshapen and curiously muffled. Seems the world does end with a whimper after all.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
12/07/07
Jamie Graham
Jamie Graham
Total Film

By the climax, his truly ambitious, truly flawed film finally disappears into the ‘time-space rift’ (or whatever) to achieve some sort of cosmic transcendence.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
12/07/07
Jonathan Crocker
Jonathan Crocker
Time Out
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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