Southland Tales...BR Prequel-ish...

Yesterday I saw Southland Tales, a movie I had been curious about, on DVD. I think I understand now why it was either beloved or hated: it's king-hell weird. However, it provides an explanation of a lot of the things which would later happen in 2019, albeit an unofficial one.

The story is a mashup of lots of elements, including some Dick novels, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, in particular; Vonnegut; current events; and various notions of the End of the World, in a very Burroughs meets Tarantino way. I have never seen Donnie Darko, so I don't have that to compare it to, but I suspect I should check that out eventually.

I don't know whether I like it, I hate it, or I just am going to throw up my hands and neither hate it nor like it and just say it's a goddamn weird movie.

BTW: Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, actually proves that there are more wooden actors than Keanu Reeves and Hayden Christiansen. Why is it that in any Phildickian movie, the Hero/Protagonist has to be portrayed by a person who can't act to save his freaking life??? I mean, ONCE we got good Phildickian anti/heroes in Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, but the record since then has been bad. Let's see: Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves multiple times, shall I go on? Oh yeah, Nicholas Cage was in "Next" and he actually can act when directed properly, but when not directed properly he can suck just as bad as the rest of the rogues gallery.

Prediction: Southland Tales will not be the only Dick-inspired movie that will have Dumb-as-a-bag-of-Rocks in it. Count on it.

Well, perhaps I am just a glutton for punishment but I have to admit that movie descriptions such as yours always seem to get my interest. Plus I am a true sucker for anything PKDick'ish. I will undoubtedly have to rent his now. For others' reference here is the Editorial Review from Amazon.com:

Well, filmmakers should aim high, they say. And Richard Kelly shot the moon on his highly-anticipated follow-up to cult sensation Donnie Darko, which expands the apocalyptic mood of that movie and blows it up tenfold. Set during the election season of 2008, Southland Tales proposes a series of apparently linked events: the reappearance of a vanished movie star (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), now an amnesiac; the bizarre doubling of a policeman (Seann William Scott in two roles); the development of an energy source from ocean waves; and the presence of an Iraq War veteran (Justin Timberlake) who seems to be watching everything, and narrating some of it. Not that the narration helps; even with voice-over (reportedly added after the film's disastrous debut at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival), Southland Tales doesn't come close to making sense, let alone at the minimum level of dangling a carrot to lead the audience along (even Mulholland Drive had a semblance of murder mystery to be solved, or not). The cast is loaded with Saturday Night Live cut-ups, but only Jon Lovitz connects, and in other roles people like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christopher Lambert, Bai Ling, and John Larroquette are utterly mystifying, by no fault of their own. In some of the musical sequences Kelly gets in stride, but it's easy to create drama in a three-minute music video, and harder to do over two and a half hours. Some top critics rushed to champion the movie, as though flying in the face of philistinism, so feel free to try out this incoherent pastiche for yourself. --Robert Horton

Southland Tales is a huge letdown. It in no way shape or form comes anywhere close to living up to the hype that this director got after Donnie Darko. In fact it was universally panned by critics and the director's own fans.

Donnie Darko is a masterpiece!

And comparing it in anyway shape or form to another masterpiece like Blade Runner is really stretching it.

I did get a few laughs out of it though.

I'm sorry I wanted my dvd rental money back plus interest for that waste of my time. That mess and the crappening by m night shambles reinforced my view that besides some stand outs-good movies are endangered in this day and age.