Southland Tales is a 2006 science fiction/drama/black comedy film, written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles. Set in the then near future of an alternate history, the film is a portrait of Los Angeles and a comment on the military-industrial news-tainment complex. The film features an ensemble cast. Original music for the film was provided by Moby. Samuel Goldwyn Films in partnership with Destination Films and Sony Pictures released Southland Tales.
The film premiered May 21, 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a negative reception.[1][2] After significant edits, the final version premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2007.[3] It opened in limited release in California on November 14, 2007 and in Canada as well as nationwide in United States, in just 63 theaters,[4] on November 16, 2007. The film opened in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2007.[5]
Plot summary
El Paso and Abilene, Texas have fallen victim to twin nuclear attacks on July 4, 2005 – a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which has sent America into World War III. The PATRIOT Act has extended authority to a new agency known as US-IDent, which keeps constant tabs on citizens – even to the extent of censoring the internet and using fingerprints in order to access computers and bank accounts. In order to be able to respond to a newfound fuel shortage in the wake of global warfare, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which is propelled by ocean currents, called "Fluid Karma". Unbeknownst to anyone but its inventor Baron Von Westphalen and his closest associates, the generators alter the currents and cause the Earth to slow its rotation, ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.
In Los Angeles, a city on the brink of chaos overshadowed by the growth of the underground Neo-Marxist movement, the film follows the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), ex-porn star in the midst of creating a reality TV show; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner (both played by Seann William Scott), whose destinies – on one evening – become intertwined with that of all mankind.
Cast
Principal cast
- Dwayne Johnson as Boxer Santaros/Jericho Cane: An amnesiac action star whose life crosses paths with Krysta Now.[6] Santaros is married to Madeline Frost Santaros.[7]
- Seann William Scott as Roland Taverner/Ronald Taverner: A U.P.U. police officer at Hermosa Beach, California[6] and an identical character who is a neo-Marxist[7]. Although the film is ambiguous, it is implied that the two characters are one and the same; the second Taverner was created by the first's passage through a rift in the fabric of the fourth dimension.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Krysta Now aka Krysta Kapowski: An adult film star who is working on creating a reality TV show.[6] Gellar met with Kelly and was drawn to the original ideas in his script for Southland Tales.[8]
- Mandy Moore as Madeline Frost Santaros: Wife of Boxer Santaros and daughter of Senator Bobby Frost.
- Justin Timberlake as Pilot Abilene: A disfigured Iraq War veteran.[9] He narrates the film and also performs a musical number.[7]
- Nora Dunn as Cyndi Pinziki: A porn director and principal member of USIDeath, an organization with plans to destroy US-IDent.
- John Larroquette as Vaughn Smallhouse: An advisor to Senator Bobby Frost.[7]
- Jon Lovitz as Bart Bookman: An LAPD cop, secretly working with the Neo-Marxists.[7]
- Miranda Richardson as Nana Mae Frost: The ambitious antagonist of the film, Boxer's mother-in-law is the head of US-IDent.
- Wallace Shawn as Baron Von Westphalen: A villain who utilizes ocean waves to create a source of power.[7]
- Kevin Smith as Simon Theory: A legless Iraqi War veteran who works for Baron Von Westphalen.[10]
Supporting cast
- Bai Ling as Serpentine
- Holmes Osborne as Senator Bobby Frost
- Wood Harris as Dion Element
- Cheri Oteri as Zora Carmichaels
- Amy Poehler as Dream/Veronica Mung
- Lou Taylor Pucci as Martin Kefauver
- Janeane Garofalo as General Teena MacArthur (cut from theatrical release)
- Beth Grant as Dr. Inga von Westphalen
- Christopher Lambert as Walter Mung
- Zelda Rubinstein as Katarina Kuntzler
- Will Sasso as Fortunio Balducci
Production
Writer-director Richard Kelly wrote Southland Tales shortly before the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the original script involved blackmail, a porn star, and two cops. Since the attacks, Kelly revised the script. He described the update, "[The original script] was more about making fun of Hollywood. But now it's about, I hope, creating a piece of science fiction that's about a really important problem we're facing, about civil liberties and homeland security and needing to sustain both those things and balance them."[9] He has also described the film as a "tapestry of ideas all related to some of the biggest issues that I think we're facing right now . . . alternative fuel or the increasing obsession with celebrity and how celebrity now intertwines with politics".[11] With the film's premise of a nuclear attack on Texas, Kelly wanted to take a look at how the United States would respond to and survive it while constructing a "great black comedy".[11]
Kelly described the film, "[Southland Tales] will only be a musical in a post-modern sense of the word in that it is a hybrid of several genres. There will be some dancing and singing, but it will be incorporated into the story in very logical scenarios as well as fantasy dream environments."[12] Kelly has stated that the film's biggest influences are Kiss Me Deadly, Pulp Fiction, Brazil and Dr. Strangelove. He also calls it a "strange hybrid of the sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Philip K. Dick".[13] The film often references religious and literary works; a policeman says, "Flow my tears," in reference to the Philip K. Dick novel, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) quotes Biblical scripture from the Book of Revelation in the course of narrating the film and allusion is made both to Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and an altered version of T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men.
In March 2004, Kelly and Cherry Road Films began development of Southland Tales. Filmmakers entered negotiations with actors Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Lee, Janeane Garofalo, Tim Blake Nelson, Amy Poehler, Kevin Smith and Ali Larter to be cast into the film. Filmmakers also contacted musician Moby for the possibility of composing and performing the film's score.[12] While casting the film, Kelly consciously sought out actors that he felt had been pigeonholed and wanted to showcase their "undiscovered talents".[11]
Filming was slated to begin in July 2004, but after a year, filming had not begun on Southland Tales. Actor Dwayne Johnson joined the cast in April 2005, and principal photography was slated to begin August 1, 2005 in Los Angeles.[6] Filming for Southland Tales began on August 15, 2005, with a budget of around US$15–17 million.
Kelly sent the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival a rough cut of Southland Tales on DVD assuming that it would not be accepted.[14] Much to his surprise, they loved it and wanted the film entered in competition for the Palme d'Or. He stopped editing the film and was also unable to complete all of the visual effects in time for the screening.[14] Kelly's film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2006 with a length of 160 minutes.[15] Kelly describes the negative reaction at Cannes as a "very painful experience on a lot of levels" but ultimately felt that the film "was better off because of it".[14] After the film's festival release, Southland Tales was purchased by Sony Pictures.[16] Universal Pictures had originally optioned the U.S. rights, but after the Cannes screening, it was sold to Sony, although Universal still retained some international rights. Kelly sought more financing to finish visual effects for the film, and he negotiated a deal with Sony to cut down on the film's length in exchange for funds to complete the visual effects.[17] Kelly edited the film down to the basic storylines of the characters portrayed by Scott, Gellar, and Johnson. The director also sought to keep the musical number performed by Timberlake, based on "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers which he felt was the heart and soul of the film.[9] Editorial changes were made to restructure the order of the film's scenes, including re-recording all of Timberlake's voice-over. The director also added 90 new visual effects shots to the film and removed 20 to 25 minutes of footage from his initial cut.[18]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Southland Tales was released in stores and online on November 6, 2007. Amongst the songs not available on the soundtrack but featured in the film are Muse's "Blackout", The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done", and Blur's "Tender". Additionally, tracks from Radiohead, Louis Armstrong, Beethoven, Kris Kristofferson and several tracks from Moby's Hotel:Ambient are likewise absent from the album. The reason for the exclusion of some of these tracks, like the song by The Killers was as a result of a dispute with the record label.[14]
Release
Marketing
Southland Tales was initially planned to be a nine-part "interactive experience", with the first six parts published in six 100-page graphic novels that would be released in a six-month period up to the film's release. The feature film comprises the final three parts of the experience. A website was also developed to intertwine with the graphic novels and the film itself.[6] The idea of six graphic novels was later narrowed down to three. The novels were written by Kelly and illustrated by Brett Weldele. Kelly wrote them while making the film and found it very difficult as it pushed him "to the edge of my own sanity", as he remarked in an interview.[14]
- Part One: Two Roads Diverge (May 25, 2006, ISBN 093621175X)
- Part Two: Fingerprints (September 15, 2006, ISBN 0936211768)
- Part Three: The Mechanicals (January 31, 2007, ISBN 0936211776)
They have been collected together into one single volume:
- Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga (360 pages, Graphitti Designs, ISBN 0936211806)
The titles of the parts in the movie are:
- Part Four: Temptation Waits
- Part Five: Memory Gospel
- Part Six: Wave of Mutilation
Theatrical release
Southland Tales was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on November 9, 2007 in partnership with Destination Films and Sony Pictures.[19] The release of the film, in just 63 theaters, was pushed back five days to November 14, 2007.[20] The film was released in the UK on December 7, 2007 exclusively to UK cinema chain Cineworld in only very few locations. Southland Tales did not receive cinema release in Australia.
Home video release
The R1 DVD for the film was released on March 18, 2008, in the U.S. and the R2 release was on March 31, 2008, in the UK. The Australian retailer EzyDVD gives an April 30, 2008, release date on their website. Special features include a 33 minute documentary USIDent TV: Surveiling the Southland and a 10 minute animated short film This Is the Way the World Ends (not on UK R2 edition). On March 25, 2009, the R2 DVD was released in France.
Richard Kelly has claimed on his MySpace blog that he had very little time for the DVD as he was starting shooting on his next feature, The Box. However, he has stated several times that if Sony commissioned one (based on the sales of the current DVD), he'd happily be involved in a 'Director's Cut' DVD in the future with more special features and deleted scenes from the Cannes cut.
On September 8, 2008, it was announced that it would be one of the five movies being released on Blu-ray Disc on November 18, 2008. The only new special feature announced was commentary by Richard Kelly.
Reception
Cannes Film Festival
Along with two other American filmmakers (Sofia Coppola with Marie-Antoinette and Richard Linklater with Fast Food Nation), Kelly's follow-up to Donnie Darko was in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and was screened on May 21 at the Grand Lumiere Theater.[21]
Critical reaction to the movie in its original, longer form was almost entirely negative. Many critics responded unfavorably to the film's long running time and sprawling nature. Roger Ebert described the Cannes screening as "The most disastrous since, yes, The Brown Bunny."[22] Salon.com critic Andrew O'Hehir called the Cannes cut "about the biggest, ugliest mess I've ever seen."[23] Jason Solomons, in The Observer (UK), said that "Southland Tales was so bad it made me wonder if [Kelly] had ever met a human being" and that ten minutes of the "sprawling, plotless, post-apocalyptic farrago" gave him the "sinking feeling that this may be one of the worst films ever presented in [Cannes] competition."[24] A handful of the American and European critics, however, were more positive.[25] Village Voice critic J. Hoberman, for example, called Southland Tales "a visionary film about the end of times" comparable in recent American film only to David Lynch's acclaimed Mulholland Drive.[26]
Critical reception
The film received wildly divided reviews from critics[27]. As of February 6, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 79 reviews.[28] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 44 out of 100, based on 26 reviews.[29]
Glenn Kenny, in his review for Premiere criticized the film's style, "Kelly's camera placement and framing are at best textbook and at worst calamitously mediocre."[30] In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Carina Chocano wrote, "You get the sense that Kelly is too angry to really find any of it funny. It's easy to empathize with his position, not so easy to remain engrossed in a film that's occasionally inspired but ultimately manic and scattered."[31] David Edelstein's review in New York magazine criticized the film's writing, "Kelly aims high and must have shot off his own ear, which is the only way to account for the dialogue."[32]
On the program Ebert & Roeper, Richard Roeper and guest critic Michael Phillips gave the film a negative review. While Roeper called the film "Two hours and twenty four minutes of abstract crap", Phillips felt that "the film has a head on its shoulders despite that fact that it can't find any direction."[33]
However, J. Hoberman defended the film, yet again, in his review for the theatrical cut. "In its willful, self-involved eccentricity, Southland Tales is really something else. Kelly's movie may not be entirely coherent, but that's because there's so much it wants to say."[34] Manohla Dargis also gave the film a positive review in The New York Times, writing, "He doesn’t make it easy to love his new film, which turns and twists and at times threatens to disappear down the rabbit hole of his obsessions. Happily, it never does, which allows you to share in his unabashed joy in filmmaking as well as in his fury about the times."[35]
Nathan Lee of The Village Voice named Southland Tales the best film of 2007.[36] J. Hoberman of The Village Voice named it the third best film of 2007.[37] Manohla Dargis at The New York Times had it in her Best of '07 as well.[36]
Box office performance
Southland Tales grossed USD $275,380 in limited release at the North American box office, and $81,028 elsewhere, making a worldwide total of $356,408,[38] falling far short of the film's $15-17 million budget. It should be noted that this was with the film playing on only 63 screens (a standard art house release is 300 screens).
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a modern dystopia
Southland Tales is not a futuristic apocalypse. In fact, it takes place
giantbunny24 from United States - 29 June 2009in the past: 2008. It is a cautionary tale of what could very possibly
happen in our country. At first i was skeptical about this movie as it
stars many celebrities that I usually dislike, but the players played
their roles adequately and I was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy
being entertained. Southland Tales is also an action film, which is a
genre that I don't usually enjoy. The only reason I saw this film was
because Richard Kelley directed it and I enjoyed Donnie Darko
(especially the director's cut). All in all, this film was
entertaining, but not great. It definitely beats Transformers and
movies like that that have been coming out in the last year or so.
However, it's no Donnie Darko and if you're coming into it looking for
a film of Darko caliber you'll be disappointed.
Southland Tales Instant Cult Classic
Don't let this one get by without considering it as an instant cult
ronryanlaw-1 from United States - 22 May 2009classic. Sarah Michelle Gellar is at her best when doing intelligent
comedy. The movie satirizes the way aspects of society are just nuts,
but people keep acting like everything is serious. If that capacity of
we as a whole blows up in a perfect storm of lunacy, who knows how
wacky things could get. Some aspects of this touched upon is the
paranoid hysteria that we have been through with regard to communism,
crime and terrorism. Another is the hyper-manic obsession with
celebrity and glamor in pop culture. For me, the funniest and scariest
overeactions happen in those on the right, so much so that what starts
out as an attempt to maintain sobriety, common sense and rationality,
ends up at such a place that real people, institutions and processes
turn into the opposite of each of these and they don't seem to even
know it. There are many great people in the film all of whom get the
joke. Truth really is stranger than fiction. It is hard to analyze and
put into words the sense of humor and delivery carried throughout the
film, but who wants to settle for anything less?
Pages: [39] 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 … 1 »
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