Movie Review

Mania Grade: C

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Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release
Rated: R
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake
Writer: Richard Kelly
Director: Richard Kelly
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Co./Destination Films

SOUTHLAND TALES

A dark comedy/fantasy/sci-fi look at a near-future apocalypse centered in Los Angeles...

By Abbie Bernstein November 17, 2007

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in SOUTHLAND TALES (2007).
© Samuel Goldwyn Films

It’s clear from Southland Tales that writer/director Richard Kelly is angry about a wide variety of things. People who agree with his take on political corruption, environmental havoc, the nature of the war in Iraq and over-aggressive law enforcement will be in sympathy with Kelly’s sentiments, but not necessarily with his expression of them here.

Southland Tales makes an admirable effort to be all-encompassing, showing how disparate threads of folly and humanity intersect at various points to create – and sometimes destroy – the world as we know it. After a nuclear attack on the U.S., internal security tightens to near-draconian levels, while the world takes comfort from the promise of a new energy source, taken from the ocean. There’s a sinister connection between this and a highly addictive drug. Meanwhile, Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson, no longer billed as “The Rock”), movie star and son-in-law of the Republican vice-presidential candidate, has amnesia but knows enough about what’s going on to trust in his visions and in the screenplay he’s written with his new girlfriend Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who wants to taste mainstream fame. Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott), who’s impersonating his policeman brother, is keeping an eye on Boxer, a neo-revolutionary gang of improv actors is trying to bring down Boxer’s father-in-law and there may be a dangerous rift in the space/time continuum.

The scene is set for us with a prologue of still frames from Kelly’s graphic novel prequel to Tales, and some clarity is provided by narration from the character of Private Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake), a wounded war veteran. The tone is ironic and arch and often a little too self-amused for the room or the targets. Venal politicians are perennially ripe for satire, but when the strokes are this broad and the corruption is linked to sci-fi technology, complete with coteries of mad scientists who dress in semi-drag, it feels like an in-joke that largely falls flat in mixed company. Everything is surreal and exaggerated, but not to the same extent, so that the film feels out of sync with itself – events hurtle along, but because they’re all presented as absurd, we don’t feel a sense of urgency.

Johnson plays his nervous yet noble hero well, and Scott is fine as arguably the film’s most serious, anguished figure. Gellar is sexy and finds grace notes as the would-be queen of all media and Timberlake is fine as the war vet.

Southland Tales represents a singular vision. Whether or not one is able to surrender to the ride, one has to concede that it is original in its juxtapositions of visuals and themes. However, a lot of people who feel they know what Kelly is talking about will also feel they’ve heard the same ideas put better, and the same sorts of jokes made with greater impact elsewhere.

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