Southland Tales: Almost Zeitgeist Now (Spoilers!!)

“Listen to me, as if I were Cerberus barking with all his heads at the gates of hell. I will tell you where to take it, but don't... don't open the box!:
-- Dr. G.E. Soberin from Kiss Me Deadly

“A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything.”
-- Miller from Repo Man

“I’m here to save you. The world is coming to an end, Donnie.”
-- Frank from Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales wants to be the ultimate Ragnarok And Roll film. Southland Tales wants to be the It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World of Apocalyptic cinema.
The film’s huge ensemble cast and the maddening climax scream out Charles K. Feldman’s 1967 Casino Royale at times. Richard Kelly’s ambition and enthusiasm cannot be denied. Southland Tales was initially going to be a nine part interactive experience-- it was narrowed down to six parts. There is so much going on that there is the Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga graphic novel that has the first three chapters. The decision to use a graphic novel as a primer for his film was very Lucasian of Kelly. The last three parts make up the feature film: Temptation Waits, Memory Gospel and Wave of Mutilation.

The film received a very cold and harsh reception from the critics—more devastating than Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny. The film was booed there. He is in very good company-- Sofia Coppola, Michelangelo Antonini and Robert Bresson have been booed there in the past.. Kelly cut the film’s original running time from 160 minutes to 144 minutes. I wonder in cutting the running time if some ideas got lost in the process, or maybe the film never did have steady flow. Think of Southland Tales as a more entertaining version of the 2003 film, Masked And Anonymous. The sad news is that Southland Tales is not in the same league with his previous film, Donnie Darko. It is obvious in both films that Mr. Kelly is obsessed with the end of the world. He cannot help reminding us via Justin Timberlake’s Private Pilot Abilene’s voice over narration that “This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper, but with a bang.”

Mr. Kelly uses the lines from T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men. He uses them throughout the film and distorts them to set the mood of a wartime landscape America in 2008-- the all too near future. His premise works best as an alternate America. The film opens with quite a bang-- home video footage of a nuclear attack in Texas on the Fourth of July Holiday in 2005. Right after we see the mushroom cloud, Abilene’s voiceover narration kicks in to full gear. We learn that America is at war not only with Iraq and Afghanistan, but now we are fighting Iran, North Korea and Syria. The Draft has been reinstated; the government has taken control of the internet via US-IDENT; National ID cards exist; and the whole country is in an Orwellian nightmare. Richard Kelly goes so far down the rabbit hole it threatens to engulf the entire film. The film uses a wide array of newscasts and internet feeds to inform us of the current events of film. Think Strange Days, Brazil, Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, Robocop and any other dystopian film you want to throw in there. Kelly seems to have been influenced by the works of Philip K. Dick, James Morrow, Steve Erickson and William Gibson as well. The inspiration from Philip K. Dick is complete as police officer, Bart Bookman (Jon Lovitz) utters “Flow my tears.”
Timberlake’s Abilene voice narration serves to guide us throw this hybrid of genres and plots. The voice narration was inspired by Willard’s voiceover narration in Apocalypse Now. Kurtz read from The Hollow Men in that film too. Abilene’s narration reminds me of the narration from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia more than Apocalypse Now. Because of its Los Angeles setting, the film begs to be in league with Magnolia and Short Cuts.

At its heart, Southland Tales is a satire-- Richard Kelly’s dystopian rift of post-9/11 America. It is funny, chaotic, infuriating, uneven, sloppy, and has a few moments of sheer genius. It has a little bit of everything in it. If you think you see another film or book in here, chances are you are right. Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly and Alex Cox’s Repo Man haunt the whole film. I mention these two films because the director is paying homage to both of them throughout. Richard Kelly has stated that Kiss Me Deadly, Pulp Fiction, Doctor Strangelove, and Brazil influenced his film. But watching it, I could not get over how much of an impression Kiss Me Deadly made on him. Repo Man And Pulp Fiction just paid homage to Kiss Me Deadly, but Kelly uses the Aldrich film as a blueprint for a third of his film. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse and Richard Kelly’s new film, 2007 may be the ultimate year in self-indulgent cinema. I do not think this is a bad thing in either case, but it will alienate a lot of the audience. It also seems that Kelly is in a race with Tarantino to pay as much homage as possible to all the films that have influenced him. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Boxer Santaros is channeling Ralph Meeker’s Mike Hammer through most of the film. If it not Meeker’s Hammer then it is Laurence Harvey’s Raymond Shaw from the original The Manchurian Candidate. This does not surprise me at all-- Richard Kelly wrote the screenplay for Domino that was based on Harvey’s daughter, Domino Harvey. The other touch that comes to mind is the name of Curtis Armstrong’s character in the film, Dr. Soberin Exx. That comes directly from the Aldrich film as well. As far as Repo Man is concerned, the last twenty minutes of the film owe a lot to the end of the Alex Cox film.

Speaking of Dwayne Johnson, he is the real standout in this cast of characters. In fact, when Kelly stays on his story, the film has a real kinetic flow. When Boxer is off-screen, I am afraid the film gets lost in its own pop mythology. The film is a victim of its own ambitions which strangle and give the film several moments of cardiac arrest. What does Boxer Santaros have to do with this end of the world satire? After he has gone missing, he returns from the Nevada Desert and re-surfaces in Venice Beach, California. He suffers from amnesia; he is in the care of entrepreneurial porn star, Krysta Now, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. Gellar’s Krysta is a version of Jenna Jameson. On paper this must have appeared as a great idea. I want to say that his commentary on the mainstreaming of pornography is novel, but there is nothing shocking or original in that department anymore. In fact, that part of the film makes perfect sense. We live in an era where Jenna Jameson is a household name. Krysta is branching out with a music career, a sports drink and has her own daily talk show which discusses a range of topics from terrorism to teenage horniness. Boxer and Krysta have written a screenplay with apocalyptic overtones that shadow the events in the film. It is here where Mr. Kelly’s original intent of making a satire of Hollywood and life in Los Angeles shine. Both of them are trying to pitch their screenplay, but everyone wants Boxer. He is a former action movie star who has ties to the Republican Party. His wife, Madeline Frost Santaros (Mandy Moore) is the daughter of Senator Bobby Frost (Holmes Osborne). Frost is part of Eliot/Frost Republican Presidential ticket for the 2008 election. Yes, there names refer to the poets T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost and their poetry is infused in the characters dialogue throughout the film. Miranda Richardson plays Madeline’s mother, Nana Mae Frost, who is in charge of US-IDENT. She is the big brother watching the whole country.

The rest of the cast deserves mention because it is such a peculiar ensemble cast.
Seann William Scott as the twin brothers, Roland and Robert Taverner is actually quite good in the film. As we learn more about his character, the film delves into the more science fiction aspects with time travel and the fourth dimension. Kelly is going back to Donnie Darko with this part of the film. The scenes between Scott and Johnson recall their last pairing in The Rundown. It is great to see Christopher Lambert as the arms dealer, Walter Mung, who drives an ice cream truck, Walter Mung. Past and present Saturday Night Live performers portray the Neo-Marxists who make up the rebellion in the Venice Beach area: Amy Poehler, Cheri Oteri, Jon Lovitz and Nora Dunn. The Neo Marxists want to foil the upcoming election and have plans for Boxer. John Larroquette, Curtis Armstrong, Mandy Moore, Will Sasso, Wallace Shawn, Bai Ling, Kevin Smith and many others make up the unique cast. Kevin Smith as Simon Theiry looks like a cross between Rick Rubin and Odin. The film is littered with 1980’s actors. It is a good touch. It underscores the obsession with pop culture very nicely.

I like the film’s soundtrack done by Moby. He gets the tone just right. His music is the perfect soundtrack for a Los Angles on the brink of chaos. While his score helps maintain the mood, the use of Jane’s Addiction’s Three Days is perfect near the end of the film. The song is the perfect synchronicity as the fates of the Neo-Marxists, Boxer and Will Sasso’s Fortunio Balducci converge. The film is billed as a musical and there is a song and dance number done by Justin Timberlake lip-synching to the Killers’ All These Things That I Have Done. This song and dance number could not have come sooner; the film’s manic energy ran out before this scene. It is a much needed jump start.

There is so much I have not told you about the plot. It is impossible to explain the film. At times, I feel it is like trying to explain David Lynch’s Inland Empire or Mulholland Drive. He is clearly influenced by David Lynch in some ways. I see shades of Lost Highway in Donnie Darko. There is only one David Lynch. There have been some saying that this film is Kelly’s Dune and Donnie Darko was his Eraserhead. Does this mean The Box will be his Blue Velvet? I really do not think that is the analogy I would go with right now. Having said that, I always thought Southland Tales would be the bridge between Repo Man, Strange Days, Robocop and Mulholland Drive. Having watched the film, I can honestly say that it is not the bridge I thought it would be. At its best, Southland Tales is a Richard Kelly style love/hate letter to Los Angeles. At its worst, it is stale and dated political commentary. His use of Santa Monica and Venice Beach helps keep the film grounded in a familiar, if distorted reality.

Southland Tales is a mixed bag of a film. It is as though Richard Kelly used a sketchbook of ideas rather than a finished screenplay to make his film. Was he afraid this would be his last film? Is that why the film is packed with so many thoughts and ideas? I can understand his rationale if that is the case. He would have benefited had he had a co-writer and a producer to tell him he could not do certain things. He needed a “no man” on the set. George Lucas could have used one of these too while making the Prequel trilogy. Maybe down the road, a Jerry Harvey type will emerge and release the uncut film on DVD or show it on a Z-Channel via the internet. Maybe Richard Kelly will release it himself on DVD. I have a feeling this film will have a huge cult following on DVD in the years to come. Still with all of its faults, I cannot help but admire this film’s ambition and audacity. I admire Richard Kelly’s vision. For me, it was a trip worth taking. I would gladly take it again. One viewing is simply not enough.