| Southland Tales | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Richard Kelly |
| Written by | Richard Kelly |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Steven Poster |
| Edited by | Sam Bauer |
| Music by | Moby |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 144 minutes[4] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $17 million[5][6] |
| Box office | $374,743[7] |
Southland Tales is a 2006dystopianblackcomedy thriller film written and directed byRichard Kelly. It features anensemble cast that includesDwayne Johnson,Seann William Scott,Sarah Michelle Gellar,Mandy Moore, andJustin Timberlake. Aninternational co-production of the United States and Germany,[8] the film is set in thethen-near future of 2008, and is a portrait ofLos Angeles, as well as a satiric commentary on themilitary–industrial complex and theinfotainment industry. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to theGreater Los Angeles area. Original music was provided byMoby.
Southland Tales premiered at the2006 Cannes Film Festival,[9] and was released theatrically in the United States on November 14, 2007. The film polarised critics,[10] who responded unfavourably to its running time and sprawling nature in spite of its "intriguing vision", and only made $374,743 during its international theatrical run.[7] It has developed acult following in subsequent years. Kelly has expressed interest in expanding the film into a franchise.[11]
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OnJuly 4, 2005,El Paso andAbilene,Texas are destroyed and hundreds of thousands are killed by twin nuclear attacks, sending the United States into a state of aThird World War, with the government re-introducingthe draft. ThePATRIOT Act extends authority, due to the overwhelming victory of theRepublican Party, to US-IDENT, a new agency which keeps constantsurveillance on citizens. In response to the recent fuel shortage in the wake of global warfare, the German company Treer designs "Fluid Karma", a generator of inexhaustible energy, which is propelled by theperpetual motion of ocean currents. Treer scientist Baron Von Westphalen seeks world domination using the leverage of his energy machine.
In 2008Los Angeles, Senator and GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Bobby Frost (who also seeks the presidency itself) presides over the opening of US-IDENT with his wife, Nana Mae Frost, installed as its director. Right-wing film star Boxer Santaros awakens on the beach with amnesia after a three-day disappearance. He does not remember his marriage to Senator Frost's daughter Madeline, and has instead begun an affair with former porn star turned-talk show host Krysta Now.
Meanwhile, a group of Neo-Marxist revolutionaries composed of Cyndi Pinziki, Zora Carmichaels and Ronald Taverner hatch a plan to turn the national spotlight against US-IDENT. They have kidnapped Ronald's twin brother, police officer Roland, and plan to outfit Ronald in his uniform and car in order to stage a racially motivated double-murder. They have Boxer bring a video camera as he goes with Ronald, under the guise of preparing for a police officer role for his screenplay. Ronald responds to a staged domestic disturbance call where Neo-Marxists Dream and Dion, disguised as newlyweds, fake an argument. Unexpectedly, another cop, Bart Bookman arrives on the scene, murders Dream and Dion, and takes the camera. Bookman is revealed to be in cahoots with Zora when she later attacks Ronald with fluid karma, leaving him unconscious in the street.
The next day, Krysta stops by Zora's apartment and takes the videotape of the double murder, mistaking it for her sex tape. At theSanta Monica beach, she puts it in a Neo-Marxist dropbox, leading to the contents later being made public, and Zora and Bookman are shot dead by police while attempting to steal back the tape. Boxer arrives at the beach and meets Starla, who called him earlier posing as a character from his screenplay, and threatens to kill herself if he does not allow her to perform oral sex on him.Iraq War veteran Private Pilot Abilene shoots her dead from his perch at the top of the pier and Boxer runs off, only to be confronted by supposed friend Fortunio, who knocks him unconscious and returns him to the Frosts.
Nearby, Ronald awakens and sets out to find his brother. He encounters a young man named Martin Kefauver in an SUV and stops him from killing himself to avoid the draft, and the two go out in search for Roland, who earlier escaped the Neo-Marxist headquarters during a US-IDENT raid, only to be captured by Walter Mung, an ice cream truck-based arms dealer.
The Frosts and the city prepare for an upper-class party on Von Westphalen's Mega-Zeppelin to celebrate its launch. Boxer leaves the main hall of the ship in search of answers, and finds a room with three of Westphalen's scientists, who explain that he was selected to travel through a time rift in the desert at the time of his disappearance, and is, in fact, his future self. The scientists show him the corpse of his past self, who they say killed himself. Boxer asserts that his suicide is impossible because he is a "pimp", and "pimps don't commit suicide." One of the scientists also states that dire consequences would unfold if two identical human souls were to make physical contact. Boxer presses Serpentine for details, revealing that Boxer was actually murdered in a car bomb and that Roland was the one who kidnapped Boxer and drove him through the rift. She also confirms that Roland and Ronald are the same person, with his past and present self coexisting.
Outside where the city is, as a firefight ensues between rioters and the police, both Taverners crash into each other. Roland is shot in the eye but survives. Inside the ice cream truck, the Taverners hold hands, causing the truck to rise into the air along with Kefauver, who stands on top with a shoulder-mounted heat-seeking ground-to-air missile. US-IDENT headquarters is raided by Fortunio and rioters who kill Nana Mae Frost. Inside the Zeppelin, Boxer returns to the main hall and takes the stage for a dance number involving Krysta and his wife, Madeline. He interrupts the number to order an evacuation, or else he will kill himself. Kefauver fires a rocket at the Zeppelin, destroying it, and jumps off the truck. As the Taverners continue to hold hands, a time rift begins to grow in the sky. Roland threatens Ronald with suicide if he does not let go and tells him to "remember Fallujah".[a] Ronald replies that it was not their fault, with Roland conceding that it was friendly fire. Abilene narrates that a new age is beginning, with Roland as its Messiah, concluding that he is a "pimp" and that "pimps don't commit suicide."
Wood Harris appears as Neo-Marxist activist Dion Element. Michelle Durrett and Mike Nielsen play Starla von Luft and Kenny Chan, employees working at US-IDent.Zelda Rubinstein,Beth Grant andCurtis Armstrong portray Dr. Katarina Kuntzler, Dr. Inga Von Westphalen and Dr. Soberin Exx, respectively, both being members of the baron's entourage.Will Sasso plays Fortunio Balducci, whileJaneane Garofalo appears as General Teena MacArthur, whose scenes only appear in the Cannes Cut.[18][19]Eli Roth cameos as a man who is shot by US-IDENT while on the toilet.[20][21]
Kelly wroteSouthland Tales shortly before theSeptember 11 attacks. The original script involvedblackmail, a porn star, and two cops. After the attacks, Kelly revised the script. He said, "[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."[17] He 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".[22] With the film's premise of a nuclear attack on Texas, Kelly wanted to take a look at how the United States would respond and survive while constructing a "greatblack comedy."[22]
Kelly's breakthrough film,Donnie Darko, was released in the United States on October 26, 2001, the same day thePATRIOT Act was signed. Two months beforeSouthland Tales was released, he announced the launch ofDarko Entertainment.[23]
Kelly said: "[Southland Tales] will only be amusical 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."[24] Kelly said the film's biggest influences areKiss Me Deadly,Pulp Fiction,Brazil, andDr. Strangelove. He called it a "strange hybrid of the sensibilities ofAndy Warhol andPhilip K. Dick".[25] The film often references religious and literary works; a policeman says, "Flow my tears," in reference to aPhilip K. Dick novel of that name. ("Taverner" is the name of the main character in the same book and suffers identity problems of his own.) Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) quotes Biblical scripture from theBook of Revelation in narrating the film and allusion is made both toRobert Frost'sThe Road Not Taken,Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and an altered version ofT. S. Eliot'sThe Hollow Men.[26]
In March 2004, Kelly and Cherry Road Films began development ofSouthland Tales. Filmmakers entered negotiations with actorsSeann William Scott,Sarah Michelle Gellar,Jason Lee,Janeane Garofalo,Tim Blake Nelson,Amy Poehler,Kevin Smith, andAli Larter. MusicianMoby was approached on composing and performing the film's score.[24] Kelly met withRick Moranis about playing Vaughn Smallhouse.[27] Kelly consciously sought out actors that he felt had been pigeonholed and wanted to showcase their "undiscovered talents."[22]
Filming was slated to begin in July 2004, but after a year, it had not begun.Dwayne Johnson joined the cast in April 2005, andprincipal photography was slated to begin August 1, 2005 inLos Angeles.[13] Filming began on August 15, 2005, with a budget of aroundUS$15–17 million.
Kelly sent the organizers of the2006 Cannes Film Festival a rough cut ofSouthland Tales onDVD assuming that it would not be accepted.[28] Much to his surprise, they loved it and wanted the film entered in competition for thePalme d'Or. He stopped editing the film and was also unable to complete all of the visual effects in time for the screening.[28] Kelly's film premiered at theCannes Film Festival in May 2006 with a length of 160 minutes.[29] 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".[28] After the film's festival release,Southland Tales was purchased bySony Pictures (via their labelDestination Films) andSamuel Goldwyn Films, originallySony Pictures Classics,Screen Gems andTriStar Pictures were up for US distribution rights.[30][31]
Universal Studios had originally optioned the U.S. rights, but after the Cannes screening, it was sold to Sony, although Universal still retained studio credit only and some international distribution 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.[32]
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" byThe Killers which he felt was the heart and soul of the film.[17] 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.[33]
| Southland Tales: Music from the Motion Picture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | November 6, 2007 | |||
| Genre | Soundtrack | |||
| Label | Milan Records | |||
| Producer | Moby | |||
| Moby andvarious artists chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [34] |
Southland Tales: Music from the Motion Picture is the original soundtrack of Richard Kelly's 2007 filmSouthland Tales.[34][35]
The soundtrack forSouthland Tales was released in stores and online on November 6, 2007. Amongst the songs not available on the soundtrack but featured in the film areMuse's "Blackout",The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done", andBlur's "Tender". Additionally, tracks fromRadiohead,Louis Armstrong,Beethoven,Kris Kristofferson, and several tracks fromMoby'sHotel: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.[28]
The track "Memory Gospel" was used from time to time by theCBC Radio One programQ in the background of an opening monologue given by hostJian Ghomeshi.[36]
Southland Tales was initially planned to be a nine-part "interactive experience", with the first six parts published in six 100-pagegraphic 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.[13] The idea of six graphic novels was later cut 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.[28]
They have been collected together into one single volume:
The titles of the parts in the film are:[26]
Following its May 21, 2006 premiere at the2006 Cannes Film Festival, where it was poorly received,[10][37] the final version of the film premiered atFantastic Fest on September 22, 2007.[38] The film was originally scheduled to be released in theUnited States on November 9, 2007, in partnership withDestination Films andSamuel Goldwyn Films,[39] but eventually opened in limited release in California on November 14, 2007. It opened inCanada, as well as nationwide in the United States, in just 63 theaters,[7] on November 16, 2007. The film was released in the UK on December 7, 2007, exclusively to UK cinema chainCineworld in a limited number of locations.[citation needed]
TheRegion 1DVD was released on March 18, 2008, in North America and the Region 2 release was on March 31, 2008, in the United Kingdom. The film was released on Region 4 DVD in Australia on April 30, 2008. Special features include a 33-minute documentaryUSIDent TV: Surveiling the Southland and a 10-minuteanimatedshort filmThis Is the Way the World Ends (which was not included on the R2 and R4 editions). On March 25, 2009, the R2 DVD was released in France.
On September 8, 2008, it was announced that it would be one of the five films released onBlu-ray on November 18, 2008. The only new special feature announced was anaudio commentary by Kelly. On October 26, 2020, Arrow Video announced a remastered version approved by Richard Kelly released on Blu-ray on January 26, 2021. This release includes both the original theatrical cut and the Cannes cut.
Along with two other American filmmakers (Sofia Coppola'sMarie Antoinette andRichard Linklater'sFast Food Nation),Southland Tales was in competition for the covetedPalme d'Or at the2006 Cannes Film Festival[9] and was screened on May 21 at the Grand Lumiere Theater.[29]
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."[10]Salon.com critic Andrew O'Hehir called the Cannes cut "about the biggest, ugliest mess I've ever seen."[40]Jason Solomons, inThe 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."[41] A handful of the American and European critics, however, were more positive.[42]The Village Voice criticJ. Hoberman, for example, calledSouthland Tales "a visionary film about the end of times" comparable in recent American film only toDavid Lynch'sMulholland Drive.[43]
41% of 106 reviews compiled byreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes are positive, and the average rating is 4.9 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Southland Tales, while offering an intriguing vision of the future, remains frustratingly incoherent and unpolished."[44] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[45]
Glenn Kenny, in his review forPremiere criticized the film's style, "Kelly's camera placement and framing are at best textbook and at worst calamitously mediocre."[46] In her review for theLos 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."[47]David Edelstein's review inNew 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."[48]
On the programEbert & Roeper,Richard Roeper and guest criticMichael 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 the fact that it can't find any direction" but nevertheless gave the film a thumbs down.[49] In his written review, Ebert gave the film 1 star out of four, stating he admired Kelly as a "cinematic anarchist", but criticized him for having "no sympathy at all for an audience unable to understand his plot", lambasting the narrative and dialogue as incomprehensible.[10]
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."[50]Manohla Dargis also gave the film a positive review inThe 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."[37]
The film remains enigmatic to many viewers and even some of its makers. In a 2011 interview, Justin Timberlake himself said, "To me,Southland Tales is performance art. I still don't know what that movie is about."[51] In 2013, Kelly said he considered this work as "the thing that I'm most proud of, and I feel like it's sort of the misunderstood child or the banished child."[6]
Southland Tales grossed $275,380 inlimited release at the North American box office and $99,363 in Turkey and United Kingdom for a worldwide total of $374,743,[7] against a production budget of $17 million.[5][6]
In January 2021, Kelly announced that developments are underway to expand the film into a franchise with intention being that the original cast return. The filmmaker explained that the original film is "chapters 4–6",[b] while a prequel project will explore "chapters 1–3"[b] with intentions being to do so through an animation medium, while additional projects can explore events that take place in 2024.[11] He stated that discussions are ongoing as to whether the projects should be released as films or in a long-form format through astreaming service.[52]
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