Southland Tales [DVD]

By Clint Morris

This product may contain 'traces of nuts'.

The one thing I've noticed about the Southland Shopping Center (in Melbourne, Australia) is that it's either absolutely crazy – people everywhere – or totally dull – which is usually in the mornings. There's never an in-between.

It must have something to do with the name 'Southland', because Richard Kelly's new film is the same - It moves uneasily between being an over-crowded (check out the cast list!) mess to a rather uneventful, somewhat dull mystery. But like a four car-pile up on the freeway, just try taking your eyes off it!

You'll no doubt have heard about “Southland Tales” - it made quite a few 'Worst of' lists last year. It was also booed out of Cannes. Oh, and it's taken two years to come out. It's the follow-up film from “Donnie Darko” whizkid Richard Kelly – and like that film, it's as nutty as a Sundae (of course). Possibly even nuttier.

So why did everyone at Cannes boo it? Why did the studio fear releasing it? Easy : It's a monumental failure, an over-ambitious and all-too-obscure film that's not so much experimental as it is...well, a mess. If you're into David Lynch films though, you might just appreciate some of this – it's so weirdly obscure and appreciably imaginative that those with a penchant for anything 'different' are likely to go with it. But when all is said and done, even the biggest fan of the 'odd' genre's going to wonder what attracted a studio, let alone the A-list car it has, to it.

There are more name actors here than, well, an Altman film - scene-wise though, the star of the film is wrestler cum actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnston – in what can only be described as a move to once again show us he ain't no two-bit action movie star. And he succeeds.

Set in 2008, after World War III, it tells the tale of a group of interconnected characters living in the oil crisis-fueled apocalypse as seen from Los Angeles.

Johnston plays Boxer Santaros, an action-movie star who is suffering from a bout of amnesia upon returning from the desert. His reasons for being in the desert are hazy, but he’s hooked up with porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and together they have written a screenplay about the end of the world. Santaros tries to prepare for the film by taking a ride with a cop named Taverner (Sean William Scott). But the cop is actually Taverner’s twin brother, who is working for a shadowy group of neo-Marxists who are trying to overthrow the government . Oh, and there's Mandy Moore as Santaros's promiscuous wife; Jon Lovitz [against type] as a racist cop; Justin Timberlake as an Iraq War Veteran and the film's narrator...and even Christopher Lambert, of “Highlander”, fame pops up!

A cross between Rich Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and both David Lynch's Dune & Mulholland Drive, Southland Tales is a bit of a misfire – you never quite know what Kelly's getting at. He also doesn't seem too sure whether he's making a political farce, a doomsday chiller or a paranoid fantasy. Nobody also seems quite sure whether they're supposed to be laughing. Is it supposed to be funny? I'm guessing yes. But then, the tone of the film changes every ten minutes so it's hard to tell.

At the same time, Southland Tales is anything but a chore – at times, it's even rather fun. The cast are all terrific – especially The Rock, who once again reminds us that he's not just a Schwarzenegger proxy – the production values are insanely good, and the music – there's a terrific scene where Timberlake lip-syncs to a 'Killers' track – is awesome.

It mightn't be one of 2007's worst films, but its definitely one of the year's biggest misfires. Still, tell me “Dune” didn't suck upon first viewing? And tell me you haven't watched it at least ten times since?

Come 2020, “Southland Tales” might be playing on a permanent loop in your lounge room too.

DVD EXTRAS Two featurettes (Extras Unpreviewed)