SOUTHLAND TALES (2006)

TITLE
Southland Tales

STARRING
Dwayne Johnson, Mandy Moore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Nora Dunn, Seann William Scott, Cheri Oteri

COMPARABLE TO...
The Manchurian Candidate, Mad Max, Mulholland Drive

THE JIST
This movie is more what I think we like to call visionary than easily captured in two or three sentences. The best way to describe it is as an attempt at envisioning an alternate future, post-war and nuclear attack for group of Southern Californians who are deeply woven into a series of conspiracies, mayhem, facades and truth. Writer/director Richard Kelly offers a unique look at the collapse of civilization through a star-studded ensemble of characters consumed by their own reality.

WOULD I SUGGEST IT TO OTHERS?
Yes. I cannot clearly begin to articulate the finer points of the film and it is one I would never own, but I think there is great depth in a production like this. Its flaws are that it has a lot going on, all at once, without reservation or explanation. Most relationships are self-evident, but the constant introduction of new supporting characters, played by actors bigger than the film itself is distracting. The silver lining is the interplay between some of the characters and I love, (it may in fact be my favorite thing to pop up unexpectedly in the history of film) the lip sync number by Justin Timberlake towards the end of the Southland Tales. It just has to be seen!

The movies I compared this to need some referencing, because in truth, liking any one of those movies will not indicate whether or not you find this film as intriguing as I did. The Manchurian Candidate meshes politics and conspiracy with film, and I've always quite liked that film. There are some of those elements in Southland Tales, particularly as they pertain to Jericho Kane (Johnson). Mad Max is set against a futuristic backdrop, which isn't so far feeling as it is close to present, definitely an attribute of Tales. Years later, I still watch Mulholland Drive and try to make sense of it. The pieces never quite fit, but each on its own was entertaining, and that is Tales in a nutshell. Overall, Southland Tales is a bit more interconnected, but still leaves you with the wonderment of whether or not you interpreted correctly exactly that which Kelly wanted to have come across onscreen.

MORE INFORMATION
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405336/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgbuuUIMHq8