Review: Southland Tales (2007)

*
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake

Dear Richard Kelly,

Just what the fuck was that?

Southland Tales is an absolute mess of a movie based in part on the Book of Revelation and having to do with terrorist attacks, war in the Middle East, various governmental and non-governmental factions spying on and plotting against each other, oil shortage and the development of an alternate source of fuel which causes a rift in the fourth dimension which in turn causes Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) and Rolland Taverner (Sean William Scott) to develop doubles... and some other stuff. It’s kind of hard to say what, exactly, it’s about because it is so unfocused, so muddled and convoluted that any real thread of a story is buried deep, deep within this pretentious and self-indulgent film.

Throughout the film writer/director Kelly mixes elements of science fiction, musical and what he apparently believes to be satire. These satirical inclinations are most obvious through the prevalence of Saturday Night Live and MadTV alumni in the cast, and through the character of Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a porn star, mistress of Boxer, and collaborator with the Neo-Marxists who are working to use Boxer, the son-in-law of the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, to subvert the government. When not helping to set Boxer up, Krysta is busy turning herself into a product by recording her own album (which includes the single “Teen Horniness Is Not A Crime”) and creating her own talk show and energy drink. A lot of the wink-nudge moments in the film come courtesy of her, but even though I don’t think these elements really work, this isn’t a criticism of Gellar herself who is good here and of all the actors seems to have the best grasp of her character. Ultimately, the problem with the film’s aspiration towards satire is that for satire to be effective, it must be clever and this film is not. The comedy in the film is so easy, so lacking in bite that it misses the satirical mark and lands firmly in the realm of parody. In the tradition of films like Epic Movie and Superhero Movie, this might as well have been called David Lynch Movie.

I’m a big fan of Kelly’s previous film Donnie Darko and a firm believer that there are few things more rewarding than a challenging film, but Southland Tales is inaccessible to the point of being ridiculous and to make matters worse, it’s also kind of pointless. Even as I was beginning to lose myself in the film, I felt that there must be some ideas being expressed regarding governmental control, suspension of basic freedoms and Apocalyptic religious preaching, but the more I thought about the film afterwards, the more suspicious I became about its structure. Words and phrases like “Patriot Act” and “civil liberties” are thrown out frequently to make it seem as if the film is actually about something, but the twisting, turning, overlapping plot is just a means of disguising the fact that the film doesn’t really have anything to say. If Kelly’s point is that the Patriot Act is bad and runs contrary to the tenets of democracy, then my response is: no shit. There’s no there there in Southland Tales; it’s just a mish-mash of quirky characters and peculiar moments that add up to nothing.

100 Days, 100 Movies: Donnie Darko (2001)

Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell

Donnie Darko is a masterful blend of science fiction and psychological coming-of-age drama. Ostensibly concerning a tangent universe that must be contained and resolved by the title character before it collapses and takes our own universe with it, there is an undercurrent running through the film having to do with misplaced sexual desire. Donnie’s mission in the film isn’t just to save the world, it’s also to eliminate these sexually taboo elements.

The story begins with Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) being summoned from his bed by Frank, a rabbit from another dimension who speaks to him. This saves Donnie’s life since while he’s out, a jet engine falls from the sky and lands directly on his bedroom. The engine is a mystery, since no one knows where it came from (the answer is that it came from another dimension and came to this one through a wormhole). Frank continues to guide Donnie’s life, encouraging him to flood the school and burn down a house. He will also kill the real Frank and close the Tangent Universe in order to save the real one, the one in which Frank does not call him from his bed and he’s killed when the jet engine falls through his roof.

Through a book written by Gradma Death/Roberta Sparrow (Patience Cleveland) and read by Donnie, much of what is going on is explained. At midnight on the night the jet engine (“the Artifact”) falls through his roof, the Tangent Universe branches off from the Primary Universe, destined to collapse in 28 days due to its instability. Donnie is the “Living Receiver” who has the power to contain the Tangent Universe in order to save the Primary Universe from being eliminated with it. Those who die in the Tangent Universe but not the Primary Universe are the “Manipulated Dead,” the rest are the “Manipulated Living.” Of the other characters, Frank is the only one who seems to have some subtle understanding of what is happening, though I think an argument could be made that Donnie’s mother, Rose (Mary McDonnell), also has some sense that something is off-kilter.

Underlying all of this is the suggestion of forbidden sexual desires. Textually, there is the fact that Cunningham (Patrick Swayze) is found to be involved in a child pornography ring after Donnie burns down his house. Subtextually, there is the suggestion that Donnie harbours sexual desires for his sister Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Elizabeth’s boyfriend is Frank (James Duval), who will show up at Halloween dressed in the rabbit costume that haunts Donnie. Donnie and Frank are very closely connected because both have some awareness of the real and tangent universes and are able to communicate across their boundaries. In one scene, Donnie asks Frank “Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit?” and Frank replies, “Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?” Both are hiding something beneath a façade. When Frank removes his mask, showing us his face for the first time, we see a bloody hole in his eye, which we learn later has been made by Donnie. Donnie shoots Frank because he runs over Donnie’s girlfriend, Gretchen (Jena Malone), but he’s also eliminating his rival for Elizabeth.

Rabbits permeate the story, especially in Donnie’s English class, where the assigned reading is Watership Down. In a class discussion of the novel, Donnie asserts that being a rabbit wouldn’t be so bad because all they do is have sex, and that it’s difficult to feel badly for the rabbits who die in the novel. This foreshadows the death of Frank, who is presumably having sex with Elizabeth, and whom Donnie kills with barely a second thought. All of this is of course open to other interpretations, but the best evidence that there’s something sexually untoward going on inside of Donnie’s head is in a scene where he’s hypnotized. His therapist attempts to talk to him about his family, but Donnie wants to talk about sex, sheepishly telling her that he doesn’t fantasize about his family as his hand begins to go into his pants and the therapist quickly pulls him out of hypnosis.

Donnie Darko is a good film, but less successful than it is ambitious. It aspires to much more than it actually achieves, and some of its pieces just don’t fit together. It exists in two forms, the original cut and the director’s cut. The director’s cut more or less holds your hand, explaining what is happening as plainly as it could possibly be explained, while the original is somewhat elusive. Both are great, but my preference is for the original and if you’ve never seen the film, my suggestion is to see the original first and then watch the director’s cut in order to fill in the blanks.