Southland Tales

[MacGuffin]

Southland Prequel Films Possible?

Richard Kelly, who directed the upcoming SF epic movie Southland Tales, told SCI FI Wire that he set up some storylines in the prequel graphic novels that he wasn't able to pay off. Yet.

"Yeah," Kelly said in an interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "And that might be some stuff that I can—down the road in a director's cut—be able to restore a bit more of. But all the groundwork is there, and all the footage exists."

Southland Tales stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Dwayne Johnson and Seann William Scott in a story about disparate characters who must deal with an impending apocalypse in a near-future Los Angeles.

Before the film was completed, Kelly wrote a trilogy of graphic novels that set up the movie's universe and backstory, subtitled "Two Roads Diverge," "Fingerprints" and "The Mechanicals."

The backstory involves a terrorist nuclear attack in Abilene, Texas; martial law; the campaign for the U.S. vice presidency; a nefarious German corporation; mega-zeppelins; the Book of Revelation and a miracle fuel/drug called "fluid karma." The books constitute chapters 1-3 of the story; the movie picks up where the graphic novels leave off, making up chapters 4-6.

"Well, you know, when I started it, I opened up Pandora's Box with these graphic novels," Kelly admitted. "I kind of set myself up for a gigantic challenge. And it's a cross-media experience. The books developing into the film."

Kelly added that he may even film more material related to the graphic novels and other elements of the complicated story. "We had always talked about doing the first three chapters maybe as an animated film at some point and actually filming the first three chapters," he said. "And then maybe then it can be fulfilled: The whole six chapters can be realized on the big screen. ... There's always that possibility."

Southland Tales opens Nov. 14 in limited release.

[grand theft sparrow]

I really want to like Richard Kelly but he's making it difficult.  I like Donnie Darko and will go see this because I'm still interested and, as much of a mess as it could be, it won't be as bad as Transformers, but really?  Prequels?  Quit while you're ahead, especially when you're making your third movie before your second one has been released. 

This movie doesn't stand a chance, good or bad.  Too many people have taken Cannes to heart and don't expect 30 minutes of cuts and cleaned up effects to make the difference, which it could.  But it's all Kelly's fault that he's getting skewered.  He's aware of popular culture and as a result, is undoubtedly aware of the "sophomore jinx."  I don't care how awesome you think you are, following up a cult movie with a bigger budget cult movie is setting yourself up for that failure; even Lynch went more mainstream with his second movie.  This thought HAD to have crossed his mind at least once as early as when he was still writing the first draft.

But he decided to go ahead anyway, thinking he'd beat it, forgetting that for every Raising Arizona, Rushmore, and Boogie Nights, there are several Poetic Justices, Mallrats, and She's the Ones.  And speaking of Mallrats, Kelly is friends with Kevin Smith!  He knew what he was getting himself into.

[MacGuffin]

'Southland Tales' Director Richard Kelly Insists It's Just The End Of The World, Not His Film
Apocalyptic flick starring Justin Timberlake, Sarah Michelle Gellar overcomes rough start with new streamlined version.
Source: MTV

Nuclear bombs have gone off in Texas, igniting World War III across the globe. The United States passes totalitarian measures to keep its citizens in check through Orwellian surveillance. And somewhere in there, a figure arrives who may very well be the Antichrist.

"Donnie Darko" helmer Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" is about the apocalypse, but you might forgive the director if he copped to feeling like he went through the filmmaking equivalent, beginning with a long-delayed start and cresting with a disastrous showing at Cannes more than a year ago. But if it's the end of the world as he knows it, well, Richard Kelly feels just fine.

"It was a tough road, [but] I ask for it. I'm a masochist," Kelly laughed. "[It's a] really challenging, crazy movie, and it's hard to get this stuff through the system. ... If you're going to try to make any kind of unusual film that's nonlinear, or that's political, or that delves into issues that people don't want to talk about or they're afraid to talk about, you're obviously going to encounter challenges and resistance and skepticism, and that's just the nature of the game. It's dangerous."

Since the Cannes showing — which Observer critic Jason Solomon said gave him the "sinking feeling that ['Southland Tales'] may be one of the worst films ever presented in [Cannes] competition" — Kelly has made many changes to the film, including, most drastically, cutting roughly 20 minutes. He has also reshaped the intro with a new voiceover from narrator Justin Timberlake.

But while some Internet pundits have called the Cannes screening, and the resulting bad press, a total wipeout, Kelly insists it was in fact the exact opposite, calling the year since vital to making the very best film possible.

"The movie was a very rough work-in-progress when we brought it to Cannes. We realized that even more so after the festival," he said. "It was my first trip, [and] it was rough. But that's OK. Those experiences, you can let it hurt you or you can use them and make yourself stronger. That's a challenge that is put upon any filmmaker. That's the way that it works. I always love a good challenge and I love a good fight, and that's what [this] is."

By Kelly's own admission, part of what makes "Southland Tales" initially off-putting to some audiences is its density, which castmember Sarah Michelle Gellar said means you probably need to watch the movie "five times" to completely understand it.

"We definitely designed it to be something that would be enhanced by repeat viewings, because it is a big puzzle," Kelly said. "[But] that was part of what we were working on [this past year]. We needed to push it in the direction of being a bit more accessible, and getting it just enough on the first viewing so it's not alienating. I don't think anyone can get absolutely everything in one viewing — there's just too much going on. But it's all there."

That meant streamlining the main narrative to focus more on the story's three main characters, a porn star (Gellar), an amnesiac actor (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and a cop with nebulous intentions (Seann William Scott). That focus, absent from earlier cuts, paid off in a big way, Kelly said.

"We finally felt like we tamed the beast in a way that we know it holds up under the scrutiny of logic and multiple viewings," he insisted. With the movie now set for release after nearly two years of constant work in post-production, Kelly insisted he has "no regrets" about the bad press or the premiere at Cannes, or the way the film was hounded from the start.

"I'm just glad that we've gotten this movie to the finish line in one piece. I think if you can just cross the finish line in a sprint, and not wheezing and huffing and puffing, then you're going to be OK," he said, smiling.

"Look," he added. "It's the end of the world. I wanted it to be like this great big party!"

[diggler]

for every Raising Arizona, Rushmore, and Boogie Nights, there are several Poetic Justices, Mallrats, and She's the Ones.

i'll take an ambitious failure over a commercial retreat any day.

that being said... this could be awful or great. i'll reserve judgement until i see it. i don't expect a gilliam film, which always met cannes walkouts, but it will most likely still be interesting. we'll see

[MacGuffin]

Richard Kelly's Southland Tales
Source: ComingSoon

It's World War III in Los Angeles in Richard Kelly's new flick, Southland Tales.

The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic 2008. After an explosion goes off on July 4th, the U.S. goes into crisis mode. Small gangs form and take over the cities. In Los Angeles, a group of rebels set up a scientific experiment where they double up people's identity.

Their first victim is actor Boxer Santaros (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). Let's just say, the experiment with him didn't go the way it was supposed to. When he wakes up, he takes up the identity of Jericho Kane.

Roland Taverner/Ronald Taverner (Seann William Scott) is their second test – his went a little better; after brainwashing him, he thinks he's a twin and goes on the hunt for his long-lost brother, who they've kidnapped.

All along, there's a plan to leave the Earth in a blimp-like city by the creator of this technology, Baron Von Westphalen (Wallace Shawn).

If any of this makes sense – well, you're ahead of the game. Southland Tales is filled of twists and weird turns that will have you guessing to the end. And that's perfectly fine if you ask Richard Kelly, who's also created a graphic novel that tells the beginning of the story (or the first three chapters.) "The challenge has been to have the movie sustain itself for people who haven't read the graphic novel. I certainly know it's very complicated stuff and definitely understand after the first viewing how it can brush over you. The hope is that people will give it a chance on a second or third viewing, it'll all start to fit together and there's a real design to it; everything is essential."

The Rock still can't figure out what the movie is about. "I thought it was great; it's something I've never read before. I viewed it as a challenge. I met with Richard first and he pitched me the story, and showed me visuals of what the characters were going to look like. I had watched 'Donnie Darko' a few months ago, and was excited to do it. I view the film as a dark comedy, and I love seeing the underbelly world of Los Angeles; I see it as a love letter for Los Angeles. There is so much going on here."

Richard started writing the script before 9/11; but where did he come up with the concept for the movie? "The original inspiration for the film was the TS Elliot poem, "The Hollow Men." The last words of that are 'This is the way the world ends - not with a bang but a whimper.' And so let's do this crazy L.A. comedy, with a bunch of eccentric characters. And I had it ending with a big blimp and the riots. It was a big comedy about the city self-destructing. I wish the world could end immediately and I think of something on a science fiction level – it's gotta be the clash of the fourth dimension. The Rock says that to Bai Ling at the bar, and it comes back to the theory of a rift in the space time continuum. I was excited by the idea and wanted to explore it in this film."

With his character of Boxer Santaros, The Rock found a quirky movement with his hands which he came up with himself. "I just thought that was just a thing he would do; if I put myself in that situation, if I were so unaware. Here's this guy, this big movie star, but he has no idea – which I find interesting – that he has multiple personalities. I thought he would do this with himself, and Richard loved it."

Richard really wanted to take Southland Tales to the next level of science fiction - something much more than making a simple comedy. "I thought about all these ideas with Homeland Security and alternative fuel and I just made it more of a futuristic satire. The architecture was already there, and I have this writing and the city on fire, with all these crazy characters; if the ending was already there, let's make it more than L.A."

The supporting cast of the film includes Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Cheri O'Teri, Amy Poehler, John Lovitz, Kevin Smith, and many more. For Richard, it was all about getting that array of actors. "I wanted it to be that way because some of my favorite L.A. movies, it feels like there's a large tapestry of people who mysteriously meet in the city and they just have a few lines but they're memorable. I wanted to cast the film with my favorite comedic actors and parts of pop culture, who emerge from the creases of the city in a way."

The Rock was surrounded by a lot of comedians on set, yet most of his humor comes from playing his character straight. "A lot of times, with a role like this, the straighter you play it, the funnier it is. Not playing anything too broad, especially for Boxer. There's so much going on, and he's searching for the truth; he has no recollection of anything. So I think that great comedy comes into playing it very serious, and let other people go broad – which works for them."

With all the craziness happening in the flick, The Rock had a blast shooting it – especially with his female co-stars Mandy and Sarah. "I went to them and said, 'I think it'd be a good idea if we made out a couple of times. Not all at the same time, one at a time.' They didn't think it was such a good idea. Our schedules were so busy, and we put so much trust in Richard. There's a different vibe on set; there were so many eclectic actors who bring different strengths to the movie."

Southland Tales really shows off everything that's wrong with our world today, and that's starting with the insane way news channels like CNN inundate us with 5 different stories at one time. Richard calls it 'information overload.' "When you watch, you've got the news ticker, the headline, the sub-headline, and then Planet in Peril, and then you have four boxes with four people talking. Your brain melts just looking at your TV. And we were trying to mimic that with the news content we created. I can't take anymore. And it's sort of the world we live in and a reflection of the world we live in."

Is this the world we live in? Check out Southland Tales to find out; it hits theaters November 14th.

[Pubrick]

for every Raising Arizona, Rushmore, and Boogie Nights, there are several Poetic Justices, Mallrats, and She's the Ones.

i'll take an ambitious failure over a commercial retreat any day.

did you just choose Poetic Justice, Mallrats, and She's the One over Raising Arizona, Rushmore, and Boogie Nights?

wait, did you just call the last three commercial retreats? if anything they succeeded because they took bigger risks.

[diggler]

for every Raising Arizona, Rushmore, and Boogie Nights, there are several Poetic Justices, Mallrats, and She's the Ones.

i'll take an ambitious failure over a commercial retreat any day.

did you just choose Poetic Justice, Mallrats, and She's the One over Raising Arizona, Rushmore, and Boogie Nights?

wait, did you just call the last three commercial retreats? if anything they succeeded because they took bigger risks.

not at all, i'm saying i would rather see kelly swing for the fences and fail than take the safe route with a boring movie.

wait.... what risks did mallrats take?

[Pubrick]

wait.... what risks did mallrats take?

you made it seem like you were disputing sparrow's comparison.

and i havn't said anything about mallrats taking risks. i meant the last three great films were riskier in comparison to little/no risk at all.

sorry for boring everyone, including myself, with this post.

[bonanzataz]

wait.... what risks did mallrats take?

you made it seem like you were disputing sparrow's comparison.

and i havn't said anything about mallrats taking risks. i meant the last three great films were riskier in comparison to little/no risk at all.

sorry for boring everyone, including myself, with this post.

well, those were unfair movies to diss in the first place. poetic justice has janet jackson and the song "again." brenda walsh is in mallrats. and she's the one. well. i guess that movie just sucked. make fun of that as much as you want.

[MacGuffin]

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: RICHARD KELLY (SOUTHLAND TALES THEATRICAL RELEASE)
Source: CHUD

Whenever Richard Kelly's had anything to say about his long-anticipated sophomore feature, Southland Tales, I've been there to ask questions. The only difference with this final interview (i.e. unless I get roped into some DVD publicity) is that now I've a finished film to go with the questions.

And when you finally see Southland Tales (which opens in limited release on November 14, 2007) for yourself, you'll have lots of questions, too.

A pre-apocalyptic, pop-cultural melange featuring an amnesiac movie star (Dwayne Johnson), a twinned Los Angeles cop (Seann William Scott), an image-savvy porn star (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and character actors from all of your favorite 1980s movies, Kelly's follow-up to Donnie Darko requires a good deal of patience and attention, and, even then, it may confound more than inspire. Perhaps this is due to Kelly essentially jumping into the middle of his narrative (there's a three-part graphic novel prequel available for purchase right now); or maybe Kelly just likes the idea of keeping his audience scratching/punching their head.

Whatever his goal, there's no denying Southland Tales. One just wonders if there'll ever be any understanding it.

And sometimes, I wonder if that goes double for the ever-affable director.


Q: It has been a long journey. It's time to close the book on me interviewing you for this movie.

Richard Kelly: Yeah!

Q: One of the things that came to mind as I was processing the movie after the closing credits - and, to be honest, I'm still processing it (Kelly laughs) - was Jean-Luc Godard stating that each of his films is meant to be seen three times. Would you place that kind of stipulation on Southland Tales?

Kelly: Yeah. I'm still discovering things about it that even I didn't know was there. There's so much going on, and it's such an elaborate puzzle; it really floods your senses the first time. The second time, particularly in the first chapter, all the things that happen to set the story in motion... you start to realize why they're there, and why they're necessary. I hope it all becomes more cohesive on multiple viewings.

Q: Was there a particular moment in the editing where you began to feel yourself getting your arms around the material? Where you began to understand it?

Kelly: It was getting the graphic novels finished. I couldn't get a handle on nailing the cut until I finished the books. I had a cloud in my mind. The prequel was unfinished, so I couldn't properly finish the film until the books were done. It just took a lot of time.

Q: I have to give my colleague Devin credit for this. As we were walking out of the film, he noted that one of Seann William Scott's identities was shot in the eye. Then I started to think back on the movie, and realized, "Hey, there are some obvious echoes of Donnie Darko in here!"

Kelly: Yeah, a little bit. Sean [McKittrick, Kelly's producer] and I came up with that idea. He came up with the idea of one of the twins getting shot. And that's a pivotal moment in the film because if the twins don't find each other, then we won't be saved. Our salvation is within these two characters, and we almost lose it. When you see the film a second time, you start to notice how precarious and delicate it all is; we're this close to salvation, and we almost screw it up about a dozen times. The Neo-Marxists have the messiah held hostage, and they almost let him go. They really don't understand what they're dealing with. There's a lot of subtext in there.

Q: But those references... are those just superficial references to Darko, or do they mean something more? Are these universes connected.

Kelly: I don't know. I think maybe each film exists in its different dimension, but there seems to be a spiritual connection in a way. For example, Holmes Osorne is watching the presidential debate in Darko, and then he becomes the vice presidential candidate. They're all sort of dreams that are interconnected, I guess. I like to think of each film as being in an alternate universe, so people can become different actors. It's all running around in my head somewhere. (Laughs)

Q: Our generation is so locked into the popular culture. We consume it, and it becomes a part of who we are and, in some cases, how we view the universe. This film is a complete pop cultural fantasia. And the flood of stimuli comes not only from what is referenced in the narrative but also the various character actors you use, many of whom were in significant 1980s movies or TV shows. What exactly were you trying to evoke here?

Kelly: It is pop art. And it is this black comedy about the darkest subject matter you could possibly imagine. Nuclear bombs, global warming, rioting... all the madness in the film, I wanted it to be populated with the most charismatic, fun people that you'd want to invite over to your house for a party. Like the cast of Saturday Night Live: who wouldn't want to have a party with them? They're the funnest people ever. The Rock, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Justin Timberlake... who wouldn't want to invite them over to a party? I wanted the film to have that quality: a fun, energetic, shiny, Los Angeles veneer - while everything is falling down and collapsing. It's falling apart, but, man, it's a fun time. That's the whole point.

Q: My favorite pairing in the movie was Amy Poehler and Wood Harris.

Kelly: They're hilarious.

Q: It was intriguing because Amy is a UCB/SNL sketch comedy veteran, while Wood Harris... I usually associate him with The Wire.

Kelly: Wood is very talented. And their marital dispute; they improvised the whole thing, and I almost fell out of my director's chair. Amy's just a fun, outgoing person on set; but then we put that heavy prosthetic makeup on her, and she was so freaked out by it. She got out of the Teamsters van, and she was like Greta Garbo with her sunglasses and umbrella: "Leave me alone!" And then when I yelled action, she just unleashed with that tirade.

Q: And Wood Harris is great doing his third-rate George Jefferson.

Kelly: (Laughing) They came up with that. I think they were really angry with me because I had them in that prosthetic makeup, and they had to stay in it all day. It is not fun to be wearing that stuff. I think Amy was disturbed by what she looked like. She looked so different. Their facial features were so exaggerated. I felt bad for Amy. She had to lie down and play dead for that scene. So I had to go over, hold her hand and say, "Amy, I'll make this up to you. I promise the next time we work together there will be no prosthetic makeup."

Q: You have a habit of dropping Simpsons references into your movies, too. Like in the screenplay for Domino: I remember you telling me that Mena Suvari had a line that was a nod to Reverend Lovejoy's classifying "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida as "Rock and/or Roll". In this film, you have a character named Starla, which instantly brings to mind the tramp Milhouse's father was dating after the marriage broke up.

Kelly: Oh, that's right.

Q: You pepper these references throughout.

Kelly: There's a Ralph Wiggum in Southland Tales, too. On Martin Kefauver's Humvee dashboard, there's a little Ralph Wiggum doll. I actually called Matt Groening, and he personally gave me permission. He made the call to Fox.

Q: I guess it's appropriate. You're attempting these kinds of pop culturally infused satires, and The Simpsons is definitely the apotheosis of how we do satire nowadays.

Kelly: Yeah. It's just... the subject matter is so dark, I wanted to make it as accessible to mainstream America as possible, and that started with the actors that I chose to be involved in this. I tried to cast it in the least pretentious way possible, and, to me, comedians are the least pretentious... I mean, when you think of pretension, you think of someone without a sense of humor. So I wanted to get funny, funny people in there.

Q: To give it a self-deprecating air?

Kelly: Yes.

Q: As the world's going to shit.

Kelly: Yes.

Q: And even though we should be concerned about this...

Kelly: Yeah.

Q: It's interesting that this is the way our generation is processing the sorry state of the world right now. On one hand, we're very upset about it. But on the other, the only way we can really cope with it is to view it from a cynical, satirical distance. Could you see yourself being able to address the misery of what it is we've done to this world without smirking?

Kelly: Yeah. My thing is that comedy is the best medicine when you're talking about politics and religion. You can really infuriate people. I mean, I'm sure this film will infuriate people, but if you can use comedy as your delivery mechanism, it keeps the conversation civil. And that's the problem right now: the right and the left are not civil with each other. This [2008] election is going to be nastier than ever, and it's sad.

Q: There's very little honest discourse anymore. It's all inflamed. And most of the people dominating and directing the discourse... half the time I don't think they believe what they're saying.

Kelly: And it's working. The fear-mongering and the pushing of buttons... there's a lot of hate being thrown around unfortunately.

Q: I know you wanted to make Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle a while back. Is Southland Tales a sublimation of that, as yet, unrealized dream?

Kelly: Maybe. Vonnegut's a huge influence. I think of the concept of Ice-Nine that he came up with [in Cat's Cradle]. I guess Fluid Karma is something kind of similar. I mean, it's completely different from Ice-Nine, but it is a big, high-concept technology involving an environmental cataclysm in an attempt to generate a new fuel concept. You could argue that Fluid Karma has a thematic link to Ice-Nine, which was the coolest thing ever that Vonnegut came up with.

Q: You also work Philip K. Dick into this as well, which gets you into more serious, self-destructive areas. How do you reconcile these two writers' styles?

Kelly: Well, there's also Raymond Chandler in there, too. They all felt like they were of Los Angeles in a way. A lot of Philip K. Dick's stuff took place in either Los Angeles or Orange County. Vonnegut was a world traveller, and he was a legend in the sense that he fought in the war and saw atrocities and struggled with depression. And you think of Chandler, and just film noir... Ralph Meeker playing Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly. Dwayne kind of studied Kiss Me Deadly. Those were all influences. Sometimes I joke that this movie is the sequel to Kiss Me Deadly. And that the spirit of Ralph Meeker has invaded Dwayne Johnson and made him schizophrenic. (Laughs)

Q: Harry Knowles noted that the celebrity-packed design of the film calls to mind movies like the '67 Casino Royale and Candy. Were those films an inspiration to you?

Kelly: I've got to take another look at Casino Royale, but, no. Kiss Me Deadly was really big. The Big Lebowski... I worship that film; I think it's the greatest thing the Coen Brothers have ever done. I saw it on cable again the other night, and it's even better than when it came out. If I, for the rest of my year, had to make comedies about eccentric Los Angeles people, I would. I'd be happy. I love L.A. I love the madness and eccentricity of underworld Los Angeles. There's nothing you can't find in this city.

Q: Speaking of the energy of Los Angeles, is The Box going to have any of that energy?

Kelly: No. It takes place in Richmond, Virginia in 1976, and we're shooting down at NASA in Langley, Virginia. We're shooting in Virginia for the last week, and we're recreating Richmond on interior stages in certain Boston locations; we're faking Boston for some of it.

Q: You felt like you needed a break from Los Angeles?

Kelly: Yeah. And it's inherent to the story. It's whatever serves each story. And I'll always hope to be able to shoot at least a portion of a film in wherever it's supposed to take place.

Q: The Box would seem to offer the opposite challenge from Southland Tales; I've only seen Richard Matheson's story dramatized once, and it was on the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone.

Kelly: It's been a ton of work trying to get the rewrite done before the strike, but it's also been a challenge to fulfill what I think is the destiny of that short story. It was meant for something bigger. It's a great short story, and I'm excited to be able to try to [Kelly's iPhone vibrated the rest of the answer into the interference abyss].

Q: So back to L.A. with the next one?

Kelly: Who knows? I'm figuring it out right now. Maybe. I love this town, I really do. I can't get enough of it.

Southland Tales opens in limited release this Wednesday, November 14th.

[MacGuffin]

Richard Kelly's never-ending 'Tales'
"It's tough to ask for more money when your movie has been slaughtered at a major film festival," Kelly said.
By Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

IN the 18 months since its tumultuous unveiling at the Cannes Film Festival, "Southland Tales" has become more myth than movie.

Initial expectations for the film were at a high because it marked the second feature from writer-director Richard Kelly, the follow-up to his 2001 slow-building cult sensation "Donnie Darko." Following the disastrous, spirit-crushing reviews out of Cannes -- "overwrought but underwhelming" read a sample notice -- "Southland" seemed to vanish into thin air, becoming a thing of conjecture and rumor. When was it coming out? How much would be changed or cut? And, perhaps most of all, why had Kelly made such an outrageously audacious sci-fi/political thriller/satire in the first place?
 
"I'm a bit of a masochist," Kelly remarked recently while standing on a hotel balcony that provided a sweeping view of Los Angeles, the city from which "Southland Tales" draws its name, locations and wild, rupturing energy. "I had obviously bitten off more than I could chew, and the challenge since Cannes has been to not choke, to digest it and swallow it."

'Slaughtered' at Cannes

When the film finally hits theaters in Los Angeles and New York today (and select cities on Friday), shorn of roughly 20 minutes from the Cannes cut, it will be the version Kelly considers finished and complete. Though the film is being released under the Samuel Goldwyn Films banner, it was Sony (which initially picked up the film after Cannes) that earlier this year paid for Kelly to finish the film's visual effects.

"It's tough to ask for more money when your movie has been slaughtered at a major film festival," Kelly said. "But when Sony gave me that money I fell back in love with the movie again. I got to finally see it as I always wanted it."

"This is definitely 'Southland Tales,' " said Kelly's longtime producer, Sean McKittrick, looking to put aside any presumptions that this is a somehow a bowdlerized or abbreviated version of the film.

Much like "Donnie Darko," "Southland Tales" is a perfectly imperfect movie, one which is nearly impossible to describe in the neat, compact logline-ology of contemporary Hollywood. Set in 2008, following domestic nuclear attacks in 2005, the film's interwoven story strands include an amnesiac movie star, a gang of absurdist revolutionaries, a team of shady executives, a troubled vet, a crooked cop, kidnapped twins, various dignitaries, politicians and bureaucrats, and a porn starlet turned ambitious entrepreneur who delivers one of the film's signature lines: "Scientists are saying that the future is going to be far more futuristic than they originally predicted."

As movies directly dealing with the war in Iraq have been struggling to attract audiences, Kelly has created a film that deals with the strange vacuum of the home front, where there's the distinct feeling of dislocated anxiety. If audiences, particularly younger ones, don't seem inclined to show up for old-guard stars such as Robert Redford and Meryl Streep gabbing about foreign policy, Kelly's strategy is to load "Southland Tales" with current cultural figures such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake, subversively hiding his idealism and anger beneath a veneer of pop confectionery.

An art film harboring blockbuster aspirations, "Southland Tales" utilizes the broad screens and booming sound systems of the multiplex to take its dystopian cultural critiques directly to the daydreaming nation that is perhaps least likely to seek out its head-spinning message of resistance.

"You go to a newsstand and it's Britney Spears and Iraq," Kelly explained. "And it's understandable to eventually feel like 'No more Iraq. Give me more Britney.' We live in a world of media overload, saturated with information, and the movie needed to feel like it had that stimuli."

The film's brazen mix of tones and styles -- which Kelly describes as "30% comedy, 30% thriller, 30% sci-fi and 10% musical, but I may have the percentages off" -- is a big part of what might potentially confound audiences, creating a sense of unease and dislocation as it frantically pops from moment to moment.

"When you watch it for the first time, each scene is a little like, 'OK, I don't quite know what's going on here,' " Kelly said, "and then there's a laugh or an action set-piece in pretty much every scene to get you through. So we were definitely aware of the fact that the first thing we needed to do was to entertain people. If the politics seep through afterward, that's great."

As to why he felt emboldened to make a film as ambitious and complicated as "Southland Tales," Kelly said, "It felt like I was making this movie as if it were my last, like I'll never get this chance again. So I just decided to go for it."

The 32-year-old Kelly has already been called a one-hit-wonder and a hack. He also has been hailed as nothing less than a genius. It is no wonder then that both "Southland Tales" and "Donnie Darko," as well as his script for the Tony Scott film "Domino," are obsessed with the construction of identity and the distinctions between persona and personality. Kelly's two efforts as a director also have a preoccupation with time travel and the existence of multidimensional reality.

"Nothing surprises me anymore that comes out of his mind," McKittrick said. "Nothing at all."

'First grown-up movie'

As "Southland Tales" finally opens, Kelly and McKittrick are to begin shooting "The Box," an adaptation of a Richard Matheson short story about a mysterious delivery, starring Cameron Diaz.

Kelly is quick to point out that he is not making his next film out of some "one for me, one for them" obligation, but it might yet answer the question of whether Kelly can make a more straightforward, commercial film.

"I feel like 'The Box' will be my first grown-up movie," Kelly said, "and 'Southland Tales' is my last film as the rebellious punk kid.

"I'd taken all these risks," Kelly said of his determination to see "Southland Tales" released, "gotten all these actors to work for me for next to nothing, and everyone put their faith in me, their time and their effort. I had to see it through to the end. I could not live with myself if I had not finished the film properly and gotten it into theaters. Even if it opens and closes in a week, I got it to the screen."

Before the film's first public screening in the city that inspired it, as part of AFI Fest, Kelly seemed genuinely overwhelmed, and a little relieved, to finally have "Southland Tales" ready for theaters. Concluding his introduction, as he began to step away from the microphone, he said, "What a long, strange trip it's been, but a trip well worth taking."

[72teeth]

Seen it. And wow...

As every review and interview has stated, no medium is safe from reference. Book, movie, music, television, video game, history, religion... its all here. If for anything, see it to marvel at the worlds most clever and complex love letter... At its spine of reference is the book of revelation. Sometimes its more blatant, sometimes more obscure, but ever present. Having some knowledge of the good book doesn't make it any clearer, but a little wiki-ing it up wouldn't hurt... Its a huge risk of a movie and on that basis alone, i applaud. Im liking it more and more by the hour...

Its everything i expected it would be, just not as i expected it... if that makes any sense...

[adolfwolfli]

I should start off by giving the now-customary disclaimer: I am a huge fan of "Donnie Darko"; I saw it on 42nd street in NYC a week after 9/11, when the sour/burnt smell of the World Trade Center was still hanging in the air, and I remember emerging into the bright daylight shaken and somehow, simultaneously, calmed by the movie.  I remember thinking immediately that it was a small  masterpiece, and one of the most heartfelt, assured, and unique debut films by an American filmmaker in many, many years.

--End Disclaimer

I saw Southland Tales last night, ironically, in the same theater I first saw "Donnie Darko".  It's AWFUL.  Let me repeat that: it...is...AAAWWWFFFUUULLL.  Terrible.  Truly, truly terrible.  It may rank as one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I'm willing to put money on the prediction that it'll go down with "Howard the Duck", "Ishtar", and "Waterworld" as all-time magnificent disasters.  It truly lowered my retrospective opinion of Donnie Darko – I think that the fact that Darko is good is some random fluke, because "Sountland Tales" is putrid and shitty.  Every bad thing they are saying about it is true, and then some.  They say that Kelly really is just a frat boy bork who got lucky with his first movie, and, now, I'm willing to believe them.  I'd say, in 2 hours and 24 minutes, there's probably about 2 minutes in this movie that bely any sort of filmmaking or storytelling talent.  Everything else is cheap-looking, ugly, amateurish, messy, incoherent, self-indulgent, slapped-together, random and silly.  Do not go see it, wait for video, and, even then, it's probably not worth the time.  A colossal, gargantuan, megalithic disappointment.

The SUV-fucking was funny, though. 

It pained me to write that, but I feel like I have to prevent others from wasting their money.  Sorry, Richard...   

[Stefen]

Could this be one of the worst movies ever made?

I'm going with yes.

What a piece of shit. Overblown and without direction. For all the shit Kelly talked about how awesome he was, he sure failed to deliver.

[brockly]

so is it still ok to like donnie darko? or is this as inane as roth's latest turd whereby it means you suck if your still a fan the guy's previous work.

edit:

ok, i just read 72teeth's review..

Its a huge risk of a movie and on that basis alone, i applaud.

if this is the case, the h2 comparison was inapt.