Southland Tales (Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B+ Extras: B- Film:
B-
Ever
since I saw Southland Tales about a
year ago I’ve been wanting to write something about it, here’s my chance with
the recent release of the film on Blu-ray.
Let me first state that the film was a letdown, a disappointment,
frustrating, confusing, irritating, complicated, bizarre, and yet…I still don’t
know if I liked it or not. Maybe I
should be more clear, but not really sure how.
I will say that conceptually I like what writer/director Richard Kelly
attempted to do here, yet the execution was just on the poor side of
things. Kelly surprised the world with
his film Donnie Darko back in 2001,
which has now become a major cult following and it became clear to many that we
might have a genius filmmaker on our hands.
The film gave hope back to many that perhaps a new wave of film was
underway, perhaps mainstream cinema could be infiltrated by artsy, creative,
and powerful films to flush out Hollywood of all the sequels, remakes, and
utterly horrible films that hit our local cinemas year after year. Just maybe…well.
Then
Kelly went silent for 5 years. Fans of Donnie Darko kept hoping that something
would come up, something just as awesome, and maybe that was too much for
Kelly. Maybe expectations were too high
for his follow-up film? Well, support
was behind his for his project, after Sony bought the rights to the film Kelly
went back and spent about $1 million dollars in special effects to help the
film out, but the film was still long, it ran nearly three-hours, even it’s
video release runs 144-minutes, which is far too long on a plot this thin!
Many
people who see this film will likely have their own interpretations of the
film, this was true of Donnie Darko
and it was in that exact fact that made the film special. Here we have something a little more complex
than that even happening. Well, at least
that’s my theory. If my theory is true,
than Richard Kelly has accomplished a rather funny little in-joke on Hollywood,
if my theory is wrong he has assembled perhaps the most wasteful, ridiculous,
and insanely disappointing film ever!
The films
plot is rather ridiculous as we begin our story in Texas where a nuclear blast
has sent the world into WWIII. Big Brother
is not intact watching people all the time, the Internet is now regulated, and
there is an energy crisis happening as well.
The economy, environment, and civilization is on the brink of total
disaster. While all of this is happening
another subplot is leaking where Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) has been
missing for days in the desert with partial amnesia. His wife (Mandy Moore) is searching for him,
but he recalls nothing and then begins a relationship with a porn star played
by Sarah Michelle Gellar. We are also
introduced to Officer Roland Taverner (Sean William Scott) and his twin brother
Ronald, whose lives also intersect oddly with the various plot lines.
In many
respects the plot of the film is unimportant and the real focus of the film is
the real actors in the film, not their characters. Dwayne Johnston, Sean William Scott, Sarah
Michelle Gellar, Janeane Garofalo, Mandy Moore, Christopher Lambert, Jon
Lovitz, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, John Larroquette, and Justin Timberlake all
star in this film. Does anyone else
notice similarities? Ok, besides the
obvious SNL castings what else do these people have in common? Well, again my theory on this is that Kelly
chose actors who really can’t act. I
believe that there was some deliberate casting done to put actors into
positions where they are essentially playing versions of themselves. Again, this is just a theory, but there is no
way that someone would ever cast these people to play in a film of this nature
UNLESS there was some reason for it.
This is why I feel that the film is a mockery of Hollywood and more
directly at celebrities in general. How
so? Well, what better than putting these
people into a film that is complete wrong for them and having them do things
that are so far out, so ridiculous, and make complete fools out of them?
Again I
must say that if this particular theory is wrong, then Richard Kelly made a
huge mistake by putting together a serious film project with second or even
third grade talent. I find this notion
rather hard to swallow after seeing Donnie
Darko and the exceptional casting that we know Kelly is capable of
doing.
So what
about this Blu-ray? The news here for
the technical performance of the film on Blu-ray is unfortunately mixed. Let’s start with the 2.40 X 1 anamorphically
framed 1080p high definition transfer used for this release. The film has a very unique styling that at
times seems very authentic and natural, but also presents itself with a bit of
a futuristic/space-like quality as well.
Most of the framing and blocking of the film is straight-on shots that
give a particular staged look to the film.
Colors are highly neutral with very little in terms of vibrancy. Oddly enough this transfer mostly suffers
from softness and a lack of resolution that is particularly odd for
Blu-ray. I noticed in many scenes that
objects appear smudgy and motion is hindered at times as well. The film cost $15 million dollars, so surely
this shouldn’t be the case. Much of the
add-in special effects look dated on arrival and do not help matters
either!
The good
news is that the films Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 mix is exceptionally good with
loads of fidelity and terrific directional effects to make for a really
engaging mix. Music, dialogue, and the
films on-screen effects are captured and rendered well here and really
demonstrate one of the finer Dolby TrueHD mixes we’ve heard to date. It was evident in Donnie Darko that Richard Kelly fully realizes how to integrate
sound into his films and this film, despite the inconsistent nature of it,
still delivers his talent for sound mixes in his films.
Knowing
Kelly’s potential it’s a shame to see him miss the mark on his second feature
film. Even if my theory is true, it’s
still a step backwards and after being a commercial bomb, it’s hard to recover
from that, especially for artistic filmmakers.
Hopefully he can regain his senses and his next film can be both a
commercial and critical success. He
provides exclusive commentary for this Blu-ray, which is a fine listen and I
think captures some of what I think is true, along with some of his own
theories into certain decisions.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe all of this, but I’ll leave that up to
each person to decide for themselves.
There is a Graphic Novel gallery, which was always intended to be a
companion with the film, plus an animated short film and featurette that are
both equally important in understanding some of the creative ideas behind the
final project.
Overall a
film that is worth investigating if for no other reason than it’s oddball
nature. The Blu-ray, despite some
transfer problems, is definitely the way to view the film as the exclusives
enhance the viewing experience and just might enable more sense to be made of
this convoluted film. Maybe that is.
- Nate Goss
