Southland Tales (2006)

Remember this? You'd be forgiven for not doing so. Richard Kelly's first outing as directer since the cult classic Donnie Darko (2001) was supposedly so bad in its original form, (screened at Cannes) it was deemed unwatchable. Kelly took it away, re-cut the film dramatically, and released it again in 2006, to pretty much the same response. Southland Tales is nowhere near as bad as many like to think it is. It's messy, and you can tell there's been some chopping and changing, but it is very funny, and it should be taken at face value. Many critics accused the film of not making sense, but I'm not convinced you should be looking that hard for it to do so. That might sound ridiculous, but when your plot revolves around a three-day stretch just before a huge 4th of July celebration in which an action star stricken with amnesia meets up with a porn star who is developing her own reality TV project, and a policeman who holds the key to a vast conspiracy- if you try to piece everything together, you're missing the point. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is fantastic as Boxer Santaros in a truly hilarious performance, adding yet more strings to his, in my opinion, ever growing bow. The film is nuts from start to finish, but the performances are good, and it is without doubt a comedy. There's no chance the film should be taken seriously, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way. There are shades of Gilliam here, especially Twelve Monkeys (1996) and Brazil (1985) and although Southland Tales is not in the same league as those, it doesn't deserve to be discarded in the way it has been; indeed it thoroughly deserves to be seen and appreciated by all. 7.8/10