Southland Tales
Southland Tales
During a three-day heat wave just before a huge 4th of July celebration, 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.
vangh1 reviewedDecember 23, 2024
I don't know how to rate this one. I came across it when someone I follow on Letterboxd re-watched it. I'd never heard of it, but had seen both the other films by the director and had mixed feeling about both.
I watched the Cannes Cut, and it felt all of it's 2 hours 38 minutes. It has a wide range of performers playing against type. It has them making very stark and mystifying acting choices (what is with The Rock's finger twiddling?) and it has them delivering absolute cornball dialogue as though its Shakespeare.
It feels a little bit like Robocop but less effective. It feels a little bit like Tommy Wiseau with a budget, but with slightly more to say. It's trying to be 3 or 4 or 5 tight movies smashed into an epic.
I don't want to call it a muddled mess, because it's very clear it was meticulously made and not a single detail or choice was come to arbitrarily, but somehow that almost makes it worse.
It really is amazing how it feels VERY 2006 in its aesthetics, and much more contemporary in its messaging (raving though it may be).