In a typical sequence from Southland Tales, writer-director Richard Kelly’s sci-fi-ish follow-up to his cult smash Donnie Darko, Justin Timberlake lip-syncs to The Killers’ “All Read the full post.
May 26
2006
06:48 PM ET
On the Scene: Q&A with 'Southland"s Richard Kelly at Cannes
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I hope Southland Tales can benefit from the same editor’s touch that Donnie Darko did. That was the first film I’ve seen whose director’s cut version was worse than the first-run version.
Southland Tales has potential. I saw the second run screening here at Cannes, and I enjoyed certain parts of the film enough to recognize its validity.
But it holds itself back. To some degree, STs reminds me of The Fifth Element with its fusion of serious Sci-Fi with ridiculous humor. The cast is stacked and contains some of my favorite character actors…BUT, this movie in its current cut is waaaay too long and makes too little coherent narrative sense.
The filmmakers don’t seem to realize what this film is good at and what it’s not. And that’s too bad, because when it’s good, it’s good.
He needs to get it tighter or nobody is going to distribute it, let alone come to see it.
Wow… is it me or does Mr. Kelly just come off like a total pompous ass?
I mean, it’s one thing to speak about your body of work and “your films” when you’ve made multiple movies… but as it stands, his resume reads:
Darko
Domino (writer)
Southland Tales
Which also reads as…
Cult Video Hit
Massive Disasterous Bomb
Embarassing Disaster
Having “The Killers” in your movie doesn’t make it commercially viable nor good, Mr. Kelly… it makes you vapid and a surface level filmmaker who clearly didn’t know what he was doing right the first time around. Here’s to you disappearing as quickly as you appeared on the scene.
Okay, so how many of you guys were in the theater in Cannes?? Zero. Besides, a movie whose themes dwell so much on the intricacies of American pop culture with regards to television news and entertainment is going to get panned by the French. I’m reserving judgement until I see the damn thing. Here’s hoping…
We know from Donnie Darko that Richard Kelly is a talented filmmaker. But from the unanimousness of the critical eviscerating, it sounds like what we’ve got here is a mess that could be edited into something good. It’s a mess, and Kelly needs someone he trusts to sit him down and tell him how to re-edit the film. Because now it sounds like he’s way too close to it, and it sounds like the critical reaction has inspired a whole me-versus-them thing going on in his head. Right now the thought of cutting significant parts out of his movie seems to him like chopping off a newborn’s leg, but from everything I’ve been reading it sounds like its the necessary step to realistically improve the film.
Who cares what the critcs think? More times than not, they don’t understand great film. The critical reaction to films such as Donnie Darko, Fight Club, Bonnie and Clyde (until Pauline Kael spoke up) has always ranged from poor to destructive. After cult status is awarded, the critics suddenly “get it” from subsequent viewings.
I know a film I like when I see it. I don’t need book reports from failed filmmakers to decide to see something. Let us see what Kelly intended! Better that than another MI3.
the film has a chance of being good, so don’t trust cannes.
remember the hatred that sprang towards the brown bunny when it premiered? ebert lashed out at it like I’ve never seen?
got edited, and actually got a favorable review from him.
sometimes editing can save a film.
The problem has got to be the editing. 160 mins? That’s way too long for a film that the director admits is of a “complicated nature.” Director’s can sometimes fall in love with absolutely everything they shot. It’s not vanity- it’s just passion. A good filmmaker will walk away from the film for a while and let an editor with a fresh eye and a sense of storytelling hack away at it. Less is more!