Movie Review: Southland Tales

About 6 months ago a friend shared the trailer for Southland Tales with me. The trailer certainly presented a strange but intriguing looking film so I was anxious to see the movie. I kept my eyes open for the movie, but it apparently was only released in a limited capacity in theaters (usually a bad sign) so I had to wait until it came out on DVD which happened yesterday.

I went to my local Blockbuster (yes, people still rent movies from stores nowadays) and picked up a copy. When I got to the counter to check out, the girl working asked me "Are you sure you want to rent this?" - yet another usual bad sign. I explained that I had seen the trailer and was indeed interested in watching the movie.

Southland Tales is a sci-fi/political commentary/comedy/musical. As a sci-fi movie I found it to be a bit weak (complete with references to the 4th dimension/space time continuum). As a political commentary I found it a bit lacking. There's no question that the film is laced with political messages, but to be honest, I'm not quite sure what they were trying to tell me. As a comedy I found it unfunny at most times - and at other times I found myself wondering if I really should have been laughing or not. As a musical, well, the musical parts were few and far between. That being said, they didn't really bother me.

The tagline of the flick is "This is the way the world ends", a phrase that is sprinkled throughout a few different scenes as the story progresses. The storyline is set in modern day (2008) Southern California. We are in the midst of World War 3 after a nuclear attack on Abilene, TX in 2005. Terrorists are a major concern in the United States - so much so that intra-state travel requires an intra-state visa. There are literally snipers posted up on the rooftops in every city. Since our enemies in WW3 are middle eastern nations, obviously fuel costs have become outrageous and the quest for alternative fuel sources consumes corporations and citizens alike. The movie chronicles the adventures of a popular actor and politically well connected individual who gets caught up in the mess that ensues as a side effect of alternative fuel creation testing. At least I think thats how it goes... Seriously, to say this movie has a lot of things going on is an understatement. There are so many sub-plots, symbolisms, story-within-a-story things going on that it's really difficult to understand the message/plot/point of the movie.

The weird thing is, even though I have criticisms, I can't really say it was a bad movie. On the other hand, I can't really say it was a great movie. Hell, I can't even say it was good! To be honest I'm really still a bit confused. Like - "I don't get it" confused, but even so I was entertained by the movie. I've never quite had such a reaction to a film. I don't hate it, I don't like it, I don't dislike it, I don't love it. It just is what it is.

I realize after re-reading this post that I've not done much to do the movie justice. I do think the movie was thought provoking and entertaining. The acting was pretty darn good I must say. Southland Tales is definitely a movie you'll have to see more then once to figure out whats going on.

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