I watched the film twice now, and can't even begin to discuss it. It WILL be a cult film for upcoming generations, that's why I'm posting this topic here.

What I'm concerned about is that I feel like SOUTHLAND TALES will shut the door financially on anyone who is "maverick" enough to have a crazy idea for a film. I have great respect for Richard Kelly... he put his neck on the chopping block for what must be one of the most insane films that I've seen this decade. Even though it was an critical and financial failure, I want to see more films like this made, but I feel in today's times it's impossible. Will it be even harder for someone bankable like David Lynch and will first timers get a shot at all?

I know that there's always the argument that as long as someone has a great idea, a digital camera and final cut pro, there will always be originality. However, when I sit down to watch a movie, I want to see a MOVIE, not a project that looks better on Youtube. At least SOUTHLAND TALES had a budget, and it looked great.


marc

SOUTHLAND TALES on its own might have been a kind of write-off, but when you take it alongside of Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN, there may be something to this arguement.

On the other hand, I suspect that these things are cyclical. I have no doubt that producers and studios are trying to figure out how to get cheaper, wide appeal movies out there, but that has more to do with the dropping attendance at the multiplexes than it does with any one or two filmmakers' fascinating yet costly creative meltdowns.

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I remember purchasing a sale priced vhs copy of TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME many, many years ago and the teenage girl behind the counter commented, "Great movie!" If you want to talk about a movie that took on a strange life of its own after bombing with audiences and critics, there's a pretty good example. And I do believe that its lasting cult appeal has less to do with the short-lived "TWIN PEAKS phenomenon" than it does with David Lynch's uncanny story of a teenage girl's worst paranoid fears come true.

The reason I mention this is that I think that SOUTHLAND TALES is destined to enjoy a similar shelf-life on video. The guys on the excellent Filmspotting podcast gave the film an appreciatively mixed review and applauded Kelly for using a cast like The Rock (do I have to call him Dwayne Johnson now?), Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake to lure the "tweeners" in to see a movie which resembles a sort of dumbed-down, pop-culture obsessed David Lynch film.

You could argue that his ploy obviously failed, but I would argue that the intended audience for the film never had a chance to see it and decide for themselves...

....until now.

Yes, a lot of people seem to hate SOUTHLAND TALES, but I've noticed that bile subsiding recently with dvd critics seeming to enjoy what it has to offer. After all, it's not nearly as bad as early word of mouth has led people to expect.

What I suspect (or hope) will happen is that young viewers will be lured in to watch the film because of its cast and promise of an experience which has trippy similarities to DONNIE DARKO.

It's likely that a new generation will find themselves watching this film in between bong hits or packed bowls and really feel like they've discovered something. This is not necessarily a bad thing since this process has given rise to countless cult films over the years.

I'm sure that Kelly (and the financiers) would have preferred to see some of that love at the multiplex, but the studio got cold feet and didn't really put it out there. So, now it's just a matter of waiting for the cult to come around and given the fact that Kelly still seems to stick by his whacked out opus, he's either deluded or he knows that the film's time will come.

Yeah - like a few years back when some guy named Richard Kelly was deemed the apparent savior of independent cult filmmaking with something called DONNIE DARKO.

Keep in mind that DONNIE DARKO was almost completely ignored during its initial theatrical release. It didn't gain any momentum until home video.

True enough. Which to me both supports the idea that offbeat filmmaking is in a protracted downward spiral (along with theatrical exhibition of *all* films, I think), and refutes that SOUTHLAND TALES is, taken by itself, a base indicator of much of anything.

I *do* think it's an obvious 'time capsule' movie, though - like WILD IN THE STREETS. Make of that what you will...