Movie Review: Southland Tales

After witnessing the glorious mess that is Southland Tales it becomes obvious that Richard Kelly needs to hop into one of his time traveling worm holes and head back to film school to revisit a simple concept: telling a consistent story. While Southland Tales works in small bits, the film's pieces never coalesce into a coherent whole.

Juggling an ensemble cast and a pseudo-science fiction, post-apocalyptic storyline, Southland Tales shows an America overrun by an oppressive, conservative government in the wake of World War 3, caused by the escalation of conflict in Iraq. When a famous action star with strong political connections to the Republican Party resurfaces after a mysterious disappearance, Boxer Santaros (The Rock) becomes involved in a conspiracy that involves everyone from the local police force to porn stars and big-wig politicians. Together their fatal interactions lead to the deconstruction of reality as we have come to know it.

With so many characters and subplots, the Southland Tales graphic novels are mandatory reading before jumping into this dense sci-fi flick. War, drugs, new technology and radical underground movements are only a few of the high brow concepts thrown at audiences. Without the context of the books, we are expected to accept all these plot points immediately upon the opening of the picture.

Perhaps one of the greatest detriments to Southland Tales is the fact that the picture has to literally catch its audience up as to what the hell is going on for nearly a whole reel. Trying to cram these ideas into the audiences' minds utilizing news clips and preachy narration from Justin Timberlake, Kelly does his best song and dance to bring viewers up to speed. However force feeding this information feels like a cinematic cheat of a young and inexperienced director, whereas a more seasoned filmmaker would have established his own futuristic world through the characters, setting and plot.