The great thing about directing a cult classic like Donnie Darko is that you have total freedom in choosing your next project. You could, for instance, make a sci-fi-political-musical, cast an assortment of popstars, B-list comedians and wrestlers, and contrive the most preposterous plot imaginable, and the studios would still shell out USD 17 million for the production. And that’s exactly what director Richard Kelly decided to do.
The plot (which is so ridiculous no synopsis can do it justice) focuses on America in the years after an atomic bomb was dropped in Texas. The country is divided between the evil Republican Party and their Orwellian control tactics and the neo-Marxists (who look like extras from a Cindy Lauper music video). Amidst this political struggle, Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) wonders around suffering from amnesia (which could have something to do with a perpetual motion machine called “fluid karma”). Boxer tries to find out what caused his amnesia, and his search brings him into contact with porn stars (Sarah Michelle Gellar), veterans of the Iraq war (Justin Timberlake) and policemen (Sean William Scott), and the fate of the world seems to hinge on him finding the truth.
Southland Tales is unsure of what it wants to be. Quantum theory is discussed as regularly as fellatio, with the actors so spectacularly miscast that they appear lost when spouting their lines. Although it will probably enrage more than it will entertain, it should be given credit for attempting something completely different from the cookie cutter blockbusters that are filling up the multiplexes. But ultimately it gets everything so terribly wrong that you wish it had remained the idle daydream of an obviously talented director.
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