I was really hoping, but it looks like all the portents were accurate...

[viktor_haag]

Southland Tales may indeed suck. If you can't get a decent rating out of Roger Ebert who (a) has a soft spot for thoughtful SF, and (b) has a soft spot for genre pictures, and (c) is totally willing to rate genre pictures only within the context of their own genre, then, well, you must suck very large indeed.

This is a shame, because from everything I'd heard, I'd hoped that Southland Tales was sort of Richard Kelly's Mulholland Drive or Inland Empire, and thus capable of cult-fan appreciation. Oh well.

Comments

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

I didn't get on the Kelly train the first time. I saw both versions of Donnie Darko and was deeply underwhelmed. The first one was a muddle; the second one was a long muddle. Every time I tried to talk about the film with one of my friends who had somehow ended up a fan of Kelly, I got handwaving and Zeitgeist this and temporal connectedness that. If this is what "thoughtful" SF has turned into while my back was turned, I'll take my Lensman pulp neat, thank you.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Actually, I agree with you. I was not a huge fan of Donnie Darko either... I gave it a mooshy B to B+; I did not regret seeing it, especially since, hey, it's got Mary McDonnell and Maggie Gyllenhaal in it. However, it was not effective enough for me to want to see the director's cut, and I remember being actively displeased with the film's subtext (as I saw it).

Perhaps saying that I was hoping that Southland Tales would be Kelly's Mullholland/Inland was not spot on... it might have been better if I had said Kelly's Pulp Fiction... that is, a sophomore effort that clearly shows that Kelly has his shit together and is going to turn into someone to reckon with (and sci-fi, too, so yay).

Instead, apparently, it's a mess and Kelly's reputation may be more of an Emperor's new clothes situation.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

What offended me most about the whole Kult of Kelly was not that the people involved were enthusiastic about the film (hey, look how long Rocky Horror has been kicking around), but that they seemed obliged to defend their love of the film with the kind of crypto-babble usually reserved for why they couldn't stand 3rd edition Mage. What I saw was a movie by someone who didn't have ideas; ideas had him.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Well, luckily I don't know any fervent Kultists; all the folk I know who were high on the film were filled with more enthusiasm than puffery. I take it I'm fortunate on that count. 8)