Song of the Day: “Kiss Them for Me” by Siouxsie & The Banshees

Southland Tales

Director: Richard Kelly
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Year: 2006

Southland Tales is that pretty chick you really want to dig on but who continuously annoys you every time she opens her mouth. I think that might constitute as politically incorrect but all you have to do is replace chick with dude and you got the same thing. Point is, Richard Kelly had something to work with and he managed to make a mess of it. But that is just the thing, it could have been something, if he had not decided to throw all the ingredients in at once and hope the end made a cake of it.

For those of you who may not know, Kelly is the famed director of cult favorite Donnie Darko. That may still mean nothing to you, and if that is the case I suggest you go reorder your Netflix queue and put Donnie Darko up a few notches. It is not a film for everybody, with its tangled web of concepts, but it is a must watch, if only to experience that sort of movie. Unfortunately, the underground push that Donnie Darko gave Kelly made him think he could do it again, except this time bigger, badder, with more big names, lots of shine and bigger budget. As is the case with most sequels that try to do this, Southland Tales falls flat on its rear, even if it is a pretty rear, it still counts as an epic fail.

Southland Tales is not a sequel, per se, but it does sort of follow along the same string of consciousness, tapping on the famed words of T.S. Eliot from his poem “The Hollow Men” and trying to turn it on its head, by saying “this is the way the world ends, not with a whisper, but a bang.” Those are damn near the opening lines of the film (perhaps not the exact quote but you get the drift). From the very loading Kelly aims to make this a powerful punch and he packs it with all sorts of randomness and commentary and insight and themes that even though this film feels way too long, it still fails to contain everything.

What your eyes see, fail to marry with what your eyes hear. On the surface it is a story of how the world comes to an end, involving a screen writer with a faulty memory, his porn-actress girlfriend, his daughter of a politician wife, a racist cop and a plot for revolution sparked by the Neo-Marxists. No doubt criticism is smeared all over the film, which can be entertaining at times, but overbearing when the floodgates are left so wide open. The result is a pretentious flop that fails to recognize itself in the mirror, leaving us instead with a lot of pretty visual candy, interesting editing, fancy graphics and pretty faces along with a few laughs, but really, not much more. And when you are going to invest a couple of hours, and the material is coming from Richard Kelly, you simply expect much more.

Rating:
Comments: Language, adult themes, disturbing images (some of which are pretty damn cool to look at).
Quote: Boxer Santaros: My character… he realizes that the apocalyptic crime rate is because of global deceleration. The rotation of the earth is slowing down at a rate of point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero six miles per hour each day disrupting the chemical equilibrium in the human brain causing very irrational criminal behavior.

J.S.A.

Director: Chan-wook Park
Genre: Crime/War/Thriller
Year: 2000

Chan-wook Park would fall, hands down, in my list of favorite Korean directors and rank quite high in my general list of top directors in general, though all I have seen is his revenge trilogy: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The fact that he decided to pull no punches in those movies left me wanting to see more of his stuff, which is how this little known film ended up in my list. I say little known, but really I mean little known in the US, because apparently it caused quite the stir in Korea when it came out, given that it deals with the tensions that surround the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea, a conflict that to this day continues its roller coaster of escalation.

It starts off with a gunshot, two dead bodies and an injured soldier and a cloud of fog over an event that could bring the two nations to war if not clarified, which is why a neutral officer has been brought in to break things down and figure out what exactly happened before one of the Koreas does something irrational.

With this being a thriller, it probably is not a good idea for me to give up too many plot points, other than the fact that at one point in time, South Koreans and North Koreans came together and shots were fired. As the witnesses are interviewed, more and more details begin to emerge and the story is pieced together, giving us a rare and moving image of the ridiculous seriousness of this conflict and how a good thing can spark terrible things. Intelligent and thought provoking, this film is not as volatile as any of the revenge movies are, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Park has given us, instead, a gem of a film that gives a thorough examination of how politics and war can wreck even the most natural of human tendencies.

My only complaint is the English speaking moments, which are awful and completely unnecessary. The entire film could have been done in Korean, or even parts in French if needed, but I understand that it is the cool thing to add in English speaking roles, which is fine, if you can just get people that actually talk English fluently. Other than the awkward accents, this film is a must buy!

Rating:
Comments: Adult themes, war, disturbing imagery and a few violent moments. Mostly Korean with English subtitles.

THEM

Directors: David Moreau and Xavier Palud
Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Year: 2006

As far as slasher films go, this is one of the better ones, but at the heart of it all, it does remain a slasher film. What that means is that going into this film you should know that pretty much, all you are going to get is the opportunity to witness some pretty terrible things for your entertainment. The fact that this is actually based in true events, however, does add a discordant note which multiplies the shiver factor.

Clementine and Lucas are an average couple that live in the outskirts of suburban Romania, she is a teacher, he is a writer and they have acquired a home in a large piece of land that promises to be a nice quiet place for them to spend their lives in. We are given a nice introduction to the characters, enough to get us to care for them, setting up the essentials of their relationship, before the thrills start. And once they arrive, they do not go until the end of the film. One night, while peacefully sleeping, Clementine is woken up by the sounds of intruders, of which there appear to be a handful, and what seems to be an initial prank turns into a nightmarish slide with tremendous consequences.

Creepy and injected with decent shots of adrenaline, this film is definitely one that will give you horror kicks and entertain if this is what you are looking for, but as far as content goes, it rides over the surface, telling a simple plot that relies heavily on the editing and cinematography, neither of which disappoint.

Rating:
Comment: Disturbing imagery and violence. Romanian with English subtitles.