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Apocryphally Weird

65*: SOUTHLAND TALES (2006)

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“Some audience members get very angry if they can’t process and understand the story in one viewing, and they see that as a design flaw in the film itself. Other people are more open to obscurity and complexity and the idea of needing to revisit something. Those are my favorite kinds of films.”–Richard Kelly

DIRECTED BY: Richard Kelly

FEATURING: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Nora Dunn, Wood Harris, Christopher Lambert, John Larroquette, , , Mandy Moore, Holmes Osborne, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, , Miranda Richardson, , Will Sasso, Wallace Shawn, Kevin Smith

PLOT: In the near future, a terrorist attack transforms America into a cryptofacist police state. The third anniversary of that attack proves to be a day of great significance, with the launch of a new national surveillance agency, the release of an energy source/mind-altering drug called Fluid Karma, and the debut of an enormous luxury zeppelin improbably named for the wife of Karl Marx. On this day, the fates of multiple citizens collide, including an amnesiac action star who has written a startlingly prescient screenplay, a porn actor overseeing a burgeoning branding empire, a former beauty queen-turned-spymaster, a venal fundamentalist vice-presidential candidate who is being bribed by an assortment of neo-Marxist agitants, an international cadre of cult members whose purported invention of a perpetual motion machine masks an effort to bring about the end of the world, and, maybe most importantly of all, a war veteran and his twin brother searching for each other.

Still from Southland Tales (2006)

BACKGROUND:

  • Kelly envisioned the film as part of an epic multimedia saga. In-film titles identify sections of the movie as chapters 4-6; the first three chapters were released as graphic novels (now out-of-print collectibles).
  • The film had a notorious premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival when Kelly submitted the film before it was completed. He finished neither the editing nor the visual effects in time, and the extremely poor reception received by the work-in-progress prompted him to cut more than 20 minutes prior to general release (including virtually all of’s performance as an Army general). The version shown at Cannes has since been released, although Kelly himself describes the film overall as unfinished.
  • Several members of the cast are alums of “Saturday Night Live.” Kelly intentionally cast them to play up the screenplay’s satirical elements, and in general wanted to give his actors a chance to play against type.
  • Budgeted at $17 million, Southland Tales grossed less than $400,000 at the global box office.

INDELIBLE IMAGE: There’s little agreement as to whether Southland Tales is a good movie or not, but the one thing that seems to be beyond dispute is that is Timberlake’s Venice Beach lip sync to The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done” is the standout scene. Timberlake’s yokel narrator Pilot Abilene spends the bulk of the film drawling overheated speeches that rely heavily on the Book of Revelation, which he delivers in the tone of a pothead conspiracy nut vainly trying to lift the scales from your eyes. But here, as he struts through a rundown arcade in a drug-induced haze wearing a blood-soaked undershirt and cavorting with a kickline of PVC-clad nurses, Pilot Abilene claims the screen for himself, demonstrating more comfort with the film’s absurdities than anyone we’ve seen thus far. It’s the one moment where Kelly’s delivers his commitment to over-the-top imagery with any degree of lightness; instead of the ponderousness of significance that accompanies every other set piece, this dance scene really dances.

TWO WEIRD THINGS: Mirror on delay; rehearsing the performance-art assassination

WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Richard Kelly is ambitious to a fault, a spectacularly indulgent filmmaker who never had an idea he didn’t want to film and who makes sure you notice every element of his worldbuilding. Southland Tales is a quintessential Kelly experience, with one layer of Philip K. Dickian paranoid surrealism piled upon another layer of Altmanesque interconnectedness, rinse and repeat. The film has been carefully crafted to confuse, with absurd situations, offscreen backstories, and red herrings combining to keep characters and viewers equally at sea.

Original trailer for Southland Tales (2006)

COMMENTS: What good is a blank check? If cinematic success affords a director the chance to fulfill their dream, what dream should Continue reading 65*: SOUTHLAND TALES (2006) →

Capsules

CAPSULE: MOON MANOR (2022)

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Moon Manor is currently available for VOD rental.

DIRECTED BY: Machete Bang Bang, Erin Grana

FEATURING: James ‘Jimmy’ Carrozo, , Richard Riehle, Debra Wilson

PLOT: Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, an elderly bohemian decides to end his life, and stages a celebratory “fun-eral” party ending with his suicide.

Still from Moon Manor (2022)

COMMENTS: Moon Manor has a strong point of view, and for better or worse, it sticks to it. It’s structured not as a movie, but as a memorial service. It’s both didactic and celebratory. Jimmy, a former singer and moon real estate salesman, suffers from dementia that’s only getting worse. Deciding to take control of the end of his life, he avails himself of liberal West Coast laws allowing physicians to prescribe lethal doses of barbiturates and invites his friends over to celebrate his last day on earth. Along for the final ride are a death doula who reads from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and a neophyte local journalist covering the eulogy beat who hopes to leverage Jimmy’s death into a feature article. Most of Jimmy’s old friends are dead, but younger folk touched by his mentorship come along to the party to give testimonials, a drag queen supplies entertainment, and Rikki Lake shows up to give some words of encouragement. Jimmy is a swell guy and no one has a bad word to say about him, as is appropriate. We get to know him through flashbacks (Jimmy met the love of his life at an audition for “Hair,” a musical whose revolutionary potential he still staunchly defends). The only pushback to the general sense of how wonderful the whole suicide plan is comes from a pair of evangelical protestors who park outside his house and shout Bible verses through a bullhorn—although these antagonists are quickly overcome and sidelined. (They are basically intolerant, unempathetic strawmen, although one of them does receive some unexpected character development).

The movie has a heavy neo-hippie, New Age vibe, which can come across as a bit naïve but is in keeping with its subject’s spirit. Moon Manor is a feature-length advertisement for a radical species of death with dignity, and, though one-sided, it successfully makes the decision seem rational. But is it weird? Not if you’re the kind of guy who recognizes the pot of San Pedro cactus growing in the corner of the kitchen. There are a few fast-cut montages with colored lights, and there’s a shambling apparition hanging around (Jimmy assumes it’s Death, but it names itself “Intuition”). The editing in the hallucination sequences is indie-psychedelic standard, competent but not transcendent. It’s not as weird as you’d expect from a movie co-directed by someone named Machete Bang Bang.

Moon Manor aims at persuasion, and how well you like it will depend on your position on the right to die (and on whether you think opposing viewpoints should at least get a fair hearing). But it’s also a living eulogy for an extraordinary man, which makes the movie harder to criticize or dislike. Jimmy is endearing and authentic, because he is playing a version of himself: many of the details, including his love story and his career as a working musician, are taken from the actor’s real life. Knowing the factual basis of the fictional story makes it easier to accept the film’s argument: this may not really be happening, but you know the actor you’re seeing onscreen wholeheartedly endorses the scenario. Fortunately, there is no indication that the real-life Jimmy has advanced Alzheimer’s, or intends to die soon.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“The film brilliantly blends humor with melancholy, feeling like a surrealistic biography.”–Jon Mendelson, CBR (contemporaneous)

Reader Recommendations

READER RECOMMENDATION: JACK AND DIANE (2012)

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Reader Recommendation by Jason Steadmon

DIRECTED BY: Bradley Rust Gray

FEATURING: , , , ,

PLOT: Somewhat immature Diane (Temple) meets and starts a relationship with the streetwise Jack (Keough) while also going through some strange blackouts and changes.

Still from Jack and Diane (2012)

WHY IT SHOULD MAKE THE LIST: If you take the point of view that an analogy doesn’t make for weirdness, Jack & Diane may not immediately make the List. This movie, however, takes that analogy and leaves one to make one’s own mind up. Maybe Diane is turning into a creature in her blackouts – maybe not. It’s from this ambiguity that the movie derives its strangeness.

COMMENTS: Diane is a girl who has been getting nosebleeds lately, and those eventually lead to some scary blackouts, with her seeing a creature in the mirror in place of her own reflection. The idea that Diane may be going through some bodily change (cancer, maturation, exploration of her own sexuality, etc.) is a pure distillation of metaphor–except that it starts to have physical consequences for her lover Jack. Jack eventually gets jealous of Diane hanging around with her friends–Diane has a more fluid sexual nature as opposed to Jack’s straight-up lesbian orientation–even if she was willing to roll with the sometimes literal punches of the relationship. If this isn’t metaphorical, both Diane and Jack (and New York City) are in trouble, because one of them is turning into a very violent monster.

Diane’s other self is represented through some good old-fashioned prosthetic work by veteran effects artist Gabe Bartalos (the Leprechaun movies, most of ’s films). The impending coming of the Creature Diane is also represented in animation by the Brothers Quay in their characteristic and inimitable style. Bradley Rust Gray does good service to the iffy nature of the story and never beats you over the head with the creature. He is obviously bolstered by his experience with both independent and experimental film. As Diane, Juno Temple doesn’t necessarily break any new ground in the childlike yet sexually charged role–but does well with a part that seems written with her in mind. More astounding is Keough (Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter) as Jack, completely eschewing her normal glamorous looks to play the tomboyish role, and bringing depth to the character that one might not expect from someone who makes a regular living as a fashion model.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“Tonally, the film swings between whispery romance and ominous horror as it explores the dark side of love and lust, including an amusingly gory meditation on the notion that the person you think is your beloved might just rip your heart out.”–Sara Stewart, New York Post (contemporaneous)