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Description (continued...)
the U.S., the Middle East, and North Korea. Kelly’s central character is action-movie star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who is suffering from a bout of amnesia upon returning from the desert. His reasons for being in the desert are hazy, but he’s hooked up with porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and together they have written a screenplay about the end of the world. Santaros tries to prepare for the film by taking a ride with a cop named Taverner (Sean William Scott). But the cop is actually Taverner’s twin brother, who is working for a shadowy group of neo-Marxists who are trying to overthrow the government. Meanwhile, a brilliant scientist (Wallace Shawn) unveils an incredible new energy source, the end of the world as predicted by the Book of Revelations draws ever closer, and Justin Timberlake (who plays an Iraqi war veteran) provides a voiceover that fills in some of the gaps. As the film builds to its explosive climax, the reasons for Santaros’s time in the desert become clear, and the various strands of the plot are brilliantly woven together.
SOUTHLAND TALES is packed with ideas, tangents, song-lyrics-as-dialogue (in particular, "Three Days" by Jane’s Addiction), cameos from established stars, and plenty of references to the post-9/11 political landscape. Kelly’s film is bursting with imagination, and it will undoubtedly need multiple viewings for everything to sink in. Comparisons to films as varied as Richard Linklater’s A SCANNER DARKLY and David Lynch’s DUNE are valid, but Kelly’s movie inhabits a wonderful world of its own, and is one of 2007’s most unique and inspiring pieces of filmmaking.
Country of Origin: USA
Reviews "[A] dancing-in-your-grave pop extravaganza that is the CITIZEN KANE of our Fox News, E! Channel, surveillance cammed, multiple-fractured, post-9/11 collective delirium." Film Comment | 11/01/2007 | p.68-69
"It's a romp...a genre pastiche, a blast of conscience....SOUTHLAND TALES has more ideas, visual and intellectual, in a single scene than most American independent films have in their entirety..." New York Times | 11/14/2007
3 stars out of 5 -- "The best part is its Terry Southern-style madness and wonderful depiction of America as it seems today." Empire | 01/01/2008 | p.50
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]n Kelly's dark, dystopian vision, everyone is a culprit. Amusingly berserk." Uncut | 01/01/2008 | p.129
"[I]t nails the dystopia-of-the-spectacle in which we are living right now, as profoundly as Godard and Warhol did in the mid-Sixties." Film Comment | 01/01/2008 | p.40
"Amy Poehler and Wood Harris shine as an improv act tied up in a neo-Marxist conspiracy..." Sight and Sound | 02/01/2008 | p.80-81
Full Cast and Crew Director: Richard Kelly Starring: Rock, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nora Dunn, Christopher Lambert, John Larroquette, Bai Ling, Jon Lovitz, Mandy Moore, Holmes Osborne, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Lou Taylor Pucci, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Kevin Smith, Justin Timberlake Screenwriter: Richard Kelly Producer: Sean McKittrick, Bo Hyde, Kendall Morgan Director of Photography: Steven B. Poster Composer: Moby
Release Information Color: Color Runtime: 144 min. Closed Captioned Language: English Original Language: English Subtitled Language: English Subtitled Language: French Subtitled Language: Spanish © Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Features DVD Features:
Keep Case Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.40 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional, Subtitles - English - Closed Captioned Additional Release Materials: Featurettes - 1. "Usident TV: Surveilling the Southland", Short Film - "This is the Way the World Ends" (animated)
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DVD: Southland Tales
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