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Southland Tales
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Southland Tales (2006) More at IMDbPro »

Photos (see all 27 | slideshow) Videos
Southland Tales (2006) -- Open-ended Trailer from Samuel Goldwyn Films

Overview

User Rating:
5.7/10   16,596 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 10% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Richard Kelly
Writer (WGA):
Richard Kelly (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Southland Tales on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 December 2007 (UK) more
Tagline:
Have A Nice Apocalypse more
Plot:
Southland Tales is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008... more | full synopsis
Awards:
2 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(79 articles)
Richard Kelly’s The Box | Poster & Trailer
 (From SmellsLikeScreenSpirit. 29 June 2009, 9:23 AM, PDT)

Trailer Park: Spreading, Bending and Breaking
 (From Cinematical. 27 June 2009, 5:03 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
I normally recommend this film to nobody. more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Southland Tales (Germany) (DVD title)
more
MPAA:
Rated R for language, violence, sexual material and some drug content.
Runtime:
145 min | France:160 min (Cannes Film Festival) | Argentina:160 min
Country:
Germany | USA | France
Language:
English
Colour:
Colour
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The policeman who says "flow my tears" is called Bookman. In Philip K. Dick's novel 'Flow My Tears The Policeman Said', one of the central characters is called General Buckman. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: When the home video at the start of the film catches a glimpse of the initial bomb blast, we see the flash and hear the boom at the same instant. Anything close enough to a nuclear blast to hear the boom at the same instant as seeing the flash would be instantly disintegrated. more
Quotes:
Madeline Frost Santaros: How does it end?
Boxer Santaros: A handshake.
more
Soundtrack:
The Real Thing more

FAQ

Why is 'Kiss Me Deadly' featured numerous times in the film?
What do all the characters in the film keep on quoting from?
What exactly happens at the end of the movie?
more
137 out of 210 people found the following comment useful:-
I normally recommend this film to nobody., 31 March 2008
10/10
Author: devv1988 from Canada

This is the way the world ends. Not with a whimper, but with a bang.

This is a film about all of the seemingly random events that lead up to the end of the world. And it's also a comedy.

That says it all right there, doesn't it?

When this film ended, I ran to tell every one I could find about it. The odd thing I found about it was that I ended nearly every one of these conversations with the following:

"It was amazing, but don't see it. You won't like it."

It's strange to hope that a film I feel so passionately about should not be seen by the very people I want to discuss it with. However, that's exactly the way I feel here. This film is not for everybody; in fact, there are only a precious few out of all of the people who see it that will even tolerate its existence. But you know what? That really isn't important.

Art is subjective, and no matter how many times I bother to explain a difficult concept to somebody who hated this film, I realize that it will never work long before the conversation ends. The problem is that these difficult concepts are actually very simplistic: Richard Kelly had Dwayne Johnson spoof the stereotypical, apocalyptic action-hero throughout the film. This included over-dramatic readings of his lines, delayed reactions and odd vocal dynamics.

What? You say that it wasn't intentional, and that it was just Johnson's poor acting skills?

This is where the small-minded fail to grasp the most simplistic of concepts. The great analytical film student will analyze a crooked frame and declare the brilliance of its intent; they will say that this intentional error supports the themes of the piece. So why does the same not go for Southland Tales?

Each one of these already-marked actors has broken out of their shells for this movie. The fact that everybody stereotypes them attests to Kelly's genius in assigning them the roles; however, it also proves how unfortunately small-minded today's modern audience has become.

Was this film a mess? Absolutely, in every sense of the word. But was it a coherent mess? That's the real question, and I think that I can safely say that it is. This film is nowhere near as difficult to understand as anybody would have you believe. The concepts are straightforward and are practically dictated to you by the narrator; this becomes essential to the understanding of the story, as there is just way too much going on to take in on your own. However, instead of hindering the film, it makes these seemingly unrelated scenes string together into a true tapestry that is worth exploring.

So, you know what? I'm going to go against my own advice and advise anybody and everybody who reads this review to go out and see this film. If you don't like it, don't come back to this website whining about it, because nobody here has the tolerance to explain things to you that you will never understand. No amount of discussion of cinematography, lighting or the fantastically haunting score by Moby is going to change the mind of an already jaded viewer.

But maybe, just maybe, you will like it. You'll get a chance to experience something you're likely to rarely, if never, experience again. Because as all of us who enjoyed the film know:

It had to be this way.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Southland Tales (2006)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
TOP TEN REASONS THIS MOVIE SUCKED.... blazingnip
The mist throughout the entire film? Airborne Liquid Karma. jopari
I have a question about similar movies. ogc3321
The only critics are the ones that don't understand the film. ogc3321
R.Kelly -- Please put the movie in the movie... b-loc
Why does boxer wake uo in a room with Madeline frost? newbeginnings_21
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