Category Archives: Richard Kelly

Wow. That’s all I can really say right now. I saw Southland Tales at the Angelika tonight. Hardly anyone was there, I’m pretty sure it will turn out to be a financial flop. It’s too bad but honestly, it is one of the strangest, most mind-boggling films I have ever seen, and if you know me that is saying a lot. I really believe it is way too far out for its time. I came into the theater with several years worth of intense expectation, which is usually a bad thing, but it exceeded my expectations. It was more of everything that I hoped, and worried, it would be. It is lamentable, bbut unsurprising that so many critics fail to see deeper into the film. It is definitely convoluted, but it reaches plateaus of expression and spectacle that even the most experimental Lynch film cannot. It’s somewhere along the lines of Lynch meets Korine meets Waters meets the fucking Disney Channel. And even that blunt comparison fails to adequately describe it.
My persistent worry is that Southland Tales will become Richard Kelly’s Heaven’s Gate, that the debacle surrounding the movie will discourage producers from working with him. If he can reign in some of his vision he could be making truly monumental work.
I’ll post a thorough review tomorrow. One thing I’ll say though. I believe you can only really appreciate this movie as a media-saturated, sarcasm-bred American young adult.