30 Day Film Challenge: Day 14 – The Film That No One Expected You To Like: Southland Tales (2006)

Posted on July 14, 2011 | 5 Comments

Expectations are often wrong, yet we all have them, don’t we?

Day 14 – The Film That No One Expected You To Like

Southland Tales (2006, Richard Kelly)

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate Southland Tales, and I know a lot of people who have grown to absolutely hate the films director, Richard Kelly. When I let some people know that I would be watching Southland Tales I was met with a lot of warnings and a few pleas to better spend my time with other movies. When I returned with my thoughts on Southland Tales I was met with stunned silence, a fair amount of ridicule, and friends who didn’t understand how I could love, not like, Kelly’s outrageous piece on the near future. Southland Tales is certainly outlandish and crazy, but it’s also inventive and willing to take chances. There are far too many boring movies that are trumpeted as great, films that play it by the numbers and are afraid to do anything different. Richard Kelly will never be a director who isn’t afraid to try for a different sort of vibe or to throw ideas at the screen and see what sticks. Southland Tales is an interesting ride, it’s compelling because of how interesting it is and I’ll take that over the boring same old-same old any day of the week.

Cheers,
Bill

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5 responses to “30 Day Film Challenge: Day 14 – The Film That No One Expected You To Like: Southland Tales (2006)”

  1. James Blake Ewing | July 14, 2011 at 11:31 pm |

    I, too, love this film. I can see why people hate this, but I love the bizarre, complex madness that is Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales.

  2. Bill Thompson | July 15, 2011 at 7:15 am |

    Exactly, what Kelly does is fascinating and I love watching him create this world in such an odd way.

  3. CS | July 19, 2011 at 2:38 pm |

    I tried hard to keep an open mind all the way through, but I grew tired of the film by the beginning of the third act. The film made no sense to me at all. Richard Kelly threw in way too many ideas into the film without really figuring out how he was going to tackle it at all.

  4. Bill Thompson | July 19, 2011 at 2:41 pm |

    That’s what I love the most about the film. Kelly isn’t concerned with making sense, he’s concerned with exploring ideas and letting those ideas take him wherever they may. I was never searching for sense in Southland Tales, I just watched and let it all happen.

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