Southland Tales

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Southland Tales is a dystopic sci-fi oddity written and directed by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) featuring Dwayne Johnson and Sean William Scott as dual protagonists, Boxer Santeros and Roland Taverner, respectively. There are about twenty other famous people in this movie that I'm not going to bother mentioning, but yeah- the cast is huge. Even Kevin Smith is in this movie.

It's a unique film in that it's only the final three chapters in a six chapter story. While that may, at the sound, turn a lot of people off, I'm going to discuss what I love about that and why, and to better facilitate that I'm also going to be reviewing the Prequel Saga graphic novel.

As both a guy with a background in sequential art and a film nerd, I have always loved the idea of doing a series of comics or a graphic novel that transitioned into a live action or even animated film, so the way Kelly went about Southland Tales I was very much into. I won't lie, there was definitely a feeling during and after I watched it where I felt a tad bummed because it would be a while before I got my hands on the graphic novel and knew the whole story, but at the same time, it gave me something to think about, and look forward to.

To elaborate a bit more on what it's all about, I'm going to quickly shed some more light on the story itself before splintering off with the movie, and book alone.

Kelley has cited the Book of Revelation and TS Eliot's the Hollow Men as key influences for the plot of Southland Tales. Said plot is rather odd, to say the least, and it's not one that lends itself to short form review, but I'll do my best.

A new form of energy called Fluid Karma has been discovered, and it just happens to be an election year and you can pretty much put two and two together here. As for the protagonists, Santeros is an actor that goes missing under some really weird circumstances, and Taverner is an officer that finds himself tied up in said circumstances. How all of this is sewn into the bizarre parallel dystopian present is tough to describe, so I'll just touch on key points of the movie and then the graphic novel.

The film, chapters IV-VI, center on the upcoming election and it's mysterious connection to the disappearance and possible abduction of actor Boxer Santeros. Officer Roland Taverner finds himself abducted by anti-government activists and John Lovitz quotes Philip K Dick and there's a mysterious corpse, two SUVs have sex, a bunch of people die, there's a movie script that's some kind of prophecy or whatever and Justin Timberlake has a dance number, and there's a blimp and a pornstar reality show...and hey, isn't that John Larroquette?

Yeah. The movie is weird, and elaborate as hell. Even more so if you haven't read the book, but I still really enjoyed it. It also has a really great soundtrack, featuring the Killers, the Pixies and Muse, and it really enhances the surreal aspects of the film quite nicely. If you're intrigued by these ramblings about a movie that's tough to describe, check it out. Then check out the graphic novel...

The graphic novel, chapters I-III, pretty much does exactly what you need it to. The friend that gave me my copy read it prior to seeing the movie and loved both. I, on the other hand, saw the film first. Reading it was like a long-deserved payoff, in that it was the perfect use of backstory through an alternative medium as it gets. It explains how the discovery of Fluid Karma, and everything that happened between then and the events in the movie involving both Santeros and Taverner, and it locked it all up in one very far-out, yet thought provoking, and well-executed concept. The art isn't my favorite, but it works. It also includes the entire script for 'The Power', which is mentioned in the film, and a key plot device. Make sure to read this before or after you watch the film, it's an integral companion piece to a very underrated and under appreciated film I feel didn't get a fair shake due to it's unconventional method of storytelling.

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