And by dig, I mean make up something completely absurd. Ever have those friends at the dinner table who come up with some quack excuse on how a simple and often garbage movie should be seen as artful or a great piece for humanity? This should reawaken their gift of gab. Let's take a few solid facts of where this movie came from.
It came from a short story written for Playboy in 1970. It progressed into a teleplay in the mid and late 1970's and then reused again in the 80's reboot of the Twilight Zone. So as you can see, the story was basically made to be 19-25 minutes long plus commercials. Not made to be made into an almost two hour movie. I was actually blown away the movie was listed as breaking 90 minutes. I was confused onto what they could actually produce for such a simple story, even if they had materials to use from at least three different variants.
Now before I continue on any potential tangent on how this movie is lackadaisical in it's attempt to tell any single plot element, I will give it this. It will keep you interested and perhaps even guessing. However the movie starts and ends like a Twilight Episode, but instead of being satisfied; you realize you just watched a fifteen minute plot line being dragged out over 115 minutes worth of eerie plot-development. Which may sound awesome, but really, is the middle of the movie going to outweigh the end? The answer is no. You can maybe have flaws throughout the movie, but if you can't sell it at the end, then what the hell is the point? The movie has major plot holes, I'll let you find them for yourself, but they're their. Many people will also defend this movie by saying it's a scope on human emotions, selfishness, and any other community college notebook found in the desk of a psychology class. But the clear fact is, the movie wasn't even sure what direction it was going to take and any attempt to resolve that was completely dismissed with the ending. And let's get one thing straight. The ending doesn't upset me because it's not how I wished it to end or because I didn't get any answers. It upset me because it made no sense at all. At all. The movie seems to traverse about three major Occult subjects and it doesn't have the common decency to attempt to join them in some fashion to where they should be even introduced.
Now before someone tries to defend this by perhaps it's to be interpreted, that isn't the case. No string of intelligence could take this movie and actually produce some sort of linkage between them all. There isn't even a flow of evidence in this 'mystery/thriller'. It's just a congealed mess of what Richard Kelly's brain is.
And to conclude: Richard Kelly. He made a great little movie that has generated many interesting theories called: Donnie Darko. But that was his only movie that even bounded to a sense of reality and pseudo-fiction. Southland Tales was about nothing and all the other movies he is accredited to writing, he was the actually sole-visionary, so it doesn't really count. So basically, if you want a movie that will pique your interest and maybe jog your mind, then this is it. But wait, let me rephrase. If you're the kind of person like that AND also like a movie that insults any of your theories with a busted ending: this is it.
It came from a short story written for Playboy in 1970. It progressed into a teleplay in the mid and late 1970's and then reused again in the 80's reboot of the Twilight Zone. So as you can see, the story was basically made to be 19-25 minutes long plus commercials. Not made to be made into an almost two hour movie. I was actually blown away the movie was listed as breaking 90 minutes. I was confused onto what they could actually produce for such a simple story, even if they had materials to use from at least three different variants.
Now before I continue on any potential tangent on how this movie is lackadaisical in it's attempt to tell any single plot element, I will give it this. It will keep you interested and perhaps even guessing. However the movie starts and ends like a Twilight Episode, but instead of being satisfied; you realize you just watched a fifteen minute plot line being dragged out over 115 minutes worth of eerie plot-development. Which may sound awesome, but really, is the middle of the movie going to outweigh the end? The answer is no. You can maybe have flaws throughout the movie, but if you can't sell it at the end, then what the hell is the point? The movie has major plot holes, I'll let you find them for yourself, but they're their. Many people will also defend this movie by saying it's a scope on human emotions, selfishness, and any other community college notebook found in the desk of a psychology class. But the clear fact is, the movie wasn't even sure what direction it was going to take and any attempt to resolve that was completely dismissed with the ending. And let's get one thing straight. The ending doesn't upset me because it's not how I wished it to end or because I didn't get any answers. It upset me because it made no sense at all. At all. The movie seems to traverse about three major Occult subjects and it doesn't have the common decency to attempt to join them in some fashion to where they should be even introduced.
Now before someone tries to defend this by perhaps it's to be interpreted, that isn't the case. No string of intelligence could take this movie and actually produce some sort of linkage between them all. There isn't even a flow of evidence in this 'mystery/thriller'. It's just a congealed mess of what Richard Kelly's brain is.
And to conclude: Richard Kelly. He made a great little movie that has generated many interesting theories called: Donnie Darko. But that was his only movie that even bounded to a sense of reality and pseudo-fiction. Southland Tales was about nothing and all the other movies he is accredited to writing, he was the actually sole-visionary, so it doesn't really count. So basically, if you want a movie that will pique your interest and maybe jog your mind, then this is it. But wait, let me rephrase. If you're the kind of person like that AND also like a movie that insults any of your theories with a busted ending: this is it.