WE HAVE REVIEWED THIS FROM A SCREENING LINK

A dystopian future. Nuclear war, secret energy sources, evil corporations, battle scarred military types and a porn star with an eye to the Now! When all else fails, a strange group of people can save us from the brink. Or maybe cross us over to the other side.

Movie star Boxer (Dwayne Johnson) has his next film ready to go. He hopes porn actress Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and troubled policeman Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott) will help him to shoot it.  Issues are that Marxist revolutionaries, greedy corporations and secretive government agencies are all rapidly trying to stop anyone from tipping over the balance of paranoia and panic. What with a nuke ready to drop, its all very on edge. 

Richard Kelly was lauded at the time of release for DONNIE DARKO. But on watching his directors cut version of the film, many questioned why! This follow up, made us all deliriously sure that Kelly was a skilled visionary, who just could not get his ideas across the line without a massive helping hand. SOUTHLAND TALES underlines this. It is an intelligent, confused and often unfulfilling piece. Taking ques from BRAZIL, David Foster Wallace, Philip K Dick and much of the political commentary of the day, it just falls under its potential. The more it tightens the commentary, the more it defuses the narrative. It starts as a comment on American identity and the political powers that control it. After an hour it is lost to itself and the importance, humour and wit it indulges in. The directors cut is worse than the theatrical version for this but only barely. Sad as I am at the film on second and third watch, I knew what I was doing to myself and have only me to blame.

2-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• New 2K restoration by Arrow Films, approved by director Richard Kelly and director of photography Steven Poster
• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations of both versions of the film: the 145-minute theatrical cut and the 160-minute “Cannes cut”, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006
• Original lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary on the theatrical cut by Richard Kelly
• It’s a Madcap World: The Making of an Unfinished Film, a new in-depth retrospective documentary on the film, featuring contributions by Richard Kelly and members of the original crew
• USIDent TV: Surveilling the Southland, an archival featurette on the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast and crew
• This is the Way the World Ends, an archival animated short set in the Southland Tales universe
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacey
• Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Peter Tonguette and Simon Ward