Southland tales is meaningless. That is it's strength and that is what makes it such an incredible statement about our times. There are enough films around with plots and story arcs and realistic characters. The subject of this film is the...
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Southland tales is meaningless. That is it's strength and that is what makes it such an incredible statement about our times. There are enough films around with plots and story arcs and realistic characters. The subject of this film is the insanity of what our country is becoming post-911. The film itself is about madness. It is about a world consumed by ugliness and comercialism and subserviance to powers controlling what we see and buy and eat and live and think. We live in a time that very possibly could be our End of Days but we gorge ourselves on "Girls Gone Wild" and Manhunter 2 while our government again may or may not be manipulating information about our Evil Enemies and the local news tells us about another 19 year old soldier leaving a wife and 2 year old behind as Brittany Spears gives birth to another baby she doesnt want. Southland Tales is brave enough not to make sense. It couldn't make sense and be truthful to it's message. It's what we are as a society vomiting up upon ourselves. Blood and pornography and meaningless pop references infected with decaying strands of what we knew as literature and religion and truth and freedom. We are a sick society and I give this film an enormous amount of credit for not trying to explain away why. The film is mad, just as mad as the times. And I smiled through the whole 2 hours plus.