comment #1

AndrewMallet says ...

What a HORRIBLE film - just saw the new cut. I read this screenplay - one of the worst i have ever read - but i loved DONNIE so I thought maybe he has an idea of how to do it. Kelly loves himself too much - he is a fluke. The only thing wors than actors like Hayden Christensen is a director like Kelly that can get work after SOUTHLAND TALES or writing DOMINO. Good work Dick Kelly.

How ugly is Fisher Stevens?

comment #2

MilkMan says ...

I reside at the edges of Kelly's targeted demo, so I guess maybe I don't get his movies as much as someone who is camped out dead center of the demo, but I was six years younger when I saw Donnie Darko, still in my twenties, and I thought that movie was exceptionally mediocre, with a typically lame time-travel plot that I felt tricked people into thinking Kelly was/is smarter than he is/was. And I certainly don't want a political lesson from some guy whose biggest artistic statement so far is to use a Tears For Fears song to spice up a visually stagnant high school montange sequence. Kelly calls himself a neo-Marxist, but I think he's just a neo-maxi zoom dweebie. I'll rent Southland Tales and make fun of it while eating a frozen entree.

If Kelly plays his cards right, it looks like he has the chance to become the cinematic equivalent of Tom Robbins or Douglas Adams, i.e., a zany satirist who has absolutely no control over the tone of his work, who thinks of himself as being countercultural as long as it's in fashion.

I think a director can partially be judged on who he likes to cast, what kind of taste they have in actors, and so far Kelly's taste is garbage. Pilfering the cast of The Rundown might be good for the budget, and casting Timberlake as a Gulf War vet might seem to be so counterintuitive as to be irreverent, but it has the whiff of desperation to me. Maybe what Kelly has to do is stop trying to hard. Some of the best satires of American culture have been small, silly little movies, like Neal Isreal's Americathon and Robert Downey Sr.'s Up The Academy. Hell, Kelly's not even as sharp a director as Downey Sr. Maybe what Kelly needs to do is stop pretending that he understands Gravity's Rainbow and read some Brautigan or Wurlitzer, because that's what I got from watching Donnie Darko and that's what I get from reading his interviews; Richard Kelly wants you to know that he's smarter than you, and I don't see it in his work so far.

I'll keep quiet for the rest of the day.
Everyone rent Radio On is you get the chance. If you liked Control you'll like Radio On. It's the movie Ian Curtis would've made had he been a filmmaker instead of a songwriter.

comment #3

DanielDennis says ...

I've been looking forward to this film for sometime now...

JW, did any booing taking place at your Cannes screening of Southland Tales in 2006? I heard that was all bull$h!t.

comment #4

christian says ...

Were I not in Seattle, I would be seeing it tonite too, but I'm very curious. I think Kelly has an agile mind and his real gift might be with dialogue and character. I thought the best parts of DD were the character interactions. And I liked the script of THE BOX.

comment #5

AndrewMallet says ...

MilkMan - longer post next time please.

Christian - U r a moron - nuff said "And I liked the script of THE BOX." Did you like the title also?

Daniel - u r a loser

comment #6

christian says ...

Andrew, I'm telling your mom you're still online. Busted.

comment #7

Jesse Perry says ...

If we've learned anything from this item, it's that Andrew Mallet is apparently 14 years old. "u r a loser"? Jesus.

I've always found Kelly to be from the "It's deep because it makes no sense" school of filmmaking . . . It's like he's jabbing me in the rib, saying "Isn't that trippy?"

comment #8

MilkMan says ...

Andrew, I promise I'll write a longer post next time if you promise to write a shorter post next time.

For someone who types with one hand you're pretty witty.

When u r dun trolling at HE I suggest you google Lindsay Kay with the safesearch off and have at it. She is 2 hot 4 U.

comment #9

hanimal says ...

there were two films were booed at cannes last year.
southland tales and marie antoinette.
both films are great to me.
it proves that young american filmmakers are daring to try every possiblity to the film medium and push the boundry of the cinematic language.
i can't wait to see the new cut!

comment #10

hanimal says ...

there were two films were booed at cannes last year.
southland tales and marie antoinette.
both films are great to me.
it proves that young american filmmakers are daring to try every possiblity to the film medium and push the boundry of the cinematic language.
i can't wait to see the new cut!

comment #11

hanimal says ...

there were two films were booed at cannes last year.
southland tales and marie antoinette.
both films are great to me.
it proves that young american filmmakers are daring to try every possiblity to the film medium and push the boundry of the cinematic language.
i can't wait to see the new cut!

comment #12

hanimal says ...

there were two films were booed at cannes last year.
southland tales and marie antoinette.
both films are great to me.
it proves that young american filmmakers are daring to try every possiblity to the film medium and push the boundry of the cinematic language.
i can't wait to see the new cut!

comment #13

hanimal says ...

there were two films were booed at cannes last year.
southland tales and marie antoinette.
both films are great to me.
it proves that young american filmmakers are daring to try every possiblity to the film medium and push the boundry of the cinematic language.
i can't wait to see the new cut!

comment #14

MilkMan says ...

Hanimal, if you are interested in young american filmmakers who are pushing the boundaries (and Sofia is definitely one of them, I agree) may I suggest that you turn your eye away from Dick Kelly and look at the films of Travis Wilkerson (An Injury to One and Who Killed Cock Robin) or the early work of David Gordon Green. I think after seeing the work of those two you might change your ming about how cutting edge Kelly is. Just a suggestion.

comment #15

MilkMan says ...

You can change your ming, or your mind. Either one is fine.

comment #16

le corbeau says ...

So basically, this is a version of Idiocracy that's as self-congratulatory and self-important as V For Vendetta? Can't wait!

comment #17

Horace Rumpole says ...

Are you sure about the release date, Jeff? Everything I can find says November 14th. I'm actually going to go see it this Saturday at a sneak preview at the Harvard Film Archive. It's Richard Kelly week here in Cambridge; a stage adaptation of Donnie Darko just opened at the American Repertory Theater.

comment #18

MiraJeffAICN says ...

I love Rich. He's the man. But his movie is a capital-D Disaster.

comment #19

Geoff says ...

Wells:

The fact that you dig Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive kicks ass in my opinion, but what about Eraserhead? It's so damn beautiful, surely you checked it out a few times in the 70's when you were a projectionist and all.

comment #20

lawnorder says ...

I'm not sure if it is Jeff or someone else delivering the quote, "Kelly is one of the best younger filmmakers around..." - but this shit really pisses me off. Wait a fucking minute, the guy has directed exactly two movies - and one of them has been trounced by almost every critic and audience member alike and still hasn't seen a real release yet. I thought DARKO was alright, but no masterpiece. DOMINO is one of the worst films I've ever seen and I'm a huge Tony Scott fan. And that qualifies as one of the best younger filmmakers around. Am I missing something here - like a freakin' body of work. I think we can start to judge a filmmaker's career based on three films. Usually, you have an interesting director and his first film is a festival hit. The second one more often than not bombs and he/she rebounds with a really interesting third film. If the third one bombs, he's usually off the map for a long time, maybe never to return. Somehow, Kelly got coronated as this amazing filmmaker based on ONE film. I'd rather give props to Rian Johnson for BRICK (which was an astounding debut) over DONNIE DARKO - but the jury's still out on him until his second and third film.

comment #21

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Law, two things. There's no way Brick was better than Donnie Darko. And second, Kelly could be the greatest filmmaker ever to be 1-for-3, with his two misses being interesting failures but both are nearly unwatchable.

comment #22

Arran says ...

OMG, a guy from AICN says Brick can't be better that Darko. It so must be true.

Brick is at least 30 times better than Donnie Darko. And I like Donnie Darko. Though the director's cut does its best to fuck it up.

comment #23

Hash says ...

Brick > Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly

Geoff...I would say some exceptions to that rule are Darren Aronofsky and, of course, Paul Thomas Anderson. I agree though that it usually works out that way.

comment #24

Hash says ...

I meant to say Richard Kelly

Kelly made one average flick and was able to convince those that didnt know any better that he was the next big thing.

He's the M. Night Shyamalan of the new millenium.

comment #25

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Fellas, Brick was cool and JGL is a far better actor than Jake Gyllenhaal, but the story was a mess. Overly complicated. I couldn't understand half the dialogue. It wins style points sure, but there's no way that that shitty high school murder mystery is a better story than the genius that is Donnie Darko. And I'll fight anyone to the death who says otherwise. Rian Johnson just stole from people like Dashiell Hammett and then put that film-noir-style dialogue into a high school setting. Big whoop. Donnie Darko is the greatest superhero movie ever made, though it's never acknowledged as such. His power is that he can time travel, and as a schizophrenic, he is his own nemesis. It's brilliant. Brick isn't. It's overrated. End of discussion.

comment #26

D.Z. says ...

Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch", much like "A History of Violence", is a shitty parody of the source material. It's a shame that Cronenberg was still given work after Crash...

comment #27

le corbeau says ...

I love Eraserhead more than anything for the fact that it made everything else ever made at the AFI film school look like the safe, hoping-to-get-an-industry-job nothingburger it was. In a just world, the first audience of Eraserhead would have marched on Greystone and burnt it to the ground.

comment #28

lipranzer says ...

I want to see SOUTHLAND TALES, but that cast makes me extremely nervous (although a critic friend, who loved the movie, said the cast sort of fits with the tone of the movie).

And once again, another pissing contest between movies. Yawn. I loved both BRICK and DONNIE DARKO.

comment #29

Jack Price says ...

MiraJeff, we'll agree to disagree. End of discussion.

Speaking of, could you spill a few details as to why Southland Tales is "D for disaster"? I know Drew McWeeny feels very much the same way about the film. Was there EVER a good film to be found within it?

Anyone who can shoot me over a copy of The Box, I'd love you for it... I'll shoot you over an extremely early draft of Punch Drunk Love from 1993 entitled "Knuckle Sandwich." Same character names, completely different story in every way.

(jackmprice@gmail.com)

comment #30

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Same deal as Jack Price. I've got Kelly's Bessie and Indianapolis, but not The Box. Anyone care to arrange a trade?

comment #31

SEGASTUD says ...

Hey MiraJeff huge Richard Kelly fan here and would love to get my hands on a copy of Bessie. I mean a bipedal talking cow is something I have to read to believe. I got a couple of scripts worth trading like White Jazz, Killing Pablo, and There Will Be Blood. Also to anyone else out there I would also love to get a hold of The Box. Anyone with any of these scripts can get back to me at thesegastud@gmail.com. And sorry for turning this into a script exchange forum Wells

comment #32

GlassFamily says ...

I have to admit that I am no fan of Kelly, agree with someone earlier who posted he has terrible taste in actors and he's disappeared into his own ass. But I really want to see this. I read the script and it is a horrible, terrible car crash of a mess. Call it schadenfreude if you like, but I want to see this movie fail for some inexplicable reason. However much I don't enjoy Kelly as a filmmaker, I don't want to see him fail (hell, I'm even in his target market).

That all said, a friend of mine saw the movie in Arizona a couple of weeks back and said it was one of the worst films he's ever seen. Apparently, at the end, the entire audience groaned, which is never a good sign. He also mentioned he saw it for free but still vowed to beat Kelly up to get his money back.

comment #33

GlassFamily says ...

Brick is better than Donnie Darko.

I'll be waiting to fight. Anytime.

comment #34

christian says ...

There's no reason to compare BRICK to DD. Kelly has undeniable talent albeit expansive and oddly structured but watch that deleted scene between Gyllenhaal and homes Osborne that was rightfully put back in the director's cut. It's very real and affecting. Even the brief dinner debate over Dukakis is mature and skillfully handled. There's quite a few moments like that in the film.

comment #35

christian says ...

Er, uh, I mean Holmes Osborne. He's terrific in the film.

comment #36

Devin Faraci says ...

Anybody with a brain would know BRICK is better than DONNIE DARKO. And SOUTHLAND TALES is a fucking mess. Horrible.

comment #37

Geoff says ...

This whole Brick vs. Donnie Darko debate is weird to me. I guess it's a valid discussion.

I really dig a teenage angst movie that deals with tangent universes and time travel paradoxes.

I also deeply respect Brick. I'm honestly shocked that some people would dismiss it's style and dialogue and say "big whoop." I'm sure alot of young people, whether they want to admit it or not, have at least dreamt up some kind of scenario like that while sitting in a boring science class. Sure it's derivative of that one writer guy, and maybe it's too "film school" for some people...but Rian Johnson did it, with mucho bravado. It's not for everyone, but that's ok.

comment #38

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Devin, c'mon. Are you saying I don't have a brain? How can you fall for Brick's shtick? Because that's what it was. A shtick. A gimmick. It disappears into its own world, where everyone talks like Raymond Chandler. Gimme a break. AICN ate that shit up but I wasn't buying it. I give Rian props on getting great performances, and it looked great, and his bro' score was tight, but the story is just barely above a mess. Overall, the movie was good, I suppose. But not great. And Donnie Darko was fuckin' A brilliant. We're agreed on Southland Tales. Just you wait... it hurt to write that review.

comment #39

BurmaShave says ...

MIRA TO BRICK'S SCHTICK: SUCK MY DICK!

comment #40

TCorey says ...

Saw 'Rendition' the other night and Reese Witherspoon's classic screaming "just tell me he's Okaaaaaaay!" from the trailer still got me.

comment #41

Jack Price says ...

Mira, the theatrical cut or the director's cut?

I'm more and more believing that the effectiveness of the theatrical cut, which plays like "Ferris Bueller's Fucked-Up Day Off," was encouraged by Kelly's collaborators rather than Kelly himself. Presumptuous of me I guess, but all the ambiguity that actually worked in favor of the film, such as the "is it real or schizophrenia-induced" questions, was completely lopped off in Kelly's original vision.

And since you've read some of his other scripts, isn't it apparent that the luster is gone? I've read most of his material, and it frankly doesn't hold up.

comment #42

DanielDennis says ...

So do we get a review Jeffrey!? Or just rubbing it in are faces that you got to see the final cut?

comment #43

Devin Faraci says ...

MiraJeff, I suspect you have shit taste.

comment #44

otakuhouse says ...

at least kelly has intellectual ambition. for that he earns my respect.

but i think i read something that southland tales was originally a script parodying hollywood and then got rewritten as a post 9/11 examination of apocalyptic tropes.

donnie darko did a commendable job getting the texture of the 80s dissonance of wood paneled suburbia combined with daily rhetoric implying the planet could go up in a barrage of mushroom clouds any second. i remember absolutely vividly that fear as perceived by someone young.

but the post 9/11 world is so different. that narrative is about extremism on opposite sides being given the opportunity to reshape the world with their faulty belief in purity.

blah blah... but really i think the problem is right there. a parody of hollywood got retooled into an examination of now. the cultural mores of what it's like trying to get a film made are so utterly disassociated from what's defining us politically.