{"id":328209,"date":"2025-12-21T13:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T13:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/328209\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T13:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T13:59:09","slug":"the-incomprehensible-movie-that-left-roger-ebert-feeling-dazed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/328209\/","title":{"rendered":"The “incomprehensible” movie that left Roger Ebert feeling “dazed”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roger<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Magnolia Pictures)<\/p>\n

Sat 20 December 2025 19:15, UK <\/p>\n

Ambition is a commendable trait for a filmmaker to have, because nobody wants to make, or see, movies that adhere rigidly to formula. However, the difference between ambition and self-indulgence is often razor-thin, with Roger Ebert<\/a> annihilating a film that veered too far into the latter for its own good.<\/p>\n

Audiences don\u2019t like to be confused by what they\u2019re watching, and only in rare cases is it to the benefit of the picture. When a writer or director has a tight grip on the story they\u2019re telling, then a tightly-wound mystery can reveal itself to be something spectacular. On the other side of that coin, if it\u2019s confounding without any explanation, it\u2019s just indecipherable nonsense.<\/p>\n

Richard Kelly\u2019s Southland Tales fell into the nonsensical camp, and everything he\u2019s turned his attentions to over the last two and a half decades, which isn\u2019t much, continues to suggest that Donnie Darko was lightning in a bottle. Even at that, the vastly inferior director\u2019s cut<\/a> has given rise to the conspiracy theory that the editing team were the real maestros behind his early-2000s cult hit.<\/p>\n

Expectations were high for his follow-up, especially when it was teased as a genre-bending, blackly comedic mystery thriller with a post-apocalyptic bent, boasting an eclectically star-studded cast that featured Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stifler from American Pie, the most popular member of NSYNC, The Princess Bride\u2018s Vizzini, and professional wrestler, The Rock.<\/p>\n

When people got to see it for themselves, though, there was nothing but silence and head-scratching. The extended version that screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival generated mostly puzzling reactions, but even with 20 minutes excised for Kelly\u2019s latest director\u2019s cut, Ebert failed to see any improvements.<\/p>\n

As he wrote in a one-star review<\/a>, he was left feeling \u201cdazed, confused, bewildered, bored, affronted, and deafened\u201d when the credits rolled on Southland Tales. Trimming it down didn\u2019t make things any more palatable, with the critic describing the shortened cut as \u201ceven more of a mess,\u201d recommending that the filmmaker \u201ckeep right on cutting until he whittles it down to a ukulele pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebert appreciated that Kelly was \u201ca cinematic anarchist\u201d who was given free reign to make exactly the kind of movie he wanted; he just wished that he hadn\u2019t used that opportunity to start \u201cthrowing bombs at his own work.\u201d What did he make of the screenplay? \u201cThe dialogue consists largely of statements that are incomprehensible, often delivered with timing that is apparently intended to indicate they are witty.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about the narrative? \u201cWhen I tell you I am helpless to describe the plot, perhaps you will have pity on me.\u201d He hated it, of that there\u2019s no doubt, but there are a hardy band of supporters who\u2019ll defend Southland Tales to the death as a misunderstood masterpiece, and it\u2019s even started to gather a cult following.<\/p>\n

Does it deserve it? That depends on who you ask, although you could make the case that it boasted the best performance of Dwayne Johnson\u2019s career<\/a> until it was outstripped by The Smashing Machine.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Magnolia Pictures) Sat 20 December 2025 19:15, UK Ambition is a commendable trait for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,128419,38263,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-328209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-richard-kelly","tag-roger-ebert","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}