Photographer, etc.
It cannot be overstated how much I love ‘Southland Tales.’
Despite the interesting, very Jan Švankmajer, or like Brothers Quay-esque animation, this film has such poor narrative and writing that there is nothing to really hold on to, making the last half or so barely watchable. The Lola de la Mata score is probably the best part of the film.
Gregg Araki is great at making Gregg Araki movies; in 1997 no one else would dare to make, or even want to make this film. It's a black comedy, a day in the life of teenage lust and ennui, a critique of celebrity culture, normie culture, the religious right and our obsession with television. It's a fever dream of the cold war paranoia of nuclear holocaust and the true horror of not finding the perfect party. Within this chaotic melee…
It's depressing to see the sexist, manic pixie dream girl trope still slogged around the screen in 2021, especially to so much critical praise. But here we are. TWPITW is utterly pretentious filmmaking which goes to lengths to hide this fact, which makes it all the more galling; when you have a film that well exceeds two hours, ostensibly centered on a female character but whose *only* interactions are with men, it's pathetic. Renate Reinsve does the best with what…
The story and real life characters portrayed in this film are far more interesting and complex as well as inspiring and entertaining to watch than they are in this often basic, reduced and very Hollywood version of the radical and luminary leftists of the Black Panther party, led by chairman Fred Hampton in Chicago. The story ping pongs back and forth between Hampton, often too sleepily played by Daniel Kaluuya, older by a decade than Hampton was when he was…