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Augustus Gloop takes time out of his Fantastic Fest schedule to chat about SOUTHLAND TALES & AACHI AND SSIPAK & TYGER!!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey folks, Harry here - got a great day of films to dive into - will chat later, for now, here's Augustus...
Day 5 has come and gone with little to report. I saw one film for the second time, and the later timeslots were films I'd already seen or been warned to avoid. So, I'll try to go ahead and bore you with my impressions of Aachi and Ssipak and my delayed reaction to Southland Tales.
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Tyger (4 stripes)
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Tyger is a glorious 4-minute short by Guilherme Marcondes based on the poem by William Blake (a favorite of my school, whose mascot is the Tiger) "Tyger tyger burning bright in the forests of the night. Oh what fateful hand or eye could match thy fearful symmetrye." Live action, puppetry, and computer animation combine to bring to life an enormous tiger that stalks the city streets, magically turning everything into a forest.
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Aachi and Ssipak (4 blue popsicles)
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I've got 4 words for you: Two-legged mechanical rollerblading cow-ducks, oh, with leg-warmers. Guess that's more than 4 words, tough shit! I can't even begin to describe the moderately disgusting plot in this thing. It was at times pretty hard to follow what was going on, because there was just so MUCH on the screen. This one would really benefit from a dubbing, because trying to read the subtitles was too much a distraction from the gorgeous animation. I expected to hate the diaper gang, but they were really just too cute, like little blue lemmings. The title characters were not compelling, a stark contrast to everyone around them, from the wannabe film director with lips perpetually puckered to look like an anus to the porn starlet turned golden goose to the cyborg, who was definitely the most bad-ass guy in the film. Man, I could watch a movie just about that fucking cyborg! You'll want to freeze-frame this one just to look and see what each member of the diaper gang is doing at various points. Someone had mentioned to me there's an homage to Indiana Jones in there. They left out that it starts as an homage to The Empire Strikes Back. I think I caught a little Total Recall, too and probably missed 100 others. It was a mind trip.
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Southland Tales (7 seals)
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The long and short of it is I loved this fucking movie. It's ahead of its time, and people are not going to get it. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around parts of it, but they're fading as if I'd been given a glimpse of heaven in a dream that's too big to hold in a mortal head. Take a bunch of tv's, and set them up in front of you. On one, play A Clockwork Orange, on another, Donnie Darko, on another, Saturday Night Live, on another, MTV, and on another, the Nightly News. Throw in a couple more shows of your choice, and then take a really big hit of acid. What you'll see is something like this. People will want to deconstruct it, compare it to other things and bitch about how it doesn't measure up, but screw that! This needs to be taken for itself and enjoyed for the spectacle that it is. You can watch it over and over for the pop culture references, yes. It's like one of those paintings where an enormous landscape is made up of smaller scenes that each contain caricatures of scenes from pop culture. You can look at it for hours and never grasp a greater meaning. Or, you can look at the whole, choose a meaning that suits you, and ignore the fine-grained detail. Either way, you're missing something.
And, oh, there's a lot of fun things you don't want to miss. Christopher Lambert as a wimpy arms dealer getting his ass kicked by little Cheri Oteri. There's Jon Lovitz as a creepy murderous cop with Rutger Hauer hair. Sarah Michelle Gellar getting all the best one-liners as the ditzy porn-star newscaster Krysta Now. Many of the actors step out of type, but many others just do what they do best: Wallace Shawn channeling Vizzini, Miranda Richardson as the queen B, John Larroquette, Ling Bai, Curtis Armstrong, Holmes Osborne, and finally Tangina herself, Zelda Rubinstein, may she live forever. Is there anyone who isn't in here? It's a little like a scene where a Hollywood studio exec has two budgets in his hands; both have the same numbers, but in one hand, he's got a film with Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise and a Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise salary. In the other hand, there's this, where he's got every well-known but lower-paid face in town, and it's beautiful. There's elephants fucking, SUVs fucking, flying ice-cream trucks, and a mega-zeppelin like the relicle in Aeon Flux, in that order.
From a strict sci-fi/time-travel story viewpoint, it tends to break the rules a little bit in the same way as Donnie Darko. There's a little paradox involved, and things don't seem to work within a consitant framework. I'd elaborate, but I don't want to give away the story. Sufficient to say things happen to some characters that don't happen to other characters who undergo the same events.
Others are comparing this to an imitation of Philip Dick. I can't do that. I really couldn't compare it to his work as much as to Kubrick. I don't see the story as a Dick story, though I could make the argument it looks like an attempt to bring a story to the screen to look like a Dick film. Hell, parts of this felt more like the Big Lebowski than anything, especially the famed JT musical scene. Wow, that was beautiful and came out of nowhere like a baseball from outer space. The film is just chock-full of little hints that don't make sense until you reach the end where they fall into place. You'll think back and go "Oh yeah, I get it now". Or do you? Much like Donnie Darko. It will be a while until Southland Tales receives the appreciation it merits.
-Augustus Gloop
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i can't wait!
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teehee.
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...take a bunch of TV's tuned to different channels and take a hit of acid....I saw Tommy in the '70s okay?
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number of people to see so you can discuss it later. Trainwreck or not, I'm excited about this movie. I'm glad it's getting mostly positive reviews from this site, which probably means it will bomb at the box-office, but did it really have much of a chance?
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I didn't see the word 'mess' once.
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I don't know if this will bomb or not. It's got plenty of visuals and The Rock for marketing, so could have a big opening weekend. What kind of word will get out after that? Will it flop? I'm worried people won't get it.
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I hope it doesn't bomb because from what I've seen it's an interesting film. Unfortunately people seem to only be interested in sequels and remakes and science fiction (unless it's a sequel or remake) doesn't normally perform terribly well these days. You have a good point that The Rock might pull some people in and maybe if they advertise similarities between this film and The Matrix they might pull in a few more. Films are in a massive rut and it would be nice for something like this to break that rut, but I won't get my hopes up.
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Oh boy.
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Damn keyboard
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And bumped into Philip K Dick.
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and Matrix comparisons there are going to be some pissed off people walking out of the theaters. Face it, this movie has no chance at all. Dying to see it, personally. So often the over ambitious trainwrecks that fall short of unreachable goals are better than movies that hit all their easy targets.
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... do you mean "liking it unreservedly and heaping hyperbolic praise on it"?
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So was Massa wrong in his review? You guys seem to disagree about the ending working or not.
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of course he's wrong
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A positive review for this from Harry holds as much water as a negative review for this from Massa. I have a completely neutral reviewer to put my faith in now!This movie can NOT come fast enough for me.
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I don't know why it bugs me that AICN is being so nice to this film, but it doesn't warrent it.
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Is the power device thing in the water teleporting the nukes back to 2006 or 2008 or whenever the nukes went off in Texas, I'll throw my popcorn at the screen.
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Sorry Harry, you couldn't be further from the truth on this one - and as the rest of the sites writers get a chance to see the movie I predict a backlash against your critique (which I presume was co-written by Richard Kelly).
The film was often unwatchable, messy, confused and rarely (if ever) worked in the ways Kelly intended. To compare it to the likes of Clockwork Orange and Donnie Darko does a monumental diservice to the quality of those films. -
with masa, sorry gloop and harry
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this hobo-stew of a film in theaters? It will bomb and bomb horribly -- just release it on DVD and let it become a cult classic sooner rather than later.
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Sep 25, 2007 4:13:09 PM CDT
I'd rather see a visionary failure than an average film
by larry of arabia
It may suck, but at least he's trying something. I feel the same way about some other bad movies by good directors, notably the disappointing "The Fountain" and the truly, truly, horrible, terrible, awful, "Tideland." Hey, at least he's out there attempting something. Humbling experiences can be good for directors. Better luck next time.
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Hope not!Film is my last drug of choice so hoping this hits the spot!If it's anywhere near as enjoyable as The Dude movie then I'm eager again, at least the director has a bit of uniquness and aint just churning out lazy Sequel, Prequel, Treequel reimajinationums!!!
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...You know, I loved Darko, so of course I was interested in seeing this film. But I gotta say, the delay made me almost forget it exsisted. As cliche as it sounds, the massively divergent, and LOUD, difference of opinions on this flick has made me want to check it out more than ever.
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Someone got killed on the Dark Knight set.
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them movies were some bad examples to bring up as horrible films, because they were really really awsome and you are wrong.
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Glad to hear it. Whereas I do see your review as a dick review, seeing as you just mentioned Kubrick whilst reviewing a film made by Kelly. Come back when Kelly has made a number of genre defining classics over many decades, and is generally regarded as one of the greatest directors that ever lived.
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Period. I was in the Super Secret Screening with Gloop, Harry, Massawyrm and the lot, and for me, the film was a disaster.
I feel the most sorry for the suckers who had to wait four hours and sit in the front row to see it.
Any movie that not only includes, but concludes with the phrase "Because he was a pimp, and pimp's don't commit suicide" is radically messy. I mean, is that funny? Is that serious? Who talks like that?
The Timberlake lip synch number to The Killer's "All These Things I've Done" was awesome, and I liked it, but couple that with The Rock's Jesus tattoo bleeding, Mandy Moore playing some sort of slut I could care less about, Cheri Oteri trying to play it straight, some really bad CGI to explain something that is completely convoluted and what you have is one thing, a mess.
As a director, Kelly should have made his message clearer, and I'm so sick of hearing all this talk about "if you don't get it, you're not smart." Maybe, if there was something to get. The film is not as deep as people who make you believe.
Bottom line, this movie is going to tank, and people are gonna say it's because the masses don't understand it or want it. In this case, that is incorrect. It's just not a good movie. Period. -
It's amazingly fun, though. I haven't been able to find anything quite like it since and I don't know that I ever will.
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you know there were people saying the exact same things you were about this movie called Blade Runner.
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Please. Have you seen SOUTHLAND? It's not BLADE RUNNER. Then again, I don't think BLADE RUNNER is the colossal classic others do.
I've seen some films here that should be classics. Among them TIMECRIMES, SON OF RAMBOW and GIRL WHO LEPT THROUGH TIME... these a fantastic films with immensely engaging stories. TIMECRIMES is a very densely told film that has to be paid attention to, akin to what Harry tries to say SOUTHLAND does, but it can't hold a torch to.
But we'll see what happens in a few weeks, and then through the years. SOUTHLAND won't be a retro classic in my time I know that. -
It sounds like alot of people forgot to turn their brains back on after watching Transformers. It's no wonder you hate something you may have to disect. This is why people like Bay and Paul W.S. Anderson are a danger to real films. It wont be long until talented film makers such as Gilliam or Aronofsky get shit on for trying to create actual art. Oh wait...I'm gonna go cry now.
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But I've a horrid feeling in the pit of my stomach that it will be a disaster. On the plus side I think Massa is nearly always wrong, in fact if he hates a film there is a better than average chance I won't, and on the minus I also think Harry is nearly always overgenerous (Attack of The Clones being the shining example, or that bag of shite Superman Returns), and if he LOVES something then chances are I won't. Decisions, decisions... I'll definately have to see this.
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thing in the world. Let's say this film fails, but at least it's different. Well, I'll take that over most of the crap out there. Besides, it's good for a director to fail while trying something new so long as they learn from their mistakes and get back on the horse again. Failure can be a great thing in life and in art.
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Sure, failure is inevitable and is often the result of facing enormous challenges. That's great in life. We can learn so much from failure. But, if a movie fails I'd like to know before I shell out my $20. Thus, I read reviews.
Would you be so eager to defend Porky's 2? -
to watch ten TVs all on different channels and take a hit of acid and try not to think too hard about the meaning in order to enjoy this film, then I don't think it is a positive review.
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Gloop nailed this review, I want to see it again on big screen after pouring over the graphic novels(thanks R.K.) and then get the DVD!
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What up with apple? It'll showcase previews for the most retarted of films but won't nudge a single link to southland? Sounds like SOMEONE doesn't want the world to know that we're headed for a police state. Wasn't richard illegally detained on his way to Cannes as a supposed terrorist?
HMMM... -
was fucking amazing. heres hoping for more excellent insane animation coming out of korea in the future!
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Read your bibles folks, go see the film but read the bible.
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