Film

Southland Tales

Name: Southland Tales
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Comedy
Released: 2007
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake

Dystopian sci-fi
Strange

Richard Kelly's apocalyptic fever dream set in a dystopian 2008 LA, where an amnesiac action star, a porn star-turned-entrepreneur, and a cop spiral through a conspiracy involving reality TV, surveillance, and potential nuclear annihilation. It's deliberately chaotic, formally wild, and demands surrender rather than understanding—for viewers who prize ambition and strangeness over coherence.

TMDb rating

2.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sprawling, overstuffed satire that throws pop songs, paranoid politics and slapstick into one collision and trusts you to keep up with it.

Skip it if you want a tidy plot, because its many deliberately baffling threads sprawl for nearly two and a half hours without apology.

What it asks of you: Its shape is loose and lengthy, with nearly two and a half hours of overlapping storylines, shifting tones and long stretches where you must hold several threads at once.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Mulholland Drive2001

A hallucinatory exploration of Los Angeles, celebrity, and fractured identity that similarly refuses linear logic. Like Southland Tales, it trusts viewers to assemble meaning from dream logic and refuses to pretend the system makes sense.

But Nearly three and a half hours of genuine obscurity, where major plot points dissolve on inspection. The reward is there, but reaching it requires patience that doesn't come naturally to everyone.

Donnie Darko2001

Kelly's debut has the same commitment to ambitious, cryptic storytelling—apocalyptic dread meeting oddball Americana. Watching it before Southland Tales explains why he was given such a large canvas to work with.

But The internet has picked it down to the bone; it's nearly impossible to watch now without seeing the threads fans have already untangled. Some mystery gets lost.

A Clockwork Orange1971

Kubrick's refusal to make violence comfortable or morally simple, and his commitment to formal excess as a tool for unsettling the viewer, directly anticipates Kelly's whole approach. Both films demand you think about what you're watching.

But Deliberately repellent at regular intervals. If you're watching to be pleased, you will be actively displeased.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Southland Tales

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Zoolander 22016

Both are expensive studio misfires that seem to have been made by filmmakers having a private joke with the audience. Both feature elaborate ensemble casts chasing satire through Hollywood's absurdities. Both refuse to deliver what viewers expected.

The same cast members (Stiller, Wilson, Theroux) attempting another chaotic ensemble satire of celebrity, narcissism, and American culture. It fails where Southland Tales aims to fail—gloriously, expensively, with total commitment.

But Frequently regarded as one of the worst blockbusters ever made. It's baffling by accident rather than design, which some find insufferable rather than interesting.

The Truman Show1998

Explores constructed reality, corporate control, and the audience's complicity in entertainment—thematic DNA shared with Southland Tales. More accessible, but genuinely sharp about the same paranoia.

But Leaps toward hope and meaning in ways Southland Tales actively resists. It's almost the anti-Kelly version of the same idea.

Under the Silver Lake2018

A similarly woozy Los Angeles mystery that prioritizes mood and conspiracy-spiral over plot clarity. David Robert Mitchell channels Kelly's energy—ambitious, indulgent, determined not to explain itself.

But Three hours of intentional bewilderment with an ending that suggests the mystery might be meaningless. If you want resolution, you'll be frustrated.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Kaufman's masterpiece about the impossibility of capturing reality, of performance as identity, and of ambition consuming itself. Shares Southland Tales' refusal to comfort the viewer or provide clear answers.

But Relentlessly bleak and formally demanding. It's less a narrative than a descent, and some viewers find it self-indulgent rather than visionary.

Brazil1985

Gilliam's dystopian satire uses surreal excess and genre confusion to comment on surveillance capitalism and bureaucratic absurdity. Like Southland Tales, it trusts visual and tonal chaos to carry meaning.

But The logic is intentionally dreamlike and frustrating. If you need plot coherence to feel satisfied, this will exhaust you.

Inherent Vice2014

Anderson's adaptation of Pynchon maintains the source's commitment to mystery without resolution. Set in paranoid 1970s LA, it shares Southland Tales' refusal to untangle its own conspiracy.

But Deliberately confusing, with plot threads that lead nowhere and a tone that shifts between comedy and melancholy without warning. The pleasure is oblique.

Enter the Void2010

Noël's neon-soaked Tokyo nightmare uses form and abstraction to create meaning beyond plot. Like Southland Tales, it's interested in sensation and cinema itself, not narrative clarity.

But Nearly three hours of flashing lights and incoherence with minimal dialogue. It's more endurance test than film for many viewers.

Dancer in the Dark2000

Both films use genre excess (Southland Tales' conspiracy thriller mashed with reality TV and noir; Dancer's musical with tragedy) as the actual subject. Both trust that formal collision creates meaning where plot coherence would fail. Both are formally ambitious enough to be infuriating.

Von Trier's musical tragedy uses theatrical excess and genre collision—musical fantasy breaking into devastation—to capture emotional truths plot cannot reach. Like Southland Tales, it trusts formal wildness over narrative sense.

But Punishingly sad and deliberately cruel to the audience. It's one of cinema's most anguished films, and the knowledge that Björk suffered making it casts a shadow that doesn't lift.