A Case For Ambiguity: What Can Be Left Out.
‘SouthLand Tales’ is like watching a film that’s glitched out and is playing sections randomly. Underneath this exists a movie that’s worth figuring out, for some. I can say this because I underwent some effort to find out exactly what this movie is about.
It’s a different kind of picture, to say the least. This is the sole positive I found in my viewing. Unlike some movies I don’t enjoy, I don’t want to banish SouthLand Tales. I think it’s a good thing that it exists.
There’s so little creativity going into both big films and small these days. A few ideas and notions of textbook rules existing in prestige, rules not meant to be broken, offer up a buffet of content that’s mostly interchangeable. SouthLand Tales exists very much outside the realm of mainstream films, that I had to wonder if I was rejecting it because I was so rhythmically trained into the common way a story is laid out, that it was so foreign it upset me. Maybe I would have to figure out how SouthLand Tales is told and readjust my perception in order to see the value.
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This can be tough and not worth the effort, but it’s not uncommon. Authors like Cormac McCarthy tells stories in very unconventional ways, but if you work your way of reading around, you find something different. An experience that feels very personal, which is a treat always, but especially when most feels the same.
I took the time to workout Southland Tales, as much as I was willing. This took up too much time, but more than that, the more I put it together the more I disagree with what should have been left ambiguous. I felt like Kelly’s epic left the personal stakes of the main characters too ambiguous. The problem with that I understand is if you’re looking to leave the world unexplained and the exposition of characters motivation (audience reason for caring) clashes with that, well you may have to change something or sacrifice something, not just do both. But that theory falls flat when you consider that the film opens with exhausting news-screen exposition explaining the history to you. So what we have is a very creative, but complicated universe, that is more clearly understood than the main characters motivations.
Ambiguity has become exhausted in recent cinema, so much so that it’s cringy to suggest it’s worth exploring. Because when it’s done well, which is rare, it leaves such a distinctive positive feeling on us that it becomes wide-spread copied by people looking to cash-in on what everyone is talking about. In this exists mostly mainstream movies that feel the same and all do the same thing, because of people like Richard Kelly.
Ambiguous details should leave audiences with intriguing questions that are fun to ponder. Look to John Wick for a prime example. The world is made interesting but left in the background. We follow one man whose story is clear. He interacts with a world he knows well but is alien to us. We know only by watching him, but he never explains. It’s ambiguous, and it’s fun. Because these scenes revolve around him performing great fight scenes or scenes of brief, sharp dialogue. This was well thought out by the creators and they know what they’re doing. I don’t think Richard Kelly knew what he was doing. He was very young and grew manic over rich narrative with an expansive world worth exploring and debating, and he tried to cram every idea in there, then threw it into an ambiguous state because, as a sci-fi fan, he understands the appeal that can have. But he was too ambitious, and therefore an idea that I think was worth holding onto, he let go too early. Tarantino worked on Inglorious Basterds in between other scripts that were fully-written and filmed while he perfected it. Because it was his most complex film and he knew when it was right. Imagine if Tarantino made Inglorious Basterds right after reservoir dogs. We can never tell but I suspect it might have ruined his career. Ruined him to the point wherein 2019 there’s no sign of him and hasn’t been for nearly a decade.
SouthLand Tales could have been good. Richard Kelly could have been great. In an alternate universe this is happening.
