Battle of the Faves: Southland Tales vs. Don’t Look Up 🌎

The Editors of In the Mood discuss two apocalyptic satires: Southland Tales and Don’t Look Up.

Gabrielle: What did you think of Southland Tales? I recommended it to you a while ago.

Sennah: I must confess… I tried watching it not too long after, and lasted about 5 minutes before giving up! I found it really overwhelming and almost hard to look at, like… ugly? In all its grimness and bleakness. And then I saw its 2.5-hour runtime! But I’m glad I gave it another chance, because all those reasons are now why I enjoy it! How was your first time watching this film?

G: It’s funny you say that because when I first watched it I remember my boyfriend being really apprehensive about showing it to me, because of what you said; it’s intense, it’s long, it’s, well I would not say it’s ugly, but it is very… specific. When it ended I was quiet for a long time and he thought I hated it, but I was actually so blown away, literally speechless lol.

S: Same! My jaw was on the floor. I’m still processing it, and almost wanted to rewatch it right away. Which is actually what I did with Don’t Look Up haha, but we’ll get to that later. So, what makes Southland Tales a fave for you?

G: There’s a combination of recognition and disbelief watching it. Everything in it you can recognize from your daily life, but it’s presented in a way that they seem alien and fantastical. It’s like how fairy tales are fantasies meant to prepare us for our real lives, watching this I was like, my real life was preparing me for Southland Tales. He’s digging into subcultures and references that weren’t chic at the time, that were actually unfashionable, and made them seem so cool, almost mythic. Like the real pulse of the world isn’t in a metropolis or ancient holy places or whatever, but in a shooter bar in Venice Beach. I love that. 

S: I love how you describe this film as mythic! I was so struck how the daily world felt so… divine. I saw others calling it prophetic too, just like the screenplay in the film.

G: I think prophetic is better, because it does feel like so much front he film came true, or at least became a common topic of discourse: the emergence of a “radical left,” multi-hyphenate influencers, FBI plants in Hollywood, “crisis actors” (the Amy Poehler scene where her and her partner pretend to get killed by a cop for a video and in the process end up getting killed by a cop… jaw-dropping). 

S: Can I just say that I was impressed at how the radical left was actually able to organize themselves in this lmao.

G: Lol, true. Was there something in the film that stuck out to you in particular?

S: So many surreal images… the tank with the Hustler logo and the cars fucking each other first come to mind. And then there’s the music — lots of needle drop moments! I gasped at Justin Timberlake’s lip sync performance of The Killers, and I wanted to both laugh and cry at the dance to Moby between The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Mandy Moore. It felt like a time capsule from both the past and future. What stands out for you?

G: I mean, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s “Teen Horniness is Not A Crime” comes to mind, it’s such a good song ha.

S: LOL yes I was like can I stream this on Spotify or… 

G: It was released as a single I believe, they had all this tie-in stuff planned for the film, there was also a Krysta Now energy drink you could buy. But when the film flopped it wasn’t funny anymore. But the fact that the film totally failed and was barely released does seem to lend it this extra prescience, it was too ahead of its time!

S: I was reading about its catastrophic release, and I felt bad for the director saying it’s what he’s most proud of, but how it’s like a misunderstood, banished child lol. All of its divisive responses made me think about how satire and capturing a zeitgeist always seems to bring up this kind of reaction — as if people don’t like what they’re seeing in the mirror, or maybe they don’t even want to acknowledge it’s a mirror…

G: Apparently the effects weren’t complete when it premiered at Cannes and the cut was like 3 hours, so I can see why it wasn’t glowingly received. It’s that Hollywood thing; everyone becomes obsessed with some young, fresh director whose breakthrough is so new and appealing that they’re given free reign on their second film, which turns out to be a disappointment if not an outright disaster: Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. It’s interesting to me that Donnie Darko was so glowingly received for being weird and zeitgeisty, and Southland Tales so reviled for the same.

I do wonder why the social critique of Southland Tales is received so differently than something like Parasite. They’re very different films, obviously, Parasite is certainly more polished than Southland but it’s also a lot more conventional, and I think has way less bite. We can accept the satire in Parasite because it seems more subtle, it’s couched in allegory, you feel smart by understanding it. But something like Southland Tales is so close to our real cultural landscape, so obvious and tacky, that people think they are being talked down to. Southland Tales is NOT subtle, but feels transcendent in its zany directness.

S: Totally! It’s such an ambitious collision of all these contradictions and reversals. Something that surprised me was how much I was moved by the biblical themes. I found Seann William Scott’s final scene really emotional, and the dance as I mentioned. Apocalyptic stuff can get understandably cynical, so those hopeful beats of forgiveness really stood out to me. I can see how some would find these moments cheesy or ironic, though. How did you feel about them?

G: I found it quite hopeful and genuine at points, I think you’re meant to. Maybe that’s another thing that puts people off, that the Christian themes are unironic: forgiveness, saviours, redemption, apocalypse. Have you seen his other film, The Box? It also takes its religious themes seriously, like he’s grappling with the soul, in these very postmodern, overwhelming wastelands.

S: Ooh I haven’t seen it! 

G: Another film that has this really dense layering of imagery that is really out there, but also feels very personal. And it also casts your fave, Cameron Diaz, lol.

S: Omg my girl Cammy! I gotta watch haha. Speaking of casting — the cast of Southland Tales is so stacked, and I like how the director deliberately cast people outside of their boxes. Whose performance surprised you the most?

G: It’s striking to watch The Rock in this role, as a dumb action star who’s a sleeper agent for a political party, knowing that Dwayne Johnson is probably going to run for president someday. We all sort of believe that the Rock is this good-natured action doofus, but there is maybe something sinister about him. But in 2006, The Rock was an unexpected pick, like Bai Ling, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar… these millennial icons that were no longer at the height of their 15 minutes of fame. It gives the film a lot of heart, you’re rooting to see these people in a new way.

S: Totally. Now for another stacked movie… Don’t Look Up. Honestly, I can’t believe I chose this as my “fave” for this chat lol. I was almost embarrassingly aggressive in how I wasn’t going to watch it — I’ve never enjoyed Adam McKay’s stuff, and then felt delightfully validated over the holidays seeing all the hate for it.

G: People really did not like this movie!

S: Right?! And I was ready to be one of them. But then… what I thought was a hate-watch ended with me crying at the dinner scene. I felt like I betrayed myself haha, so I blamed my PMS and then tried watching it again a few days later to prove myself wrong. But then I cried again! I honestly debated not telling anyone because I was embarrassed lol, but here we are.

G: Maybe you were just sad contemplating a Timmy-less world lol. 

S: LOL STOPPP I can’t bear it! So what did you think of the film’s tone? I’m eating up all the mixed responses — whether or not the movie is “good” or “bad,” it’s clearly stirring something, which I like!

G: You gotta give it to Don’t Look Up, it did get people talking! A lot of people didn’t like Vice and The Big Short, but this one seems to be getting extra ire. Maybe because the topic implicates everyone, not just powerful people in a specific milieu, or maybe because McKay is being kind of self-righteous about the film and its environmental message in public, when he accused the film’s naysayers of not caring about the environment. As a satirist, abandoning a detachment or ambivalence, seems like forfeiting some artistic credibility. But I also thought, why wouldn’t there be real stakes for him? Is it automatically cringe to expect your film to have an impact like that? 

S: Yeah, I was prepared to find it smug, but… I dunno! I felt it was pretty clear we were supposed to empathize with Leo/JLaw’s powerless characters, and criticize those in power looking out only for each other, in both right and left movements. But I get that defensiveness — sometimes I feel this way when I scroll through my feeds, even though people are saying things I agree with and not even necessarily talking down to others lol. “Yes I know this is happening and I know it’s shitty, you don’t need to tell me!”

G: Exactly, the script sometimes sounds indistinguishable from online scolds, like when Ariana Grande sings a song with the lyric: “Listen to the qualified scientists.” But it’s hard to know if the joke is on the naysayers or with them… 

S: Haha that’s true. I found that concert funny, but you’re right, I don’t know if I was laughing at or with them. Though in the case of Leo’s character, I found it cathartic to hear my own feelings parroted back at me via his shouting/spitting lol. Like ah yes, nothing like a little Network moment to unwind. And I know I'm absolutely not the only person who feels like Leo’s character, but for me, the movie captured that really isolating feeling of existential dread: even though you know you're not alone in your despair, you can't help but feel like you are. I can’t think of another Hollywood movie that’s panicking about climate change so head-on. The complete lack of subtlety was almost a relief for me.

G: I agree. The moments where the editing is really fired up, and we are getting these manic, corny juxtapositions of like, a closeup shot of a bee with a packed, speeding subway train, I just love that shit lol! But it feels like you don’t really need to make art anymore, because life, in its random, cartoonish overlapping, is already making incomparable works of satire. And sometimes Don't Look Up gives us an uncanny, Southland Tales-style peek into our reality, like when Jonah Hill is talking about all the watches and cars he likes, projected over a crowd gathered to watch the end of the world… and then in the next scene we get something cringe that misses the mark. 

S: Yeah, there are definitely parts that made me roll my eyes (President Meryl Streep, the meme presentation…) but the intensity of some of people’s reactions made me almost feel like they were expecting this movie to propose a solution to the climate crisis lol. And I truly get that helpless, rageful wish for someone, something to fix all… this. But yeah, it isn’t gonna be through a movie lol.

G: No but maybe Elon Musk got some ideas lol. 

S: LOL oh nooo. I guess I just don’t see much of a difference between this movie and stuff like In The Loop/Veep, which seem better received. To me, they’re all very on-the-nose in the same way, and that's fine. And I enjoy them all lol. It’s interesting to see how people respond differently to what I feel are similar approaches. What did you think of the ending? I was glad they actually showed the world exploding lol, I kinda expected them to chicken out and cut to black! I hated the post-credit scene though — for me it cheapened the initial emotional impact of the dinner that I was still processing.

G: I definitely do commend the film for going there. I think those chaotic last few minutes, watching panic dawn on everyone as the tech giant’s harebrained scheme to take down the meteor fails catastrophically, are really funny and cathartic. And then this Melancholia ending… I actually like the post-credit scene lol it felt more apropos of the style of the film.

S: I guess it was satisfying watching that bird eat President Meryl lol. Let’s close with some casting thoughts… after finishing Don’t Look Up, I realized how depressingly refreshing it felt for me to see that kind of stacked cast in something that isn't a Marvel movie. But its A-list casting also seemed to rile some people up as a part of its smugness. I guess “A-list” is kind of a crumbling idea, anyway.

G: To me, the casting in Don’t Look Up is its big problem. I think it’s hard to buy the film as a critique when it has the most elite, powerful stars on board. It’s like when Jay-Z launched Tidal as a platform that supports artists and brought Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West onstage, the optics were off, it muddled the message (or maybe revealed that the message was muddled all along). In Southland Tales, you rooted for these characters because they were played by underdogs or B-listers or has-beens who felt closer to the spirit of the times. 

It’s funny though because I knew I was going to see Don’t Look Up eventually, only because it was JLaw’s first movie in years, and because Leo is so particular about his projects that you kind of have to see them. Maybe I had a feeling that these two were the last movie stars (as you mentioned, the few who aren’t in any current Marvel project) and seeing them together in this apocalyptic film had some resonance.

But watching the barrage of celebs in the film made me think that maybe it is time to abandon the idea of movie stardom! If it created a performance as arrogant and unfunny as Meryl Streep playing this Trump/Hillary hybrid then I think we’re lost lol.

Gabrielle Marceau is a writer and editor-in-chief of In the Mood Magazine.

Sennah Yee is the author of How Do I Look? and My Day With Gong Gong.