Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 13 of 52... A Rudderless Post Road Trip Review...

Working as a freelancer can really mess with your sleep schedule from time to time.

This weekend I ventured out to the Yakima Valley for the cast a crew screening of Cement Suitcase, a film that I worked on a couple years ago. This led to late nights getting caught up with old friends and early mornings from not being able to sleep well in unfamiliar locations.

I was dropped off at home late Sunday afternoon and fell asleep almost immediately… before the sun even thought about going down.

When I awoke on Monday, my usual Southland Tales viewing day, the sun was making its return to the sky. I managed to miss night time altogether.

I had a concept for my angle on this week’s review but had to wait until night. For whatever reason, I don't feel creative until the sun is down. That is unless it's a work in progress. I seem to be able to pick up where I left off, but new creative thoughts seem to come to me mostly at night.

I had a long way to go, too tired to face the day, yet too awake to take a nap.

The other reason I wanted to wait was that my concept involved being medicated, and it was way too early for that.

The game plan was to get baked and watch a weird documentary on reality to get my mind primed for interesting connections. I thought for sure it would work, being that I was having a hard time coming up with this week’s angle.

I smoked my back medicine and sank into the couch.

It worked great. I knew exactly what I was going to keep an eye out for during this viewing to connect with this documentary. Just before passing out… I remembered thinking, “This week’s review is going to be amazing.”

I woke to the sun having missed night time once again.

I couldn't remember for the life of me what this great idea was. Chances are it was nothing more than a stupid stoner joke written on a napkin that makes no sense the next day, but to me… that would have been a great thing to have in writing to share to the world. I will try this again soon.

So there I was, awake and unable to remember what moronic brilliance I had contrived the night before, uninspired in the daylight.

I waited until noon in the pm Tuesday, May 14th then gave up on trying to recapture the moment and fired up the Cannes Cut of Southland Tales. I had the time so I figured I would watch the version that I really like.

One of the problems with trying to get things done during the day is that too many people are awake and active. They’re at work and talking on social media to fill the time. My emails get answered during the day. Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Forces retweeted my video about eating beets. Nothing but distractions.

I made the mistake of sitting next to my phone, which I usually turn off during my viewings.

I was very distracted, and the fact that I still felt uninspired was beginning to bug me.

Then it hit me.

Last week I watched the theatrical release, this week I watched the Cannes Cut. I’m picking up on more and more of the smaller differences since switching back and forth between these two cuts. I would go into these findings, but I’ve decided that next week I will watch both cuts side by side and see how many changes I can find.

Unfortunately… that means I never found my angle for this week’s review other than my failed attempt to primer the mind with a documentary on reality, which will happen soon, and my final conclusion that this week I would write about my feeling uninspired.

As far as the movie goes, I still look forward to watching it every week, and even though there may be more weeks like this, I really enjoy sharing the process of my watching a movie over and over and over and over, and 48 more overs again.