Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 19 of 52... Southland Tales Vs. Donnie Darko...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 19 of 52... Southland Tales Vs. Donnie Darko...

I don’t think I’ve had a week fly by this fast in a long time. I think it’s because it was a good week. Why can’t the sucky weeks be the ones that disappear with a blink?

Last week I mentioned that I ordered some supplemental materials for this week’s review of Southland Tales. I think the week went too fast for the shipping company as well because I still haven’t received my order.

Oh well, I have a plan B.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 20 of 52... Southland Tales I... Two Roads Diverge...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 20 of 52... Southland Tales I... Two Roads Diverge...

When I started this project I had never heard of the movie Southland Tales. It had come out at a time post-film school when, ironically, I lost track of the movies being released and damn near stopped going to the theater altogether.

I knew that I wanted to review a movie on a weekly basis and multiple friends agreed that this would be the best movie for this experiment.

I looked up the movie to order it and that’s when I learned that it was directed by the guy that did Donnie Darko and that it starred the Rock and Seann William Scott. (I’m also one of these film people that doesn’t know anybody’s name or what else they’ve done.)

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 21 of 52... Southland Tales II... Fingerprints...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 21 of 52... Southland Tales II... Fingerprints...

I knew this would happen eventually, and am somewhat surprised that it took this long.

I got hired to work on a movie where I will be living out of town for the next couple of weeks. I usually do at least one out of town gig a year.

These gigs are my favorite.

A kind of a working vacation where you are put up with your coworkers and forced to hang out with everyone nonstop. Whether these forced relationships work out for better or worse… these trips usually lead to good stories and I’m a collector.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 22 of 52... Southland Tales III... The Mechanicals...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 22 of 52... Southland Tales III... The Mechanicals...

As I pointed out in my last review I'm currently working as a happy camper… well… happy now that I’m back home for a couple of days for our weekend… and by “weekend” I mean Wednesday and Thursday.

This week I read the third installment of the Southland Tales graphic novel. This issue is entitled The Mechanicals. I had to cram a lot of things during this brief break so at 6:30 in the pm I fired up the theatrical release of Southland Tales to play in the background as I read.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 23 of 52... Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, and the Butterfly Effect Pt. 1

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 23 of 52... Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, and the Butterfly Effect Pt. 1

Alright, no more camping for me for a long while, it’s over! I made it!

I learned a lot from the three graphic novels that make up Southland Tales’ backstory. Unfortunately… I was rushed to read them due to said camping trip.

My original plan for this week’s review was to reread all three graphic novels and watch the Cannes Cut of the film to see what I may have missed, but then when I got home and was reunited with the internet I fell down many Youtube rabbit holes

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 24 of 52... Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, and the Butterfly Effect... Part 2...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 24 of 52... Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, and the Butterfly Effect... Part 2...

On the road again.

I landed yet another out-of-town gig so for the next few weeks I will be watching and reviewing Southland Tales in lovely Richland WA.

It’s currently Sunday… July 28th at 12:30 in the pm work starts tomorrow so it's time to fire up the Cannes Cut and follow that up with part two of how Southland Tales is connected to the Sri Yantra.

Wish me luck.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 25 of 52... Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, And The Butterfly Effect... Part 3...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 25 of 52... Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, And The Butterfly Effect... Part 3...

What a week!

I went from living in a motel that was just renovated by a mass eviction of the methhead tenants, to a master bedroom in a house where my personal bathroom is bigger than my apartment back home.

This week concludes my journey into discovering the link between Southland Tales, Sri Yantra, and the Butterfly Effect.

I am so hopeful that this will be the segment that really brings it home and actually include information that links all this nonsense to Southland Tales!

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 27 of 52... A Review Of A Review... Part One...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 27 of 52... A Review Of A Review... Part One...

I have to admit this up top, I felt very uninspired by this week’s viewing of Southland Tales.

I’m still out of town working on this movie and though I’m having fun, learning a lot, and love the people I’m working with, I’m beginning to get a little homesick and worn out.

I had my first two-day weekend in about a month and I was torn between doing nothing and spending an entire day to come up with a whopper of a review for this week.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 28 of 52... A Review Of A Review... Part Two...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 28 of 52... A Review Of A Review... Part Two...

I WANT TO GO HOME…

One more week of this insanity and it’s back to the comfort of the home-based insanity.

I feel so drained, tired, and emotional as this thing begins to wind down.

That said, if I were to be offered another away gig tomorrow I would take it because I'm also having a blast.

It’s now Sunday the 25th of August and this morning at 10:30 in the AM and I'm firing up Southland Tales for the 28th time.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 30 of 52...Finding A Fellow Fan...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 30 of 52...Finding A Fellow Fan...

Things are finally getting back to normal.

I’m not fully sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

For those of you who aren't playing along, I’ve spent the majority of the past two months on the road working. I camped, lived in a motel, and was put up in corporate housing, where I had the master bedroom with a bathroom that's bigger than my apartment.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 31 of 52... The Animated Sequel???

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 31 of 52... The Animated Sequel???

Let me start by reminding you that I never heard of the movie Southland Tales before I started this experiment.

I was a fan of the movie Donnie Darko, but I had only seen it one time in the theater when it first came out.

I’m a fan of movies in general and make my living doing grip and electric work for films while I try to figure out how to make it as a writer.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 32 of 52... The Book Of Revelations...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 32 of 52... The Book Of Revelations...

Oops…

This week’s viewing ended up being a real train wreck.

I just started working on another feature film called The Darker Path. It’s another shoot with a six-day workweek. Granted this one is in town so I get to sleep in my own bed, but the days are longer and there is a bit of a commute, so pretty much my time at home is only meant for sleep.

This Sunday… September 22nd was my first day off. I got home at 7:30 in the am and I had to be back on set at 8:00 in the am on Monday the 23rd. This meant I had to fit two sleep cycles within a 24 hour time period.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 33 of 52... Southland Tales Vs. The Box...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 33 of 52... Southland Tales Vs. The Box...

I’m not looking forward to this review, and it’s not for the reasons you may think.

As I pointed out last week, my schedule pretty packed right now leading these next couple of reviews to be pretty rushed.

The good news was that I had a full day off with a regular sleep schedule. I woke up early and figured I would knock off my Southland Tales viewing early so that I could enjoy the rest of the day.

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 34 of 52... The Goodbye Place...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 34 of 52... The Goodbye Place...

Alright, I just took a double shot of NyQuil, let’s see if I can fire out this review before the drowsiness kicks in!

This is my last week having only one day off after tomorrow I will be unemployed yet again.

I think there were two problems with last week’s review/day off.

  1. A lack of nachos.

  2. I watched Southland Tales when I was pretty sober and watched The Box when I was drunk and ornery.

So this week I made some gourmet nachos (using a habanero cheddar cheese and a jalapeño Havarti with bacon.)

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Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 35 of 52... Southland Tales Vs. Domino...

Area 52 - Southland Tales Reviews: 35 of 52... Southland Tales Vs. Domino...

This week’s review is brought to you by procrastination.

If you’re following along you know I’ve been pretty busy over the past couple of months, leaving me small windows of time to fit in my weekly viewing and review of Southland Tales.

I had all week to plan for the review you're reading right now, but here we are; Tuesday, hours before my deadline and I've finally figured out my game plan.

I viewed Southland Tales on Monday… October 14th… at 12:30 in the pm.

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