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Southland Tales (view source)

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* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: The movie goes out of it's way to introduce dozens of characters exceedingly often. Unfortunately, it can't quite seem to decide which ones are supposed to be important...
* '''[[Mind Screw]]'''
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Ronald Taverner, stemming from his tour in [[My Greatest Failure|Fallujah.]]
{{quote|'''Pilot Abilene''': He could not forgive himself for what he had done to me.}}
* {{spoiler|[[Never the Selves Shall Meet]]: This is the way the world ends.}}
* [[Noodle Incident]]: The film never explains what happened between Tavener and Pilot in Fallujah. {{spoiler|It's revealed in the comic and passingly hinted at in the film that while under the influence of fluid karma Roland accidentally scarred Pilot's face with a grenade.}}
* [[Playing Against Type]]: The cast. See [[What the Hell Casting Agency]] below for more information.
* [[Playing with Syringes]]: The secret tests done on U.S. soldiers using Fluid Karma. Covered mostly in the graphic novels, but movie shows what happens when these syringes get out into the general populace.
* [[Psychic Link]]: One of the many effects of Fluid Karma.
* [[Read the Fine Print]]: Baron von Westphalen says this to the Prime Minister of Japan after {{spoiler|cutting off his left hand.}}
* [[Rule of Symbolism]]: Boxer's tattoos are symbolic representations of all the major world religions, and [[Word of God]] says that the tattoo that bleeds is the religion that "wins." {{spoiler|The tattoo of Jesus bleeds just before the Megazeppelin explodes.}}
* [[Show Within a Show]]: Krysta Now's script, "The Power".
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** [[Philip K. Dick|"Flow my tears, the policeman said."]]
** Almost all the chapters are allusions: ''Two Roads Diverge'' is an allusion to [[Robert Frost]], ''Fingerprints'' likely to Leonard Cohen, ''Temptation Waits'' to [[Garbage]] and ''Memory Gospel'' to [[Moby]]. The final chapter is called [[Pixies|Wave of Mutilation]]. ''The Mechanicals'' is named after an improv group that Kelly took a liking too and who bit parts in the film.
** The corrupt senator and his running mate are named [[Robert Frost|Frost]] and [[T. S. Eliot|Eliot]].
{{quote|[[T. S. Eliot|"This is the way the world ends."]]}}
** Possible parody of ''[[Left Behind]]'': The character of Fortunio Balducci, the Baron's [[The Mole|Mole]]. [[Word of God]] confirms that, following the Book of Revelation, Fortunio is the False Prophet. His counterpart's name in ''Left Behind''? Leon Fortunato.
* [[Tag-Along Actor]]: Boxer with Taverner.
* [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch]]: "The fourth dimension will collapse upon itself... you stupid bitch."
* [[We ARE Struggling Together!]]: The Neo-Marxists.
* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: As it is a Richard Kelly film, everything IS symbolic.
* [[WTH?What the Hell, Casting Agency?]]: The entire cast. [[Sarah Michelle Gellar]] cast as a porn star, [[Dwayne Johnson]] cast as an amnesiac, and very dweebish actor, engaged to [[Mandy Moore]], playing a foulmouthed heiress, Sean William Scott playing two traumatised soldiers with identity issues, [[Amy Poehler]] and Wood Harris as extremely stupid terrorists, [[Justin Timberlake]] as the disturbed and disfigured narrator, [[Kevin Smith]] as an Iraq War veteran, [[Wallace Shaun]] as a glam-rock criminal mastermind, Bai Ling as his laconic girlfriend, that kid from ''Thumbsucker'' playing a street punk, Christopher Lambert playing a small-time arms dealer, and Jon Lovitz as a terrifyingly dead-eyed neo-nazi cop. It may not be spot-on, but damn it it's surreal to see these actors [[Playing Against Type|in roles so different to how you'd assume them to play]]. <br /><br />This was actually done quite intentionally, although (like a lot of the film) the intended effect is not really that clear. In other words, the setup is there but the punchline isn't. Excerpted from an Internet-based article: "The biggest disappointment of Southland Tales resides in its most promising conceit, a cast populated by B-to-D-list celebrities ranging from Wallace Shawn to Zelda Rubenstein to Christopher Lambert. There's a wealth of satirical material to be found in [this] generation's curious veneration of kitsch, and I'd hoped Kelly's cast list indicated a deeper explanation of the connection between pop culture and regression touched upon in Donnie Darko..." (Full article [http://cinevistaramascope.blogspot.com/2008/04/pimps-dont-commit-suicide.html here.])
** Also done in-universe, as the Neo-Marxists inform Boxer he was cast as a racist cop for a "movie" (in truth, an attempt to convince him their plans are [[All Part of the Show]]).
 
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