To grow up in the early-to-mid 2000s and to care at all about watching movies meant to be very aware of Donnie Darko. It was a film that had such a hold on so many budding cinephiles much in the way that Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith had on so, so many of us. I was too cool for Donnie Darko though and felt as though “I saw through it.”
And so I ignored Richard Kelly films for almost two decades. I was vaguely aware of Southland Tales‘ troubled released. Something about the Cannes debut going badly, it eventually being reclaimed, etc. It is a story we have heard so much before that my teenaged indifference to Donnie Darko caused me to not care too much about the specifics of Southland Tales opinions, and I never even heard of The Box until recently.
The opportunity in 2023 to see Richard Kelly speak (at a screening of The Box) though seemed like an occasion to finally give Kelly’s films an honest appraisal as an adult.
I am delighted to report back that I have such a deep fondness for them. The key to Kelly’s films are their sincerity. You watch these films, and their high concepts are never approached at a safe distance. Kelly goes all in and asks the audience to trust him that it will be worth it. There is no ironic detachment. You get the sense watching these films that total emotional investment will be rewarded. It is a feeling that has been all-to-missing in too many big films in recent years.
The Reel World 