Open Forum Friday: Richard Kelly… Visionary Director or Flash in the Pan?
Richard Kelly’s new film The Box hits theatres this weekend, and although I have yet to see it, I will probably check it out based on his name alone (okay, and maybe because of the Twilight Zone connection). It’s hard to believe, but this is only his third feature film, and his first to get a wide release. As the director of the cult favourite Donnie Darko, you might assume that his name would hold some serious weight with a certain audience, but there doesn’t seem to be a ton of excitement surrounding the movie right now. Are people still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, or have they finally moved on and forgotten about him?
I don’t know if I’ll ever fully understand why Donnie Darko became such a big underground hit; it got a very minor theatrical release, but when it hit DVD, things really took off. It became so popular that it eventually spawned a sequel, although Kelly was not involved in it. He was busy recovering from the relative failure of his second film, Southland Tales, which I don’t think many of the Donnie Darko fans ever saw. It’s clear that Kelly is a director who thinks big, and is not afraid to take on some ambitious ideas with his movies. That being said, I still feel like he needs to do something more than Donnie Darko to prove himself as a true artistic genius. What do you think? Is Richard Kelly the real deal or did he just get lucky with his first film? Was Southland Tales a disaster or was it just misunderstood? Will The Box be the movie that redeems him? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Comments (24)
This does seem to be pretty similar themes of Donnie Darko so may just check it out. But will wait for a few reviews to find out.
Posted by Billy Boyd Cape on November 6th, 2009I only watched an hour of Southland Tales last night; but judging from what I saw, it is a hacky abomination that makes Lady in The Water seem like a masterpiece.
Almost every director makes a film that is far below the bar of their other films, and Southland Tales may be as low as it gets for Kelly. Let’s hope that The Box is a return to form like Raimi had with Drag Me to Hell.
Posted by Ryan M. on November 6th, 2009I agree with Ryan (although I am yet to see a horrid feature by David Lynch). Donnie Darko is a timeless rarity – Southland Tales is, well – a rarity in bad…
Posted by Phrakture on November 6th, 2009I can’t say The Box looks to be amazing, but I’m sure as hell interested to find out.
Kelly has talent, but not enough to match his ambition. he needs to hook up with writers who can carry it out better, or cast better, or just scale back the ambition a bit into more manageable projects.
Posted by Goon on November 6th, 2009What’s in the Box?
Posted by jaime on November 7th, 2009A severed penis
Posted by Drew on November 7th, 2009i’ve never seen southland tales but i’ve seen donnie darko. and to me it didn’t seem all that special. the plot seemed like a clusterfuck of ideas all cramped together. direction wise, i thought it had some good suspense. and as for his new movie The Box, i can’t say that it looks out of the world, but it does have enough interesting elements for me to check it out.
Posted by Napalm on November 7th, 2009just noticed that his hoodie has BOX written on it.
Posted by Napalm on November 7th, 2009Richard Kelly, seen above plotting an attack on the Pentagon, is capable of making a film. He is capable of instructing actors on what to do and say. He is capable of making sure everybody on set gets some food. He is capable of providing enough light such that a scene can be filmed and he is further capable of combining the images captured into some kind of narrative that can be stored as content on a DVD. Beyond that? Well, I’d have to go with Hack.
I’ll watch The Box on DVD. I never want to see anything like Southland Tales again.
Posted by Ovenball on November 7th, 2009Will “the Box” Top the boxoffice? this weekend.
Posted by jaime on November 7th, 2009the box is barley out, how could this question be answered on the merits of 2 films? 3 would be the minimum to start formulating his talent.
Posted by Bob The Slob on November 7th, 2009hahaha @Ovenball
Posted by Mike on November 7th, 2009He got sucked into the Joseph Campbell hero structure of storytelling to the point it became more important than simply evaluating his writing as “clear and concise so the audience could follow along”.
Donnie Darko succeeded because the weird didn’t over power the narrative. Southland Tales had way to many themes fighting for space.
In this way he and M. Night have made the same mistake were they believe they were “master storytellers” that could get away with writing over the audiences head. (M. Nights Lady in the Water) We will see with both directors next films if they have learned their lesson.
Writing is like developing a new entree – you can push the limits of the flavors but at some point it turns to shit.
Posted by rus in chicago on November 7th, 2009I really liked Donnie Darko, but still haven’t seen Southland Tales. It doesn’t seem like a movie I’d enjoy based on the group of podcasters I go to for for reviews. I guess he is a bit overrated for sure, but he seems like a personable guy when I heard him on the slashfilm cast podcast.
If I had to pick one director and label him a “Visionary” it would be Guillermo Del Toro.
Posted by Primal on November 7th, 2009I saw “The Box” yesterday in theaters. I liked the story that we are sold by watching the trailer but it gets way to grandiose and out of control about 40 min in. I still didn’t hate it because it kept me interested the whole time but it was a mess and a mild dissapointment for me. I did like Donnie Darko and I didn’t like Southland Tales.
Posted by joel on November 7th, 2009Richard Kelly is by no means a masterpiece, but atleast he makes films that are both interesting and curious. you never realy now what your going to get with a director like him. thats what makes him interesting because ambitious and random directors are a dying breed.
Posted by Lorenzo on November 7th, 2009I gotta agree with Goon here, he has some interesting stuff visually and I like some of his story elements, but Southland Tales was an awful mess. It was so all over the place you couldn’t really care about the parts that were done well…. I think there were some in there somewhere. I’m interested to see what he does, but he has to be brought back to earth a little to really see what he’s capable of.
Posted by Ranger Tom on November 7th, 2009Donnie Darko was awesome, one of my favourites.
Posted by RaphNL on November 7th, 2009It’s kinda easy to write him off after just 3 movies. Give him a few more chances.
Never thought Donnie Darko was any good. Its a David Lynch for Hot Topic kids. I didn’t even finish watching Southland Tales.
Anyways, it looks like The Box bombed so hopefully we won’t have to see another Richard Kelly movie again. Maybe he should just try directing something that isn’t his just to try and prove he has some skills behind the camera or not.
Posted by Justice on November 8th, 2009The Box only took in $7.8 MILLION.
Posted by jaime on November 8th, 20097.8 is more than i expected
Posted by Goon on November 9th, 2009visionary flash in the pan
Posted by that motherfucker from vancouver on November 9th, 2009I think the problem is output…I mean I liked Donnie Darko but that was like 2001? Three films in a decade WTF? Clint Eastwood is like 80 yrs and he is putting out like two a year.
Posted by xego on November 9th, 2009Bad example xego. Clint Eastwood is Hollywood Royalty and Oscar laden and is not writing his own stuff.
Richard Kelly has the cult success of Darko and that is it. He also is the screenwriter of all of his films and tends to publish a lot of multimedia around his ‘worlds.’ Probably has to bend over backwards for funding to boot.
He is one of those grinder directors trying to make art out of genre morsels. Often he does well for a very niche audience. He doesn’t do so well with The Box however, the film is overwhelmed with its theoretical nature in a way that episodes of The Twilight Zone never did.
Posted by kurt on November 9th, 2009Leave a Reply