Here’s the first of a handful of reviews I’ll have from the AFI Film Festival this year in Los Angeles. I love film festivals- it’s an excuse to just waste the day (or week) watching a ton of movies, back to back. They’re not all great, but there always tends to be a few gems. The best part about festivals is that you go into the movie with almost no expectations. These films have had no promotion yet; there hasn’t been posters, trailers, or tie-ins every time you turn around. In fact, most of the time you walk into the theater knowing no more than the log line in the program. Coming in with a completely clean slate is the best way to see a movie, and to really perceive afterwards what you truly thought.

Thus, there was no better way for me to see the first entry in my AFI Festival series: Southland Tales. All I knew about this film was that it was the second film by Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly, it had Justin Timberlake and The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) in it, and that Kevin Smith had a role that had been basically slimmed down to a cameo in the editing process. With this open mind and clean slate, I sat down to what I thought was an awesome way to kick off my festival days.

Southland Tales is a contrived story that weaves through plot lines and characters in a not-too-distant future (summer 2008) that finds a world seized by a third World War. The film opens with a nuclear attack on Texas, paving the way for a fascist government, which seizes control of the nation by monitoring everything from the internet to public bathrooms. As the world enters a fuel crisis, an alternative energy source is being built off the coast of LA that will power everything wirelessly. Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), a famous action movie star with political ties, has disappeared into the desert and returned with amnesia. A member of a Neo-Marxism group (Sean William Scott) is posing as his twin brother (also Scott), a cop, to help Santaros research his next role in an apocalyptic film, which he wrote with porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who is merchandising her image into an enterprise complete with her own pop album and energy drink. All this and so much more, narrated by Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) as he maintains his God-like perch above Santa Monica pier with a machine gun.

A little complicated? Sure- in fact this is only scratching the surface of a very large cast of characters acted by a handful of very talented and well known actors whom all weave together and cross paths at some point during the three days we witness in the Southland. The ensemble plays well- the actors all put in top notch performances, specifically those of Dwayne Johnson who, after movies like The Scorpion King and The Game Plan, I didn’t know had it in him and Sarah Michelle Gellar who plays porn star disturbingly well. Timberlake continues to impress me with his acting chops, specifically in an enthralling, drug-induced, dreamlike sequence that will never have you listening to The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done” the same way again. The direction is also compelling; the film is very tight, even with a 144 minute run time, and the camera movements are fantastic and invasive. Rounded out with some great special effects, the film is very well made.

The story can be murky in spots, I’ll admit, but not enough for me to ever lose interest. When the credits rolled I found myself wanting to watch it again immediately, as I felt years ago the first time I saw Donnie Darko, to try to piece everything together. It’s definitely a film worth multiple viewings, with a striking amount of similarities to Darko, I’d say that Kelly is becoming quite the auteur of complicated science fiction.

I was surprised then, when I got home and looked up others opinions on the film, to be confronted with many negative reviews. Apparently the characters and plot lines didn’t come together as well for others, and the Donnie Darko similarities were too large for some critics to ignore. Which is why I’m glad that I knew none of that going into the film- I wasn’t looking for things not to make sense, but instead accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to understand everything on my first time through. I can’t wait to see this film again, and to get it on DVD to pick it apart scene by scene. As long as Richard Kelly continues to put together amazing casts and pair them with his great filmmaking skills, I’ll be in line to see his movies. Even if I don’t understand them.