Southlander - Diary of a Desperate Musician

Starring:Rory Cochrane, Rossie Harris, Beth Orton, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Richard Edson, Meghan Gallagher, Beck, Gregg Henry, Kurt Lilly, Pat Matthews (II), Ione Skye, Laura Prepon, Hank Williams III, Mark Gonzales (II), Mary Gillis, David Hollander, Jason Mason, Edy Lopez, Brandon Wells (II), Fred Martinez
Director: Steve Hanft
Studio: Eclectic DVD Dist.
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

SOUTHLANDER - DIARY OF A DESPERATE MUSICIAN (DVD MOVIE)

Customer Reviews:

This movie is so unique, I really like it.......2004-07-11

This movie is disjointed on a lot of levels. The gruesome gunshot wound at the beginning of the movie is not part of the action, unless you are good at guessing which of the few guns which appear in the movie might have hit a target near the end of the action. The lead guys are played by Rory and Ross, but Rory is mainly trying to get out of town, which will require a particular synthesizer and hopping on a band's tour bus when it pulls out of L.A. He plays Chance, who wants to play for a group called Future Pigeon. My original interest in this movie was the female lead, Beth Orton as vocalist in Future Pigeon, but Snowbunny as Motherchild's wife, Laura Prepon as Seven = Five speaking telepathically at a Los Angeles poolside party, and a pair of lesbian thieves also have a few lines, and a girl in the pool doesn't.

There are live performances and incidental background music in this movie and the bonus materials. A dream sequence uses a video for the song "Sweetest Decline" from Beth Orton's "Central Reservation" CD (1999). The page inside the DVD case lists credits for the soundtrack songs that are different from the songs listed at end of the credits on the DVD itself. The list is 33 songs, but "Dr. Fantasm" is listed third, fifth, and twenty-sixth, so someone must want people to notice that song whenever they hear it again. Songs listed at the end of the DVD literature are:

"Gently Waves" by Takako Minnekawa

"Broken Train" by Beck Hansen

"Dr. Fantasm" by E. Ruscha Jr.

"Confederate Dub" by Ed Ruscha Jr.

"Alone and Dying" by Hank Williams III

"Central Reservation" by Beth Orton

"Fatter Cats Bigga Fish" by The Coup

"Snowbunny's Serenade" by Elliott Smith

"Motherchild Chase" by Ed Ruscha Jr.

"Splitzville" by Elliott Smith

After seeing the movie a few times, to observe how this disjointed mess fits together, it is helpful to listen to the commentary, to get a little more insight into how money, drugs, cops, auto registration, robosaurus, freeways, telephone conversations, a stoner cop, Los Angeles and women in lingerie were plaguing the minds of Ross Harris and Steven Hanft when they wrote this movie.

People who are just interested in seeing Beth Orton might try putting her CD "the other side of daybreak" (2003) into the CD-ROM drive of their compters to see if the video of the song "concrete sky" featuring her alone, sitting on a chair, standing, and walking on stairs, will load (it takes a while) on whatever computer system people are using now. This movie might be a few years older than that video, but this DVD is still new. Her function in "Southlander" is mainly to sound like a singer whenever she opens her mouth, which she does, even in an underwater video, and to say, "I want to hear the Moletron." I did not notice many deleted scenes in the Bonus materials on the DVD, but the "Uncut Performances" included a few lines that were as funny as the movie. If you can stand to hear a joke: When Rory Cochrane, playing Chance, shows up at a Future Pigeon rehearsal and Beth Orton wants to hear the Moletron, the guitarist, Corduroy, tells him, "You are getting another chance, Chance." After the full audition in the bonus materials, a conversation with a hologram space manager suitable for "Star Wars" movies filmed on a low budget in L.A. has a conversation with Roy to approve the new keyboard player. This might have been cut in the movie version because the director was in a hurry to get to the rules: no shooting up during the gig.

The commentary made the movie much funnier for me, particularly the idea that certain people might have backed out of this project if robosaurus was not going to be in the movie.

dope.......2004-01-09

i've watched this 900 times. many of the lines from this movie now make daily appearances in the lives and me and my friends.

hot.

The Money...It's Dope AAA++++.......2003-12-11

What a great original movie! Also, hilarious!!And the music is awesome! This movie has so many different moments.Have watched this movie hundreds of times because it reminds me of me and my friends. It is just like reality in my life. It keeps a great pace. Rory Cochrane plays a cool slacker dude looking for his '69 moletron. He and others get hosed by the wierded out LA crowd, looking for the moletron. It is the money, dudes! So many different music artists. I highly recommend to all that like good alternate music and original independent films. Way to go Steve and Ross who both wrote and directed the film. Ross' music can also be heard throughout the movie.
Peace

with Beck, Beth Orton, Hank III, Elliott Smith.......2003-10-24

What a fun film. Worth checking out for the musical performances of some of the greatest artists of today, but you get a whole lot more than that.

Rory Cochrane is great as the lead, plays it real cool as Chance, a down and out musician. When he acquires the '69 Moletron, a super rare synthesizer, it lands him the gig and the girl (Beth Orton). But the Moletron gets stolen, and Chance is determined to get it back.

Chance and his seedy pal Ross Angeles chase the synth around LA through the buy/sell rag, The Southlander, and encounter all sorts of LA weirdos, including the unstable defunct funk star Motherchild (Lawrence Hilton Jacobs), Beck, who leads them to a bizarre technology bonfire pit, the menacing junkyard man (Hank Williams III) and a whole slew of others. The recently deceased and dearly departed Elliott Smith has a brief cameo, and contributed 2 previously unreleased songs for the film.

Director Steve Hanft's specialty is in music video (he directed Beck's Loser video), and the production reflects his talent. The musical performances are brilliant and touching.

The extras are fabulous as well. The more I watch it the more I love it!

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