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7 Movies You May Have Hated: Are They Worth Rewatching?

Pauline Kael famously stated that she would never watch a movie twice for critical purposes, because she “got it” the first time. Either this is why she was a master of film criticism while the rest of us are just schmucks, or her staunchness of opinion was a weakness, its influence on contemporary criticism apparent in the continued presentation of movie reviews as objective, eternal reports rather than evaluations of subjective art appreciation. Probably some combination of both.

6) Southland Tales

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Southland Tales

Verdict: I mean, probably

Richard Kelly made a name for himself with Donnie Darko, and his name was subsequently dragged through the mud after he decided to get even more audacious with Southland Tales. It was a bizarre end-of-the-world movie whose box office turnout was as disastrous as the events depicted. I wish I could say I made more sense of it after watching a second time, but I can’t. It’s weird and baffling, compelling at times and alienating at others, meandering from one narrative tone to another in a way that’s intriguing but unable for me to really get into yet.

Still, it has some cool interpretive defenders that I will gladly defer to, because even if I find it utterly confusing, it’s without a doubt a movie made with passion and vision, hard as that may be to clearly decipher.