Southland Tales

Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly directs this fast-moving ensemble piece set in a futuristic Los Angeles suffering economic and environmental meltdown. It's the fourth of July 2008, three years after a nuclear strike has wiped out a large part of Texas. The federal government, having assumed control of most people's lives in the interim, moves to stop the introduction of a seawater-based energy solution, under pressure from big business. Meanwhile, the government has also got its hands full with a Marxist underground movement intent on revolution, operating on the west coast. The various plotlines revolve around three central characters: Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), an action movie boxing star, suffering from amnesia, who's trying to get a new project off the ground; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a porn star trying to break into TV punditry with her views on everything from teenage sex to west-coast culture, and Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott), an LA cop, who is searching for his, literally, split personality.