The Director: The young genius who directed Donnie Darko seemed destined to become the next David Lynch, where he combined a character driven teen drama with lots of creepy weirdness. The world eagerly awaited his next move... The Crime: His follow-up Southland Tales was an incomprehensible sci-fi drama comedy thing with The Rock and Justin Timberlake. The original two and a half hour cut was shown in the Cannes Film Festival, where it was promptly booed off the screen. Kelly took a pair of scissors to the movie to try and save it, yet he only managed to make it shorter and even more confusing. People gave the film marks for ambition, but nobody could say they actually enjoyed watching. The film failed to find an audience even with fans of weird cult movies, and it did practically no business upon release. The Sentence: Kelly was given a second chance with The Box, another science fiction movie with Cameron Diaz, but again the film got poor reviews and failed to make money. Subsequently, he hasnt made a film since 2009, which doesnt look set to change anytime soon.
