Two atomic bombs hit Texas in 2004. America is transformed. More civil liberties are lost by a renewed Patriot Act that is specifically credited to the Republicans. By 2008, Democrats and others opposed to the new order, in which surveillance is combined with vigilant snipers on duty 24/7, are hunted down as neo-Marxist traitors. The United States is on a permanent war footing--simultaneously in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, and Syria. But rather than a strictly political thriller, science fiction enters the plot along with Hollywood excesses. Directed by Richard Kelly, the political competes with the trivial in a surreal Los Angeles. Although some may walk out before the ending of the film because of too much sexploitation, the Political Film Society has nominated Southland Tales as best film on human rights of 2007, having projected present trends into a future that most filmviewers may not want to believe is only one more megaterrorist bombing in the United States away from reality. MH
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