Song in my Head: All These Things That I’ve Done

I love the tangible sense of regret that the Killers evoke with this song. This is my favorite version of it, from Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales: an insane ensemble cast monstrosity that required multiple comic books to explain its rich and satirical backstory. It was generally panned by moviegoers and critics alike, but I loved it. It was the hugest, weirdest film I’d ever seen, and my cousin Lou Taylor Pucci gets to blow up a zeppelin with a rocket launcher.

Also, Wallace Shawn plays a supervillain. Zelda “Go into the Light, Carol Ann!” Rubinstein is in it. Everybody is in it. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like it, but it’s like Kelly popped the zit of his imagination all over the screen, and it kept flowing and erupting like a bloody, volcanic death pimple. Meaning sometimes it’s just that you can’t stop watching, to see what bizarre mutant might crawl out next.

And that’s not to say I think it’s a horrible movie. Indulgent? Intentionally obscure? Perhaps even pretentious? Yes, but wonderful. It uses all sorts of shortcuts that we’ve come to accept in big blockbuster movies, as if mocking us. It tries to force an idiotic catchphrase down our throats, via The Rock. And it blows shit up for no reason.

What’s not to like?