It is the dream of every indie director. Your first feature, a film you have painstakingly cultivated from the written page to the big screen finds widespread success. Hollywood begins to sit up and take notice. Studios want you on their payroll, name actors want to work with you, and fans look to you as the torchbearer for a new generation of filmmaking. Welcome to the life of writer/director Richard Kelly.

Donnie Darko was somewhat of a phenomenon in the indie world. While its theatrical release had little impact at the box office in 2001, the film garnered huge momentum on DVD, thrusting first-time director, Kelly into the indie-cool stratosphere.

Many directors would have taken the offer, made to Kelly, of a studio-backed picture, bankable stars, a decent budget, and a commercially viable script.

Richard Kelly, in keeping with his indie sensibilities, instead chose to write and direct Southland Tales. Set in the not-too-distant future, the film takes place in a devastated Los Angeles on the brink of apocalypse. Starring an ensemble and eclectic cast, this complex film is almost impossible to categorize. Part sci-fi film noir, part musical comedy, part futuristic action thriller, Southland Tales promises to either delight or confuse. It almost had opportunity to do neither in its stumbling search for distribution.

The film has had a string of setbacks since Kelly conceived the idea more than six years ago. While most indies will happily shoot in the cheapest locations available, Kelly was adamant that Southland Tales be shot entirely on location in Los Angeles. It was the kind of stubborn and costly decision that made financial backers nervous. The 30 day shoot on a limited budget was grueling.

Thanks in large part to rumors from the set and the unusually lengthy post-production period, industry sources began questioning if Kelly had bitten off more than he could chew with Southland Tales. The early negative buzz and the virtually incomprehensible plot made securing distribution difficult.

After an infamous screening at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, the search for distribution went from difficult to unlikely. Southland Tales received some of the worst reviews of the festival’s history, with the harshest criticism saved for Kelly himself. Its savior came in the form of Sony, who agreed to distribute the film on the basis of a strict re-cut. Richard Kelly would spend a further nine months in the editing suite trimming the film to its current length and to Sony’s satisfaction.

Southland Tales will no doubt divide audiences. Some will dismiss the film as being overly ambitious and others will applaud it for the same reason. Whether the level of venom critics directed at Richard Kelly since the Cannes screening is justified, remains to be seen. This is after all, an indie film. By definition, it has every right to be risky. In today’s cookie-cutter Hollywood system where sub-par formulaic product is arguably the norm, Southland Tales is nothing if not original. Regardless of whether it fails or succeeds, is a masterpiece or a mess, it is an indie film impossible to ignore.