Sarah Michelle Gellar

In Richard Kelly’s accomplished, left-field debut Donnie Darko, the troubled young hero is told the world is to end in late 1988.

In his new film, the apocalyptic Southland Tales, which baffled and infuriated nearly everyone at Cannes last year and has since been radically reworked.

America is tottering on the abyss with the police’s trigger-happy Urban Pacification Unit fighting with heavily armed Marxist guerrillas, a hole in the ozone layer, and a palatial zeppelin about to explode over Los Angeles.

I missed the opening minutes but saw more than two hours of it, so perhaps found it even more confusing than others have done.

It’s a farrago, but the work of a fascinating talent, and no doubt destined for cult status.