Can't wait for this shit. Malick only disappointed with "The New World" but from what I hear this shit is "Badlands" good.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46450

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

They talk about it like the movie itself is done. I understand how the business works, but it just sucks to basically wait another year because they missed the very narrow release window for this kind of film.

--------

hell-below.com

so, yeah, I guess he's done tinkering with ToL.

I'm taking this delay as a sign from above telling me "it's okay, now you have a valid reason to double dip and buy the Thin Red Line Criterion Blu-Ray"

That's really the only positive I can come up with right now.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=69664

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46382
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44711

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

and it got a PG-13, so the film definitely looks like it was finalized and this was just a distribution issue

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

Sounds like everything was pretty locked. Malick is shooting a new flick with Affleck now so I doubt he was really going to be tinkering with it that much more.

Thought it was great up until that point.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46592

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

ms, Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz.

damn. Terrence is making a rom-com?

__________________________________

http://amatorsa.wordpress.com/

But with a cast like that it can't be all bad. Right?

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

This has been happening a lot in recent years to several films, "Shutter Island" being the last one I can remember.

Big name director (critically at least), Pitt, Penn. I don't get why they wouldn't stretch the budget to fit this into the fall/winter schedule. I really don't feel like waiting yet another year for this to drop. This was my most anticipate release of 2010.

However, I'm happy Mallick is already working on another film. Dude has been sitting on so many ideas (and age is catching up with him) that I'm excited to see how these two films end up being.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/thetreeoflife/

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

This looks incredible.

I emphasize looks, because it could end up being totally pretentious. But it is an absolutely gorgeous collection of footage.

--------

hell-below.com

my anticipation is through the roof.

_________________________________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/punannydiaries

http://thepunannydiaries.com

also on Facebook and Twitter

the only movie of his i seen was that god awful New World. should i check his previous work?

you, then I'm afraid nothing ever will.

Just be aware that Malick doesn't do quick cuts and other camera tricks, and isn't really in that much of a hurry to get to the "plot" of his films.

He's best described as a "lyrical" filmmaker, which isn't everyone's cup of tea and usually leads to accusations of "pretension" and the like.

_________________________________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/punannydiaries

http://thepunannydiaries.com

also on Facebook and Twitter

If you don't like that, give up. If you do like it, then see Badlands and Days of Heaven in that order.

He's a pretty incredible filmmaker. Maybe the only American able to make capital-A Art films and get big studio budgets for it.

--------

hell-below.com

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

"Thin Red Line." I swear, if I had to listen to one more "deep" internal monologue... Just fucking ugh.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

it looks like the kid will be giving a few of these voice-over monologues.

__________________________________

http://amatorsa.wordpress.com/

Just that his late career work (Thin Red Line, New World, and the look of this new trailer) has a bit of a different look and feel to his 70s movies.

--------

hell-below.com

this shit FAR exceeded my expectations. incredible. it's as if the people actually involved in the film cut the trailer.

i wonder how comparable it will be to his previous films, stylistically. nevertheless, i feel we have something better than The New World at least.

__________________________________

http://amatorsa.wordpress.com/

Admittedly, it got lackluster near the end and lost flair...but those parts when John Smith was alone with the tribe was fantastic. I loved the cinematography in that movie.

__________________________________

*Note to self: Add Sig*

Had no interest in watching it when it came out (Just not interested in that story) but my friend kept talking on and on about over a few years so I finally saw and liked it a lot. Not a perfect film but nice to see films that seems less formulated and loved the directing/cinematography

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=75661

I guess all that talk about the dinos are true.

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

watched the trailer three times yesterday on a random impulse. Trying to downplay my expectations but it's easily the movie I'm looking forward to the most this year. And that followup he's filming with Ben Affleck and my future wife Olga looks intriguing as well

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

...for them. But seriously TOL is a MUST fucking see just for Malick and his camera alone nigga!!! I love this sequence in "The Thin Red Line" when the troops storm the village to this track:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG9-j3eevL4&playnext=1&list=PL0F0DCB1CD8A17273

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

that this music cue sounds ridiculously close to the music in the last few minutes of inception? i remember the thin red line track came up on shuffle back in the summer and just being blown away by the similarities for a good 3 minute or so stretch. both zimmer, too. it doesn't bother me or anything, just thought it was a little interesting.

here's the end of inception:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeN-jDGQlpQ

themacguffinmen.wordpress.com (movie/pop culture podcast and blog)

In that Q&A he did with Del Toro that will never be seen outside of the anniversary screenings.

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

That poster needs to be on my wall like right now.

stand out anymore. Almost every seemed iconic when I was growing up, probably would be able to pick out the shitty ones. Nowadays I doubt I could remember 1 or 2 a year.

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

fair warning Malick flicks are not for everyone!!!

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

Thin Red Line was good, New World was average.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49204

Read the article then head to the site.

I NEED TO SEE THIS SHIT LIKE YESTERDAY!!!!

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/49662

I haven't read any. I made up my mind last year...

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/3297

1. This weekend was very good to the Wordman.
2. I'm not sure which "draft" of the movie I just saw.
3. Regardless, it's the best movie of the year.



"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

i was wondering how realistic did the dinos look? i haven't seen anyone touch on that in a review

Not horrible but definitely wouldn't be mistaken for real.

And if you sat me down and asked me what the movie was "about," you'd probably get a blank stare.

As far as I can tell it's a meditation on the loss of a child and what it does to a family. What dinosaurs have to do with that, I couldn't tell you.

But I can tell you that Malick just draws you in. He draws you in with the pacing, he draws you in with shot selection (great work by Emmanuel Lubezki), he draws you in with the score and music selection.

I thought Brad Pitt was outstanding, but that's kinda by default since he has a majority of the film's dialogue. And the kid who played his oldest son Jack was also solid, as was Jessica Chastain, who was the mom.

This is another Malick movie where pace, shot selection, music and emotion trump plot and story. If you show up hoping that "something happens" you're going to be pissed. But if you know/dig Malick, then you know the deal.

Oh, wait, forgot to mention that it's about 15-20 minutes too long...

Regardless, this is in my top 3 of the year so far. Artsy-fartsys unite.

_________________________________________________________________________
twitter.com/LetsStay2Gether

also on Facebook

Back for 22 mo' -- January 2012

HAI HATERZ

The Dino's are there as Malick is building his impressions on the evolution of biological life in itself and how Human emotions are possibly the most complex of any biological species. This idea is further cemented by the scene of the near dead Dino being stepped on the other and than left to die when the whole film we see characters fighting for each others survival and in deep grief when life is lost.

I'll post the link to my tumblr thoughts later in the week, but for now I'll say this: The Tree of Life is a great and awful movie.

I can't say I found much resonant in the story or the performances (Pit seems in WAY over his head) but it's still an incredible viewing experience. You just have to give yourself over to it.

but we disagree on Pitt, who gave a hell of a performance as he always does... YES Pitt is THAT dude (no homo).

He did a great job imo. The only complaint I could see in the casting is that b/c Pitt and Penn are such big celebs it could take away from the experience b/c you'll always know it's Pitt or Penn (I don't have this problem but I know a lot of ppl who can't get into movies b/c of that fact).

Totally agree that it is really spectacular but the last 20 minutes really takes away from the film. It almost lapses into self-parody.

I thought all the actors were great (was Sean Penn necessary? could have stuck any old guy in his pretty minimal role). The dinosaur mini-drama was kind of stupid IMO. To me, I guess it signified the randomness of life and death. The baby dino was spared, the son was not. I dunno, it was distracting.

Enough negativity. This was a very original labor of love and really strikes a deep chord. I thought watching the boys grow from infants was especially tragic knowing that one would die. You see the amount of effort and love and care that goes into a single life. In a way, the movie asks the question "What does one life amount to in the grand scheme of the universe?" and answers "One life is a miracle and its importance and loss are immense"

http://straightouttatrenton.tumblr.com/post/6101709179/thetreeoflife

------------------------------------------
America from 9:00 on: https://youtu.be/GUwLCQU10KQ

Not great, but I appreciate what Malick was doing with it. Like was said above, it works as art, but not really as any kind of story. I've never been able to really invest myself in films like this, but it's very good for what it is.

------

12 play and 12 planets are enlighten for all the Aliens to Party and free those on the Sex Planet-maxxx

XBL: trkc21
Twitter: @tyrcasey

It has images and moments and sounds that will haunt me all year long. So even though the Sean Penn stuff was pretty clunky for me, and the ending left me cold rather than moved, it is a bold, bold film that deserves to be seen, even by those who will hate it.

My girlfriend saw this and X-Men: First Class with me, and made the note that she was far more entertained by X-Men and thus liked it more leaving the theater, but she won't remember any of it come December, and this had many indelible moments.

Pitt and the main kid who played Jack were both so outstanding. And the family relationships, in particular as the children were toddlers and pre-teens, were so perfectly handled. That stuff, to me, was brilliant. A lot of it was brilliant to me.

The Big Bang stuff... I understand it. I'll talk more about this when it's not 1:45 the night before school on Monday. But I feel like even though it's super-bizarre, it fits.

The Sean Penn stuff-- look, I didn't care for it. At all, really. We don't learn much about the man he's become (we see his occupation, but that's really it) and we don't much feel the sense of where the ending fits into the scheme of things between the creation of the universe, his family's life, and now the afterlife. The impact simply wasn't there for me.

But so much of the movie is great. Outstanding, even. A mixed, extremely memorable, and intermittently genius film.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

I mean I wouldn't want a whole 20 minutes added just to build his story more but maybe just a little bit more attachment to him as an adult as oppose to just the fact that we knew him as a child growing up.

Christopher Nolan & David Fincher Discuss Terrence Malick And “The Tree Of Life”:

http://recordinglivefromsomewhere.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/christopher-nolan-david-fincher-discuss-terrence-malick-and-the-tree-of-life/

Music, movies, and everything in between: http://recordinglivefromsomewhere.com & http://twitter.com/marko_orlic

For me to enjoy a movie THAT abstract, it at least must be entertaining. Like Mulholland Dr, for example.

This movie is NOT entertaining at all.

I think this movie has some serious flaws (really unconvinced on the coda, at least on first viewing), but it aims so high and connects so frequently that it is hard to hold the missteps against it.

A big, messy, usually brilliant, occasionally overreaching, aesthetically astonishing film.

Deeply personal to its director (Malick grew up one of three boys in Waco, lost his guitar-playing brother around the same age, etc.), so much that parts are inscrutable to the outside viewer. But his commitment and sincerity make the film thrilling viewing.

Hats off to Fox Searchlight for believing in a film this unconventional.

--------

hell-below.com

aesthetically overwhelming. Sensory overload. Near-constant music (plus, it's music I'm not into). Near-constant camera movement that's exacerbated by the frequently used really, really wide angle lenses (don't like wide angle lenses all that much). It's equally as overwhelming as a Tony Scott or Michael Bay film. Maybe I got used to it as time went on, but it seems like the foot eased off the gas pedal for the last 45-20 minutes.

But, you know what, I'd be awesome to have a career like Malick in which you only directed 4 feature-length films since the 1970s and to have a film like this that has unconventional dramaturgy / storytelling, a film this personal and ambitious playing in multiplexes across the nation.

Kudos to Brad Pitt for producing a project like this. Too bad he didn't believe in The Assassination of Jesse James as much.

Anyway, I'm not going to pretend that I got everything. This seems to be like Mirror, Inland Empire, etc. in which you'll catch more on repeated viewings. The problem for me is I don't care enough about the film to want to watch it again to understand more....or to hopefully absorb it and let it simmer in me.

I really do love the Nat Geo segments of the film. Honestly, I do. I always wanted to see that kind of science-spiritual thing treated contemplatively. But this didn't grab me. I really wanted to like it more than I do. Moreover, grief and childhood are 2 of my favorite subjects.

Can't wait to see Jessica Chastain in Take Shelter.

Unmoved for the most part.

The imagery is still with me, and much of it resonated with moments in my childhood (I grew up in a very idyllic neighborhood like that with two siblings and tons of neighbors).

I initially blamed the Sean Penn sequences-- we never learn anything about Jack as an adult and the afterlife sequences are completely inscrutable, so where's the emotional payoff (or lack thereof, even?)? It seemed like Malick thought that ending was the payoff, and it never really registered with me internally.

It's probably one of those movies that will play better once it hits Blu-Ray and folks can post individual scenes/sequences of it on Youtube, because sections of the film are really terrific.

I imagine it'll be like the way Gangs of New York plays now: when it's on TV, I can't pay attention and deem it too long and overly ambitious, a project that got away from him... but if I watch individual scenes on Youtube, it seems damn near a classic.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

-Penn never really does anything in the real world. He's hard to figure out as a character and is not emotionally connectable to young Jack.

-Despite the extremely autobiographical childhood, this guy (Penn) seems to bear little resemblance to Malick himself. Not that he needed to make him a filmmaker (though Tarkovsky did in Mirror), but if Malick turned out as a nature-loving eccentric, why is this guy a cold-blooded architect of steel-and-glass towers?

-The "heaven on the beach" stuff seems like too-easy imagery. Hard to imagine Malick coming up with something banal, but that's what this seems like.

Still, I love the crazy ambition of the film and nearly all of the childhood stuff (and the Fantasia stuff--cheap CG aside).

--------

hell-below.com

>-Penn never really does anything in the real world. He's hard
>to figure out as a character and is not emotionally
>connectable to young Jack.
>
>-Despite the extremely autobiographical childhood, this guy
>(Penn) seems to bear little resemblance to Malick himself. Not
>that he needed to make him a filmmaker (though Tarkovsky did
>in Mirror), but if Malick turned out as a nature-loving
>eccentric, why is this guy a cold-blooded architect of
>steel-and-glass towers?

Maybe it's alluding to what he feared of growing up as. Or, struggling with some of the adult Jack character in him over the years.


>-The "heaven on the beach" stuff seems like too-easy imagery.
>Hard to imagine Malick coming up with something banal, but
>that's what this seems like.

I think it's a metaphor for acceptance more than heaven/afterlife. But with all the supernova and evolution of life stuff, it's likely that it is a metaphor for the afterlife/spiritual dimension.

I'm not suprised by the banality of the imagery, though. I found, like, 90% of the voiceovers banal. At first I justified them as being from a child's perspective/view, but the mother's character's voiceovers were equally trite to me. So perhaps it's the mother's thoughts as imagined by the boy side of adult Jack?

I just finished watching it....finally.

I think Penn's character was to play counter the character of his mother. Penn's brooding, and his building of steel towers, shows he can never resolve himself to nature/the universe/god the way his mother could. "I give my son to you".

Beginning of the film, he says (in voiceover) 'How did she do it?' which I took to mean 'How did she get over the grief'. His mother can by finding her place in the overall scheme of things...Penn can't.

Not sure what significance the blue candle plays....gonna have let it sit or watch it again. Perhaps connected to Pitt's lighting a candle in church? Perhaps a metaphor that Penn can't stop living in the past? Or can't let go of the past?

In any case...I think Penn's scenes were supposed to leave us cold...in contrast to the warmth of his mother's scenes.

End the movie as they drive away.

Then get someone to cut the Penn storyline altogether . . . go easy on the cosmos riff . . . and did the "advanced flashbacks" dealing with the brother's death really add anything / seem unfulfilled?

But Malick has surrounded himself with a lot of enablers / apologists over the years. Bill Pohlad being the principal one here.

I think this could be a brilliant tight 90-minute movie, instead of the half-realized, alternatingly glorious / muddled film it is.

The recent "threat" of a six-hour cut suggests to me that the Penn storyline and possibly the post-death pockets of the story were explored further at one point but ultimately got left on the cutting room floor. But Malick being Malick and Pohlad stroking him every step of the production couldn't go the whole way.

Ain't no such thing as halfway crooks, Terrence.

Also, based on the grumbles I heard walking out of the theater--tacky as hell BTW--I'm willing to bet that at least half of the audience I saw this with had never seen a Terrence Malick flick before or knew him from a hole in the ground. I was somewhat discontented walking out, but at least I knew what I was walking into.

>a project that got away from him

People see Brad Pitt and Sean Penn and don't know who Terrence Malick is.

http://incontention.com/2011/06/23/no-refunds

>Also, based on the grumbles I heard walking out of the
>theater--tacky as hell BTW--I'm willing to bet that at least
>half of the audience I saw this with had never seen a Terrence
>Malick flick before or knew him from a hole in the ground. I
>was somewhat discontented walking out, but at least I knew
>what I was walking into.

Yeah, when I saw it there was a health round of boos in the theater, followed by some reflexively defensive clapping.

--------

hell-below.com

And dude hardly spoke.

Those bits really left me cold.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

I'm ready to say it's the best film he's made post reclusion. I agree about the general sentiment of the redundancy of the Sean Penn parts. Without those, though, this is a great film. I love it. Just don't know whether I love it more than Badlands or Days of Heaven.

__________________________________

http://amatorsa.wordpress.com/

I have them ranked as follows:

1) Days of Heaven
2) Badlands
3) Tree of Life

on my second viewing it's already in contention with 2001 for the number one position.

no hyperbole...

i was that captivated.

this may be the full potential of film realized.

setting the story of a single family alongside the creation of the universe, yet not rendering them insignificant moved me in many ways.

**ejaculates atop keyboard**

shit just locked me in hard for 2+hrs. id LUV to see the original 8hr cut.

V.

---
http://confessionsofacurlymind.com
https://soundcloud.com/confessionsofacurlymindredux
https://soundcloud.com/generic80sbadguy
https://soundcloud.com/miles_matheson

DROkayplayer™