Of the thousands of movies I have seen Malick's "The Tree of Life" is
perhaps at the top of my list. It grabbed me and never let up. I have
seen most of Malick's movies and beginning with "The Tree of Life"
he developed a
unique style that he has worked with in his succeeding movies, pushing
it further with each. I liked "To the Wonder" and was still on board
with "Knight of Cups," although neither was nowhere near the masterpiece
that "Tree" was. But with "Song to Song" Malick has pushed the limits of
his style beyond where I can appreciate it--I am hoping that this will
be the last of this experimental film making in this vein.
As usual, the images are captivating. It looks like Malick must drive around and, as soon as he sees something that interests him, he films it (with his consummate talent and taste) and then tries to merge all of the images into some narrative that makes some sense, mainly to him I'm afraid. The trademark closely miked audio, long takes of characters walking around each other, minimal dialog, beautiful people, and nature shots are in evidence.
Music is essential to any Malick movie I have seen and it is puzzling why the music in this movie, that is played against the backdrop of the Austin music scene, did not engage me. Interspersed among the Austin scene are classical segments--Saint-Seans seems a favorite here. The supporting score is highly fragmented, which I suppose is in keeping with the fragmented nature of the story line, but just when I was appreciating a song there was a cut to an unrelated scene.
There are many well known musicians in the cast, playing themselves, such as Iggy Pop, Lykke Li, Sara Quin, Chad Smith. Patti Smith does get some time, both as a character in the story and as a singer.
If there is a coherent story, I missed it. I got the basic love triangle bit, but from there all was obscure. How Cate Blanchett figured into things was a total mystery to me. Was she there simply as a box office draw? The main character, played by Ryan Gosling, is given the name "RV" and I got that only from the closing credits. When I realized that I had entirely missed the boat on the characters was when I saw in the credits two actors listed as being BV's brother. Nowhere did I catch that BV had a brother.
If I were to have turned off trying to make sense of this thing and just sat back an enjoyed the images, there would have been enough here to think this is worthwhile. But, unless you are plugged into Malick's recent vision, you might give this a miss.
As usual, the images are captivating. It looks like Malick must drive around and, as soon as he sees something that interests him, he films it (with his consummate talent and taste) and then tries to merge all of the images into some narrative that makes some sense, mainly to him I'm afraid. The trademark closely miked audio, long takes of characters walking around each other, minimal dialog, beautiful people, and nature shots are in evidence.
Music is essential to any Malick movie I have seen and it is puzzling why the music in this movie, that is played against the backdrop of the Austin music scene, did not engage me. Interspersed among the Austin scene are classical segments--Saint-Seans seems a favorite here. The supporting score is highly fragmented, which I suppose is in keeping with the fragmented nature of the story line, but just when I was appreciating a song there was a cut to an unrelated scene.
There are many well known musicians in the cast, playing themselves, such as Iggy Pop, Lykke Li, Sara Quin, Chad Smith. Patti Smith does get some time, both as a character in the story and as a singer.
If there is a coherent story, I missed it. I got the basic love triangle bit, but from there all was obscure. How Cate Blanchett figured into things was a total mystery to me. Was she there simply as a box office draw? The main character, played by Ryan Gosling, is given the name "RV" and I got that only from the closing credits. When I realized that I had entirely missed the boat on the characters was when I saw in the credits two actors listed as being BV's brother. Nowhere did I catch that BV had a brother.
If I were to have turned off trying to make sense of this thing and just sat back an enjoyed the images, there would have been enough here to think this is worthwhile. But, unless you are plugged into Malick's recent vision, you might give this a miss.