To The Wonder

[Frederico Fellini]

That trailer actually looks better than I expected. But yeah, the only thing that excites me about Malick films now is the cinematography. He puts a lot of emotion and poetry into his visuals, I don't know many other filmmakers who can say so much with just a shot (Kalatozov, Kubrick, maybe Antonioni?). My problem with these last few films of his, is the lack of dialogue and lack of a narrative thread. Yeah, the shots are beautiful and meaningful, the music is powerful and the voice-overs are always touching, but is not entertaining in any way. It's artistic, but not entertaining.

I'm still gonna watch this when it comes out on Blu-ray though.

[samsong]

art and entertainment aren't mutually exclusive.  or rather in this case, i don't understand how you can find something beautiful and meaningful but not entertaining. 

trailers for malick movies are always misleading and are worthless outside of the chance to see footage, and in that sense this looks more wonderful than i could've anticipated.  like withnail pointed out, malick's newfound love of kinetic camera movement approaches hyperactivity and there is cause for concern, but i have faith.  mod's reaction to this was expected and means nothing.

[Reel]

Ben Affleck's in it. Count me out

[Frederico Fellini]

Ben Affleck's in it. Count me out

But yo, he was THE BOMB in "Phantoms"!  (Word bitch, PHANTOMS like a mothafuckaa)






The only Kevin smith joke that never gets old.

[Alexandro]

I'm just glad Malick was wise enough to avoid any shots of the actors twirling in The Thin Red Line.

[modage]

mod's reaction to this was expected and means nothing.

We'll see. This was literally the worst movie I saw in 2012.

[BB]

Hyperbole is literally the worst thing in the world.

[jenkins]

What was figuratively the worst movie you saw, and how does that work?

[Just Withnail]

I'm just glad Malick was wise enough to avoid any shots of the actors twirling in The Thin Red Line.

I'm actually serious when I say I want more twirling. I'd like more abstraction and twirling, please.

But, again, not to bring this boring subject in this thread as well, for me there's also this fear of him starting to repeat himself, or to focus on the parts of himself I find constantly teetering on the brink of hokeyness but held together or excused by a whole lot more greatness. It's of course crazy to gauge so much from a trailer, but I don't feel like it presents something new the way the trailer for Tree of Life promised a pretty prominent rising of the bar with an excitingly explicit way of dealing with of his cosmic themes.

I guess it's crazy to expect constant renewal from my favorite filmmakers, but I can't help it.

[©brad]

mod's reaction to this was expected and means nothing.A LOT.

At least to me.

art and entertainment aren't mutually exclusive.  or rather in this case, i don't understand how you can find something beautiful and meaningful but not entertaining.

Eh I think you're splitting hairs. Beautiful, meaningful shots/sequences don't necessarily add up to a thoroughly entertaining movie.

[pete]

the problem with the trailer, and with Malick's approach these days, is that his images aren't that rare anymore and there are plenty of ads (particularly by W+K) that all look and sound exactly like his stuff. It's not malick's fault, but he's not the type of guy to rise above the noise because he doesn't seem particularly interested in the landscape outside of his films.

[squints]

I was not a fan of Tree of Life, but Javier Bardem's character in this looks to be the most interesting part (i'm gathering this strictly from the trailer) and I'm actually really intrigued by this and am looking forward to it (It probably doesn't hurt that a lot of this was filmed in my home state)

it's like a hipster made the film.

This might be the dumbest thing i've ever read on this board.

[HeywoodRFloyd]

it's like a hipster made the film.

This might be the dumbest thing i've ever read on this board.

Really now? That trailer is practically equivalent to a majority of videos indie hipsters with dslr's have on vimeo. And I'm a fan of Tree Of Life.
I'm still going to watch it, but it's the least interesting Malick trailer I've seen, atleast the others had a transcendental atmosphere.

[pete]

I think the problem is that word is now just a lazy substitute for any actual thought or even a zinger. I liked your explanation - the onion av club had an article a long long time ago about how DSLRs turned everyone into Malick and that's definitely a conversation there.

But these days calling something pretentious or hipster has just become a big cliche that people hurl when they don't care enough to finish a thought or attempt at wit - I'm not even talking about you specifically, it's an epidemic.

[edit: for the record, I used to be that guy.]

[©brad]

People who complain about hipsters are more annoying than hipsters themselves.