The Tree of Life

Reinhold · May 26, 2011, 02:01:03 PM

tickets are available online for monday's 6:30 show at sunshine (nyc). i'm going with some friends and if any of y'all want to join me/us to discuss the film afterward let me know.

modage · May 26, 2011, 02:04:51 PM

I'm prob not going to see it again but since it's like 5 blocks from my apt. I will meet you outside afterwards to ruin your buzz.

JK. Have fun.

Pozer · May 26, 2011, 02:45:23 PM

instead of "SOME JERK" it should read: "CAPTAIN FUNKILL SAW THE TREE OF LIFE!"

Gold Trumpet · May 26, 2011, 09:34:33 PM

I didn't actually do the quiz so I could be posting a columnist's lame idea of a joke, but here is Slate backing up one of mod's criticisms by having a quiz, asking people to guess whether a clip is from a nature documentary or a Malick cutaway shot.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2011/05/26/name-that-thistle-terrence-malick-cutaway-or-nature-documentary.aspx

modage · May 27, 2011, 08:30:29 AM

Quote from: cinemanarkissed on May 24, 2011, 09:58:41 AM
Got my tickets for the midnight show at The Sunshine. I'm getting too old for this shit, but it should be a fun time. Very excited.

And...

cinemanarchist · May 27, 2011, 09:03:29 AM

Quote from: modage on May 27, 2011, 08:30:29 AM
Quote from: cinemanarkissed on May 24, 2011, 09:58:41 AM
Got my tickets for the midnight show at The Sunshine. I'm getting too old for this shit, but it should be a fun time. Very excited.

And...

I went back and read your review and found that there aren't many things you said that I disagree with, but my feelings on the film are decidedly more positive than yours. Midnight was not the best time to see this, so I actually found the second hour to be the slog, but was totally enraptured for the first. It seems like a
solid ending for this movie should have been easy to pull off, but it looked like the only time Malick was unsure of himself. It was definitely a little on the cheesy side (the ending, that is.) It will sweep the Xixax awards this year and while I might not have loved it quite as much as I wanted to, it still makes me happy to know he's out there doing his thing and that he can sell out two screens for a midnight show of this most experimental film, even if there was only stunned silence after it was over.

I'm still tired and will write more as I think about it.

* I can not wait for the IMAX project, because I could have easily watched 90 minutes of evolution.
** If Malick is going to go entirely non-narrative, he should probably keep it to around 90 minutes.
***The score is fucking amazing.
****I could have almost done without the kid as an adult (Sean Penn.) I loved seeing the way Malick shot modern architecture, but other than that I think only showing the past and the stuff with the universe would have been perfect. The Penn stuff never gels and apparently there's was tons more of him in the 5 hour first cut, so either it would have been stronger if it were more fleshed out, or it never worked and probably should have been cut entirely. The Penn stuff not working is most of the reason why the ending has problems. It's not particularly emotional, it just is.

modage · May 27, 2011, 11:15:03 AM

Quote from: cinemanarkissed on May 27, 2011, 09:03:29 AM
* I can not wait for the IMAX project, because I could have easily watched 90 minutes of evolution.
** If Malick is going to go entirely non-narrative, he should probably keep it to around 90 minutes.
***The score is fucking amazing.
****I could have almost done without the kid as an adult (Sean Penn.) I loved seeing the way Malick shot modern architecture, but other than that I think only showing the past and the stuff with the universe would have been perfect. The Penn stuff never gels and apparently there's was tons more of him in the 5 hour first cut, so either it would have been stronger if it were more fleshed out, or it never worked and probably should have been cut entirely. The Penn stuff not working is most of the reason why the ending has problems. It's not particularly emotional, it just is.

I agree with all of this. I'll continue to be very curious how this is received at Xixax.

MacGuffin · May 27, 2011, 05:07:58 PM

12 Things You Need To Know About The Making Of

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/10_things_weve_learned_about_tree_of_life/

pete · May 27, 2011, 11:18:26 PM

so I'll also be in NYC to see this on monday.

wilder · May 28, 2011, 08:16:20 AM

Quote from: cinemanarkissed on May 27, 2011, 09:03:29 AM
* I can not wait for the IMAX project, because ~~I could have easily watched 90 minutes of evolution~~.
** If Malick is going to go entirely non-narrative, he should probably keep it to around 90 120 minutes.
***The score is fucking amazing.
****I could have almost done without the kid as an adult (Sean Penn.) I loved seeing the way Malick shot modern architecture, but other than that I think only showing the past and the stuff with the universe would have been perfect. The Penn stuff never gels and apparently there's was tons more of him in the 5 hour first cut, so either it would have been stronger if it were more fleshed out, or it never worked and probably should have been cut entirely. The Penn stuff not working is most of the reason why the ending has problems. It's not particularly emotional, it just is.

Just got back and pretty much agree with what was mentioned above. I liked it overall but it wasn't without problems. The opening 20 minutes were incredible.

Pas · May 29, 2011, 09:30:17 PM

Mr. Merrill Lehrl · May 29, 2011, 09:39:26 PM

Agree or disagree* that's funny, plain funny.

*with the sleeping/yawning/bored people

Reel · May 30, 2011, 12:36:44 AM

who can enjoy a movie sitting in a room with a bunch of strangers? I can't, even with one other person it skeeves me out sometimes.

cinemanarchist · May 30, 2011, 12:07:16 PM

For the record, I don't categorize my review as "lukewarm." It's not a perfect movie, but I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it and can't wait to see it again. I think time will be extremely kind to it and our kids (if they are as cool as us) will look book and wonder what it must have been like when Tree Of Life first came out. I do wonder if the total lack of a narrative is how he felt was the best way to tell THIS story, or if that's the way all future work will be. Is this just the way his brain works now?

samsong · May 30, 2011, 06:29:49 PM

what is going on here?

that this is the most poetic and experimental film in the history of the studio system since 2001 isn't an arbitrary reason to love the tree of life so much as cause to celebrate it. THIS is the unhinged and unprecedented spiritual movie experience that some of you somehow got from enduring enter the void.

at least there's somewhat of a consensus about how extraordinary the evolution sequence is amongst those of us who didn't struggle too much wrestling with our own disappointment. has there been a more existentially charged, impressionistic portrayal of childhood than this? how incredible are the performances? nothing needs to be said about the sights and sounds in this film as they are of unparalleled quality. i found the minimal, even patchy frame story of the older incarnation of jack to be substantial and necessary. a perennial malick theme is the loss of eden and seeing him wandering in search of a way back to it imbues the movie with a considerable amount of poignancy. watching this movie is to witness malick grappling with his own (and all of humanity's) existence. this makes it prone to moments of alienating navel gazing, and while normally considered a misgiving i can't help but delight in the disorder in this enormous film and revel in it.

quick tangent: this is probably the most sound-reliant he's been. the sean penn scenes play like antonioni with sound design by david lynch.

admittedly my love of malick probably has a lot to do with my feelings about this movie but i'd like to think that had the name following "written and directed by" were someone else's i would be just as enamored, but no one but malick could have made this film in the same way no one else could have made, say, fanny and alexander.

as far as i'm concerned, malick's five for five.