So it appears Malick's follow up to Tree Of Life is actually finished(according to IMDB and MPAA) and has been titled "To The Wonder".
Now lets hope it at least sees a 2012 theatrical release.
Terrence Malick helms this romantic drama starring Ben Affleck as a man rekindling an old love affair with an ex (Rachel McAdams) after his marriage to a European woman (Olga Kurylenko) dissolves. Javier Bardem co-stars. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
Throwing Copper
06-07-12, 02:17 PM
So it appears Malick's follow up to Tree Of Life is actually finished(according to IMDB and MPAA) and has been titled "To The Wonder".
Now lets hope it at least sees a 2012 theatrical release.
Can't wait to see this. Didn't know Bardem was in it either...awesome.
Solid Snake PAC
06-07-12, 02:49 PM
Bardem..under the visual eye of Malick? oh, fuck yes.
Coral
06-07-12, 02:57 PM
Disappointed that Affleck is in this, but it's a Malick film so his greatness could overcome that aspect of the film.
Solid Snake PAC
06-07-12, 03:31 PM
Affleck's a good actor, even better as a director. He's matured up now.
Coral
06-07-12, 05:44 PM
Affleck's a good actor, even better as a director. He's matured up now.
He just seems to be playing the character the same way every role. Because of that I have a hard to believing him as the character he's playing.
While he might not be a terrible actor, I'm not sure I would consider him a good one either.
Dr. DVD
06-07-12, 05:51 PM
Is this also the project with Natalie Portman and Rooney Mara? Malick seems to be making a lot of movies as of late.
Chadm
06-07-12, 07:56 PM
He's got 4 films on the go right now.
Voyage of Time
To The Wonder
Lawless
Knight of Cups.
I think Portman is in both of the latter 2.
Solid Snake PAC
06-07-12, 08:29 PM
Lawless was given to The Wettest County. That 7th film is literally untitled so far I think.
Hillcoat asked for the title, Malick digs Hillcoat so he gave him the title.
Chadm
09-03-12, 04:04 AM
As expected "To The Wonder" has landed with mixed reviews. Comparisions to The Tree Of Life don't excite me. But I'm still hoping for the best. Malick still has 4 films in the can, so I'm not complaining. No one really liked The New World either, but I'd argue its Malicks best film. oh well. I just hope I can see it before the year ends.
No one really liked The New World either, but I'd argue its Malicks best film.
I think I agree. I guess I get why some people don't like it, but I love it. One of the most visually poetic films I've ever seen.
Sondheim
09-03-12, 07:41 AM
I've liked everything he has done so far, but Badlands and The New World are by far my two favorites and both would rank highly on a list of personal favorites.
Not surprised by the mixed reviews, but I'm still really excited to see it.
SomethingMore
09-03-12, 07:51 AM
If there aren't mixed reviews for a Malick film, it's not a Malick film. ;)
I'll definitely see this if/when I get a chance.
conscience
09-03-12, 08:40 AM
As expected "To The Wonder" has landed with mixed reviews. Comparisions to The Tree Of Life don't excite me. But I'm still hoping for the best. Malick still has 4 films in the can, so I'm not complaining. No one really liked The New World either, but I'd argue its Malicks best film. oh well. I just hope I can see it before the year ends.
TIFF 2012 Review: ‘To The Wonder’ Is a More Focused Film from Terrence Malick
stvn1974
12-19-12, 03:38 PM
I don't think I am going to bother with this one. I "get" all of his other films. I get that they are pretentious drivel. Well, Badlands is a classic.
Sondheim
12-19-12, 03:47 PM
I wish the "get it" "don't get it" thing would just go away. People like what they like, and it's very rarely based on having any special understanding of the film in question. Some things just connect with some people and not with others.
This isn't really aimed at you, stvn, you just happened to remind me how much I hate the "if you don't like [x film], then you don't get it" argument.
Sondheim
12-19-12, 03:53 PM
Anyways, in spite of some of the negative early press I've read, I'm still looking forward to this. That trailer made me happy, even with all its perhaps cheesily cliche "Malickisms."
I'm really interested in seeing what the new, prolific Malick comes out with.
stvn1974
12-19-12, 03:54 PM
I wish the "get it" "don't get it" thing would just go away. People like what they like, and it's very rarely based on having any special understanding of the film in question. Some things just connect with some people and not with others.
This isn't really aimed at you, stvn, you just happened to remind me how much I hate the "if you don't like [x film], then you don't get it" argument.
Yeah, it seems to be even more prevalent in music discussions than film but I agree it is annoying. I love Badlands and would put it in my top 20 films of all time but everything since has done nothing for me.
mdc3000
12-19-12, 09:35 PM
Watch that trailer on a loop for 2 hours and you've got exactly what this movie is - it won't make any more sense or have anything else going on... for real, saw it at TIFF back in September.
Dragon Tattoo
12-19-12, 09:42 PM
Malick is becoming a parody of himself.
Strevlac
12-19-12, 09:43 PM
I love Badlands and would put it in my top 20 films of all time but everything since has done nothing for me.
Not in my top 20 of all time but otherwise I completely agree.
Malick is the biggest fraud in cinema today, IMO.
Coral
12-19-12, 10:01 PM
It definitely looks like a chapter in the Tree of Life universe.
Although I thought Malick would've ended making this type of film with Tree of Life, and I suspect that he's made one too many in this vain - I'm open-minded enough to give it a shot.
Loved all his films except "The New World" (gave it a slight pass), so a bad Malick will probably be better than 90% of the crap that's out there.
Coral
12-19-12, 10:01 PM
Malick is the biggest fraud in cinema today, IMO.
*cough* Tarantino *cough*
Tarantino
12-19-12, 10:03 PM
Hey pal, what'd I ever do to you?
RichC2
12-19-12, 10:47 PM
*cough* Tarantino *cough*
Actually he's the anti-fraud, because he knows exactly what he wants to do and does it.
He's a DJ or a rip-off artist, but I just don't think fraud is the proper term for it.
Chadm
12-20-12, 01:08 AM
Loved the trailer. Tree of Life is the only Malick film that didn't have a big effect on me. The other 4 are some of my favourite films.
TIFF 2012 Review: ‘To The Wonder’ Is a More Focused Film from Terrence Malick
This review pumps me up even more. Despite the quote "if you hated tree of life you'll probably hate this"
Sondheim
12-20-12, 09:45 AM
Actually he's the anti-fraud, because he knows exactly what he wants to do and does it.Of course, the same is true of Malick. People might not like what he's doing - and I can definitely respect that - but he's not pretending to anything. His films are very upfront and honest about what they are and what they're trying to do. Whether someone finds what he's doing effective or meaningful is another matter entirely.
van der graaf
12-20-12, 10:20 AM
Of course, the same is true of Malick. People might not like what he's doing - and I can definitely respect that - but he's not pretending to anything. His films are very upfront and honest about what they are and what they're trying to do. Whether someone finds what he's doing effective or meaningful is another matter entirely.
Exactly. The guy comes from and works through a certain philosophical perspective (look up the book he translated on Heidegger if you want a better idea), if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't make him a "fraud".
Solid Snake PAC
12-20-12, 01:08 PM
Of course, the same is true of Malick. People might not like what he's doing - and I can definitely respect that - but he's not pretending to anything. His films are very upfront and honest about what they are and what they're trying to do. Whether someone finds what he's doing effective or meaningful is another matter entirely.
Very much so. To QT and Malick.
inri222
12-20-12, 01:51 PM
Very much so. To QT and Malick.
While I do like them (Tarantino up to Jackie Brown & Malick up to The Thin Red Line) I think they are both starting to become repetitive.
IMO The New World was good but not great & I disliked The Tree of Life. I am planning on watching The Tree of Life again just to make sure.
Maybe I will change my mind or maybe it will be like my second viewing of Magnolia which made me despise it even more.
Solid Snake PAC
12-20-12, 02:32 PM
Repetitive or not. They're manner of filmmaking hides nothing to what their intentions are.
inri222
12-20-12, 03:17 PM
Repetitive or not. They're manner of filmmaking hides nothing to what their intentions are.
I believe this is true of Malick but I am not yet convinced of QT. Have to see Django Unchained.
Supermallet
12-20-12, 03:43 PM
All I know is, if this movie has long periods of people doing ordinary things while you hear whispered off-screen dialogue, I'm going to puke.
Supermallet
12-20-12, 03:49 PM
Also anyone who willfully chooses Rachel McAdams over Olga Kurylenko is certifiable and I will not be able to identify with their character.
TheMovieman
12-20-12, 04:00 PM
When I watched that trailer, I thought it was some overly dramatic spoof done by The Onion or College Humor.
Strevlac
12-20-12, 07:03 PM
Of course, the same is true of Malick. People might not like what he's doing - and I can definitely respect that - but he's not pretending to anything. His films are very upfront and honest about what they are and what they're trying to do. Whether someone finds what he's doing effective or meaningful is another matter entirely.
No, the same is not true of Malick. He has no idea what the fuck he is doing. Which would be ok if he had the inventiveness and humor and creativity of Fellini, but he doesn't. At all.
van der graaf
12-20-12, 07:35 PM
No, the same is not true of Malick. He has no idea what the fuck he is doing. Which would be ok if he had the inventiveness and humor and creativity of Fellini, but he doesn't. At all.
No, the same is not true of Malick. He has no idea what the fuck he is doing. Which would be ok if he had the inventiveness and humor and creativity of Fellini, but he doesn't. At all.Well, if you say so. I'd say the fact that he's consistently made movies that convey specific, consistent ideas and emotions and with a very distinctive, consistent style would indicate that he does know what he's doing.
Once again, you might think that what he's doing isn't worthwhile and you might think that his films are unbearable pieces of shit - but that doesn't mean that he doesn't know what he's doing.
Dr. DVD
12-20-12, 08:38 PM
FWIW, all of Malick's movies seem to take place in the same universe.
Matt925
12-20-12, 09:58 PM
For me days of heaven is in my top 10, but I've enjoyed each subsequent movie less and less. I'll rent this if only because the photography in his movies is so amazing, but I have a feeling that like tree of life, I won't make it to the end of the movie.
Chadm
12-20-12, 10:06 PM
FWIW, all of Malick's movies seem to take place in the same universe.
the view askewniverse.
gp1086
12-20-12, 10:42 PM
I'll probably see this, because that's what I do with these types of movies. I have zero expectations of liking it though, especially after I found The Tree of Life incredibly boring. This is apparently even slower-paced.
Terrell
12-21-12, 01:03 AM
I personally think Malick is wonderful with a camera, but he is complete off his meds otherwise. Listening to an Oscar roundtable where Clooney and Christopher Plummer just rake him over the coals is a bit of an eye opener. Plummer said he would never work with him again. After seeing what he did to Adrien Brody in the Thin Red Line, and what he did to Plummer in New World, it's a wonder actors want to work with him.
Link for those that want to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw08GQw0hBI
inri222
12-21-12, 01:54 AM
I agree with some of the stuff Christopher Plummer said. There are some directors that get too caught up with themselves by writing & directing.
Chadm
01-14-13, 01:49 AM
the french trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1klYGeC24o
CRM114
03-01-13, 01:29 PM
There are directors that don't give a fuck what you or the actors think - I'm thinking Malick and David Lynch with Inland Empire. I can respect that. I watch movies for what they are and try and get something out of it. I'm not in touch with or understand Malick's philosophy but I do find his movies stunningly beautiful to look at and it does take some talent to be able to do that. I must say that the trailer for this movie does sort of concern me with the same shots of beautiful women wrapping themselves in curtains or rolling around in the grass. We've seen it before. I personally don't care too much that a film has a narrative structure so I'm able to consume his films but I'd like to see something different visually at least.
As expected "To The Wonder" has landed with mixed reviews.
You're surprised? It's Terrence Malick. The dude is a wacko and a terrible writer. Pretentious, convoluted, and silly. His penchant for ripping out actor's performances and doing weird stuff in his movies that were never originally part of the film, is legendary. He is great with a camera though.
From critic Todd McCarthy:
However accomplished Malick’s technique might be in some ways, this mostly comes off, especially in the laborious second hour, as visual doodling without focused thematic goals."
That perfectly describes Malick. He has the attention span of a small child, and he desperately needs a writer.
Chadm
03-09-13, 11:15 PM
I'd say the mixed reviews have turned to bad reviews.
As someone who considers Malick's first four films to be a deeply embedded cornerstone of his love of cinema, I find this snippet from a review on rotten tomatoes particularly gutting :
"Frankly, a bad Terrence Malick film is better than 90 percent of movies released in cinemas: but if you thought The Tree of Life was indulgent and overly kaleidoscopic, you should avoid this like the plague. "
PopcornTreeCt
03-10-13, 03:02 AM
"Frankly, a bad Terrence Malick film is better than 90 percent of movies released in cinemas: but if you thought The Tree of Life was indulgent and overly kaleidoscopic, you should avoid this like the plague. "
:(
Dr. DVD
03-10-13, 11:28 AM
The problem with Malick's movies is they are all pretty borderline pretentious. They have good cinematography, but the whole voice-over stuff gets off putting real fast.
Coral
03-10-13, 11:59 AM
Will still give it a whirl, despite Affleck being in this.
It does seem like Malick needs to get back to more scripted/narrative stories. With each film he seems to have gotten further away from a script, and I think Tree of Life is as far as he can go in that direction. I thought Tree of Life was great, but now it seems like Malick is rehashing that film with this one.
Just realized that this is Malick's first film set in modern times.
inri222
03-10-13, 01:05 PM
He seems to be putting them out like an assembliy line. I wonder if that is having an effect on the quality of his films.
troystiffler
03-10-13, 02:55 PM
Indulgent and pretentious? I love those kinds of movies! I don't need movies to be made for me. I like to find out what's going on in Malick's head.
With these movies, it's like he's trying to figure out something for himself. Like a street performer, he's worried about getting his art out there the way he wants it, and not too worried about making a movie that masses are going to flock to. Francis Ford Coppola does this too.
inri222
03-10-13, 03:24 PM
Indulgent and pretentious? I love those kinds of movies! I don't need movies to be made for me. I like to find out what's going on in Malick's head.
I like them too but it seems to me like Malick doesn't even know whats going on in Malick's mind.
PopcornTreeCt
03-10-13, 03:27 PM
I don't think he's pretentious. I actually really love his films but the Tree of Life was such a huge departure from all his other works. My personal preference is to see him get to more character stories. He's never been big on plot (and I'm grateful) but he's moved past even character pieces into something that is even more abstract. I don't think he's yet to make it work, maybe this will be the one.
I feel strangely disappointed that it seems to happen so often that when directors are given free reign they churn out these pictures that are nearly unwatchable (or at least watchable for a small minority).
I like Malick, The New World is one of my favorite films, so I will see anything he puts out but I'm staying cautiously optimistic.
Dr. DVD
03-11-13, 07:46 PM
I read today that Rachel Weisz had a storyline in this that hit the cutting room floor, as in all of her entire screen time. This must happen a lot in Malick movies, as I heard something similar happened with Gary Oldman in The Think Red Line.
stvn1974
03-11-13, 07:50 PM
I still want a Malick movie that is about a tumble weed blowing from one US coast to the other in real time. Would probably be less boring than Tree Of Life. To The Wonder doesn't look like that film so I won't bother.
JumpCutz
03-11-13, 07:51 PM
His films just get more unwieldy with each outing. He's done some fine work, but I wish he would reign it in a bit. At this point it's getting laughable. :lol:
Chadm
03-11-13, 10:59 PM
I read today that Rachel Weisz had a storyline in this that hit the cutting room floor, as in all of her entire screen time. This must happen a lot in Malick movies, as I heard something similar happened with Gary Oldman in The Think Red Line.
Martin Sheen was cut from The Thin Red Line AND To The Wonder. There's a huge laundry list of people who've been cut from Malick films.
Solid Snake PAC
03-12-13, 08:30 AM
Adrien Brody was the lead character in TTRL. Then...he was not that.
RichC2
03-12-13, 08:42 AM
Michael Sheen, Amanda Peet, Barry Pepper, Jessica Chastain and Rachel Weisz were all cut from To The Wonder.
Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Jason Patric, Viggo Mortensen and Mickey Rourke were all cut from The Thin Red Line (though several were only for read throughs)
From Christopher Plummer on The New World:
“I love some of his movies very much,” Christopher Plummer said at the Newsweek awards season roundtable, “but the problem with Terry is he needs a writer, desperately. He insists on overwriting until it sounds terribly pretentious…and he edits his films in such a way that he cuts everyone out of them.”
"Terry gets terribly involved in poetic shots, which are gorgeous, they are paintings, all of them, but he gets lost in that and the stories get diffused," Plummer continued. "Particularly in 'The New World.' The first half hour of that film is sheer magic to look at…but then the story starts to [wander]."
"I was put in all sorts of different spots and suddenly my character was not in the scene that I thought I was in, in the editing room. It was very strange. It completely unbalances everything. And a very emotional scene that I had suddenly became background noise," Plummer said about his experience, adding that afterward, he wrote him a letter. “I gave him shit. I’ll never work with him again.”
PopcornTreeCt
03-12-13, 12:32 PM
I agree with Plummer's sentiments but I think The New World found that perfect balance between story and "poetry".
inri222
03-12-13, 12:48 PM
I agree with Plummer's sentiments but I think The New World found that perfect balance between story and "poetry".
I think it was with The New World that he started getting carried away.
There were a couple of times that I found myself saying "Oh, God! stop it already" at the voiceovers.
Then with The Tree of Life he took it to that next level of over-indulgence.
TheySentYou
03-13-13, 02:23 PM
Martin Sheen was cut from The Thin Red Line AND To The Wonder. There's a huge laundry list of people who've been cut from Malick films.
it was actually Michael Sheen who was cut from To The Wonder
JumpCutz
03-13-13, 03:11 PM
Reportedly Affleck and McAdams have also been cut from To The Wonder.
RichC2
03-13-13, 03:18 PM
From my understanding it's mostly Olga Kurylenko's movie, so you wouldn't be far off.
Tarantino
03-13-13, 03:48 PM
No, the same is not true of Malick. He has no idea what the fuck he is doing. Which would be ok if he had the inventiveness and humor and creativity of Fellini, but he doesn't. At all.
Rarely do I agree with you, but I can't disagree here.
Dr. DVD
03-13-13, 03:52 PM
I really am curious as to what a Terrence Malick movie with all of the characters originally written for it in tact would look like and how long it would last.
RagingBull80
03-13-13, 04:28 PM
The trailer didn't do much for me, though I'm sure it's misleading as hell. I will definitely see this at some point. Pretentiousness and all, I like Malick.
PopcornTreeCt
03-13-13, 11:50 PM
I really am curious as to what a Terrence Malick movie with all of the characters originally written for it in tact would look like and how long it would last.
Badlands?
TheySentYou
03-15-13, 10:02 AM
judging by the trailer... Malick strangely makes Oklahoma look absolutely gorgeous. i think that's pretty damn commendable in itself.
hanshotfirst113
03-15-13, 12:16 PM
Affleck's a good actor, even better as a director. He's matured up now.
Yeah, though I still think that Argo and The Town, while fun, are formulaic and his best film as a director is the underappreciated Gone Baby Gone. What really brought me around to Affleck was his willingness to make fun of himself, especially in Smith's stuff. But I like the fact that actors like him and Brad Pitt are willing to star in a film by someone as iconoclastic as Malick to boost the box office appeal and let artist let him get their films off the ground. I think that's great.
Is this also the project with Natalie Portman and Rooney Mara? Malick seems to be making a lot of movies as of late.
Yeah, it's the opposite of when he used to have huge gaps between project, its used to be that a new film from Malick was a rare thing that artists and critics really stood up and took notice of, now some that "mystique" is gone. He still commands a lot of respect though.
inri222
03-15-13, 12:56 PM
Yeah, though I still think that Argo and The Town, while fun, are formulaic and his best film as a director is the underappreciated Gone Baby Gone.
1. Gone Baby Gone
2. Argo
3. The Town
RichC2
03-15-13, 01:05 PM
I think his directing to better movie to movie, but Gone Baby Gone had the best actual storyline.
hanshotfirst113
03-15-13, 02:08 PM
I think his directing to better movie to movie, but Gone Baby Gone had the best actual storyline.
Which, to be fair, probably had a lot to do with Dennis Lehane.
Terrell
04-01-13, 01:46 PM
Well, the reviews are not good. One review by Todd McCarthy summed up my thoughts of Malick perfectly, based on the films I've seen.
Todd Mcarthy - Variety
However accomplished Malick's technique might be in some ways, this mostly comes off, especially in the laborious second hour, as visual doodling without focused thematic goals.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/to_the_wonder/
dex14
04-10-13, 12:05 PM
I don't know if this has been mentioned at all but...
The movie will be in select theatres AND On Demand starting this Friday. Itunes, Amazon, Cable on demand, etc.
SomethingMore
04-10-13, 02:05 PM
I mentioned it, but in a totally different thread. :)
I'll be getting it on VOD and watching it on my 115" 2.35:1 screen. :D
Ash Ketchum
04-10-13, 03:35 PM
Reportedly Affleck and McAdams have also been cut from To The Wonder.
No, they're still in it...according to this review found on Thompson on Hollywood. Here's the link:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/venice-review-malick-stumbles-with-to-the-wonder
And here are excerpts from the review:
Affleck has joked that "The Tree Of Life" looks like "The Transformers" compared to "To The Wonder". The former certainly delineates a grander, more robust and ambitious narrative than the slim, simple storyline of the latter, which doesn't dip into the origins of the cosmos but does append faith and God to its primary concern, which is the elusive, confusing, mysterious nature of love as surveyed within the lush, spacey delirium of a typical Malick dreamscape.
At times it's a many-splendored thing: the two women who worship Affleck in "To The Wonder" (the other being a hometown girl played by Rachel McAdams, who he briefly falls for after Marina flees back to Europe) feel it passionately and express it a thousand times over in breathy voiceover and transparent facial cues; Affleck, who probably has four lines in the movie but does engage in plenty of melancholy embraces and wistful walks through tall grassy fields, doesn't seem to feel much at all; and Bardem, in a subplot that crops up now and again when you've all but forgotten it, grapples with his love for God as he mingles with his flock in the small Oklahoma town that's also home to Neil and Marina.
Malick is a revered cinematic poet, deservedly so, and striving for lyrical transcendence on screen is his worthwhile ambition. But it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card either. "To The Wonder", to me, played like a slighter (and more repetitive) version of "The Tree Of Life" in most respects, its flowing, exquisite imagery and elegant soundscape certainly pleasing to the eye and ear but the moves and motives of its sketchy characters failing to offer enough substance to nourish the spirit.
Dr. DVD
04-10-13, 07:22 PM
While this might be getting some negative reviews, this was the last movie reviewed by Roger Ebert and he gave it a thumbs up. Don't know if that counts for anything other than trivia, but I'm sure it will be exploited for something.
inri222
04-10-13, 07:51 PM
express it a thousand times over in breathy voiceover
Malick you are killing me.
EddieMoney
04-11-13, 12:40 PM
I don't know where to put this love from my heart. It spills out of me, into you, and I swing in the backyard full of this love.
RichC2
04-11-13, 12:56 PM
I've got two tickets in my pocket, now baby, we're gonna disappear. We've waited so long, waited so long.
EddieMoney
04-11-13, 12:58 PM
Who would've thought that Eddie Money lyrics could sound like voiceover work from a Malick film?
RichC2
04-11-13, 01:00 PM
I've been sending his agent e-mails about doing an Eddie Money musical for a while, no dice.
EddieMoney
04-11-13, 01:12 PM
I have yet to see the Tree of Life, but I was just perusing quotes on imdb:
"Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things."
" I didn't know how to name You then. But I see it was You. Always You were calling me."
"How do I get back? To where they are."
Grace doesn't try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries."
Malick has gotten to be a bit much, hasn't he?
Arpeggi
04-12-13, 12:48 AM
Just finished watching this on iTunes. Gorgeous film. Plot-wise there's almost nothing going on just beautiful imagery (somewhat repetitive) and voice over mostly in French.
Ash Ketchum
04-12-13, 05:45 AM
Mixed review by A.O. Scott in The New York Times today.
Here are some paragraphs:
The director’s methods serve the film’s theme, which is the tension, the imperfect alignment, between human love and its divine correlative. Marina speaks more than once of “the love that loves us,” echoing the priest’s longing to feel the connection to God identified, in the Christian tradition, as grace.
Mr. Malick takes theology seriously and tries to give its impulses a visual form. His camera, swinging upward from earth to sky, traces a path from the sensual to the spiritual, and his men and women are blessed and cursed to inhabit both realms at once. In “The Tree of Life” he managed — to the bafflement of some and the rapt amazement of others (myself included) — to endow the details of individual lives with genuine awe and to afford even skeptics a view of existence from the perspective of eternity.
“To the Wonder” gestures toward the same kind of transcendence but falls short. This is partly because the human situation in the center of the film does not quite support its philosophical scaffolding and partly because the images, gorgeous as they are, do not in themselves possess the evocative power Mr. Malick intends them to have. He works in a shorthand that can sometimes feel facile rather than profound. Images of Neil’s work sampling soil and water at industrial sites and of poor and disabled Oklahomans appear as tokens rather than expressions of social and environmental concern. And the torsos, the sun-dappled fields and the twirling ladies look more commercial than cosmic, as if plucked from advertisements for perfume, high-thread-count sheets or other luxury goods.
This is not entirely Mr. Malick’s fault, and his insistence on finding a cinematic idiom that connects beauty to ultimate truth is noble and sincere. But the fine intentions of “To the Wonder” pave a road to puzzlement, not awe.
Why So Blu?
04-12-13, 10:45 AM
I'll watch this on VOD and save myself a trip to the theatre. Granted, Malick films should be seen on a big screen.
EddieMoney
04-12-13, 10:49 AM
Yeah, not sure what to expect, but I'll also watch it on VOD.
Tarantino
04-12-13, 02:04 PM
42% on Rotten Tomatoes so far.
EddieMoney
04-12-13, 02:05 PM
Where do I put all this love that fills my heart? Flows from me, touches you, touches me, love of all loves. Where where you??
hanshotfirst113
04-12-13, 10:59 PM
A Terence Malick movie getting bad reviews? Surely a sign of the apocalypse :p.
dhmac
04-12-13, 11:44 PM
While this might be getting some negative reviews, this was the last movie reviewed by Roger Ebert and he gave it a thumbs up. Don't know if that counts for anything other than trivia, but I'm sure it will be exploited for something.
By exploited, do you mean people will say that Terrence Malick killed Roger Ebert?
(Or maybe I just misunderstand)
Rypro 525
04-13-13, 01:59 AM
from Rex Reed (which gave it 0 stars)
Talk about lousy timing. On the heels of his triumphant, Oscar-winning Argo, Ben Affleck now has the bad luck to have to suffer through the postponed release of To the Wonder, a lethally boring and relentlessly inert disaster by the pretentious writer-director Terrence Malick that he probably considered unreleasable. It was Mr. Affleck himself who, at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival press conference for Argo, warned the assembled critics and journalists “If you thought The Tree of Life was slow, wait till you see this one.” Plotless and almost mute, To the Wonder is the kind of fiasco that keeps film-festival programmers salivating and discriminating audiences stampeding toward the exit doors. It’s a simpering yawn that makes The Tree of Life seem like an action thriller with Bruce Willis. It is about … nothing.
JumpCutz
04-13-13, 02:20 AM
That is awesome.
:lol:
I've loved Rex Reed ever since he was destroying pop movies on The Merv Griffin Show back in the 70's.
Shannon Nutt
04-13-13, 07:15 AM
I wasn't a fan of TREE OF LIFE, so I'll probably be skipping this one...at least until it hits pay cable and/or Netflix.
Malick seems to no longer worry about telling stories, and is more interested in images/conveying things which are personal to him. Nothing wrong with that, just not my cup of tea when it comes to movie-watching. One of the reasons I gave up on David Lynch about ten years ago, as well.
SomethingMore
04-13-13, 07:54 AM
I thought this film was good, but The Tree of Life was much better. Still, the imagery was stunningly beautiful. I don't see how Malick's work is considered "pretentious," but I guess that's the default label given to any film that doesn't hold your hand through the entire running time. Rex Reed is a tool.
Yes, the voiceovers can be a but much, but I never got a sense that this film was trying to be more important than it is. This fits in with films like the Qatsi trilogy, but with more focus on specific people and their relationships with the grand landscapes and cities they inhabit as the stage for their most human moments.
It is eye candy first and foremost, although not of the cars, strippers, and explosions type. In that regard, To The Wonder is no more important than Bad Boys 2 or the latest Fast and Furious flick, but no less entertaining for the crowd that can accept it for what it is.
3.5/5
:shrug:
RichC2
04-13-13, 11:26 AM
Pretentious usually applies to directors that linger on something that doesn't connect with a certain person. It isn't pretentious if you buy in to it, it is if you don't.
Stupid sounding? Sure, but it's all opinions.
dhmac
04-13-13, 01:10 PM
from Rex Reed (which gave it 0 stars)
...To the Wonder....lethally boring...
So Rex Reed calls the last film that Roger Ebert saw "lethally boring"! Does he think this movie killed Ebert through sheer boredom???
stvn1974
04-13-13, 01:13 PM
I usually don't care what Rex Reed has to say about anything but he summed up every Malick Film post Badlands. This will be the first film of his that I don't see. After sitting through Tree Of Life I realized that I don't hate myself to go through that again.
Throwing Copper
04-13-13, 06:15 PM
I usually don't care what Rex Reed has to say about anything but he summed up every Malick Film post Badlands. This will be the first film of his that I don't see. After sitting through Tree Of Life I realized that I don't hate myself to go through that again.
Tree of Life was the last one for me. He has such beautiful imagery, but until he decides to get a screen writer and a halfway decent plot (or any plot for that matter), I'm done with him.
Arpeggi
04-14-13, 09:17 AM
I think I agree with James S Rich after seeing this movie twice.
TREE OF LIFE was an art film that would have worked wonders in a museum showing, an art gallery, a class on art, etc., but was not what one expects in a multiplex setting. TO THE WONDER sounds the same. Fine if you like art movies, not so fine if you don't have that kind of patience. (I don't.)
I can connect with certain films like that, e.g. a South Korean film from about 20 years ago called WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST?, which I remember liking a great deal and writing a good review of it for the publication I was then working for. But then I've always had more of a taste for Zen Buddhism than other westerners. Whatever Malick's philosophical schtick is, I just don't relate to it. If you do, then you have every right to rave about his recent films. But just remember that the rest of us might have strong philosophical differences.
Why So Blu?
04-14-13, 10:15 AM
I'll be checking it out this afternoon.
stvn1974
04-14-13, 06:40 PM
I am over at my parents for a cookout and the commercial for the VOD came on and my mom said "that looks like a bigger piece of shit than that Tree movie we rented." I explained to her it was the same director. I doubt the parents will be watching it.
Jeffy Pop
04-14-13, 07:17 PM
Saw it last night. Beautiful and poetic. Looking forward to seeing it again.
Throwing Copper
04-15-13, 02:03 PM
I am over at my parents for a cookout and the commercial for the VOD came on and my mom said "that looks like a bigger piece of shit than that Tree movie we rented." I explained to her it was the same director. I doubt the parents will be watching it.
:lol: best thing I've heard all day
CloverClover
04-16-13, 04:17 PM
I can't get over this film, I think it is masterful. I can't understand the bad reviews because I think it is every bit as good as anything else he has made. I always admired his work and held him up as a great director but after this I will count him as one of my 'favorite' directors. It makes me see his earlier work in a slightly different light as well. Because in some ways it shows growth as a director because it is so heartfelt and personal. I just totally connected to the mood, characters and emotions being presented.
Finisher
04-21-13, 09:47 PM
I love Malick's films but his contempt for narrative crosses a line here.
Jeffy Pop
04-22-13, 12:47 AM
There's more to film than narrative.
TheySentYou
04-22-13, 01:16 AM
I can connect with certain films like that, e.g. a South Korean film from about 20 years ago called WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST?, which I remember liking a great deal and writing a good review of it for the publication I was then working for. But then I've always had more of a taste for Zen Buddhism than other westerners. Whatever Malick's philosophical schtick is, I just don't relate to it. If you do, then you have every right to rave about his recent films. But just remember that the rest of us might have strong philosophical differences.
Why has Bodhi-Dharma left For the East is painfully underrated!
Chadm
05-04-13, 01:42 AM
Never thought this day would come but I really disliked the new Terrence Malick film " To The Wonder". I felt nothing but indifference and disdain towards every character. Even on a very basic level of how people behave it seemed completly false. Basically, it was 2 hours of visual doodling with barely an ounce of focus. Grown up's wandering around in nature playing as if they are children. 2 Hours of that! It was like pulling teeth trying to get anything out of this movie. Even if you can watch it for free, I'd say pass.
Dr. DVD
05-05-13, 12:24 PM
I have to wonder: does Malick make each movie with a clear cut story and script or does he just shoot everything he can and then decide which story is going to be the movie's focus?
Buy: