Badlands

An inscrutable, disaffected James Dean modeled young man (Martin Sheen) takes up with a naive fifteen year old girl (Sissy Spacek) and murders her father (Warren Oates) before taking several more lives on a killing spree across the American West. Based on the exploits of spree killer Charles Starkweather and his teenage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, Terrence Malik's Badlands is beautifully shot and disconcerting with its juxtaposition of natural imagery and ostensible innocence with the horrific deeds it depicts. A laconic Sheen and an aloof Spacek provide an excellent presence in early performances, and the film is perhaps a little too distant with not enough going on or being said.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Knight of Cups

A depressed screenwriter (Christian Bale) stumbles through L.A. meetings, studios, and parties, waxing philosophical while picking up a series of women and thinking back on mistakes and childhood traumas. Formless, aimless, plotless, and another digression, here a big step back, for Terrence Malick who essentially just reworks and recycles elements from The Tree of Life.

** out of ****

To the Wonder

A contractor (Ben Affleck) returns to his Midwest home with his childish, Parisian girlfriend (Olga Kurylenko) and her young daughter, where they prance in fields of gold with the wind bristling through their hair alternating with venomous, volatile fights. Meanwhile, a local parish priest (Javier Bardem) wrestles with his own place in the universe as he offers council to the poor and incarcerated. Terrence Malick returns to directing after only a two year respite, a relatively short break for a man who's only released six films now in forty years. Following the wildly erratic critical reception of "The Tree of Life", which ranged from the highest critical lauding and festival awards to cries of derision from many audience members. "To The Wonder" appears in theaters quite some time after its festival debut, seems to be falling on the lower end of both critical and audience approval. Personally, I didn't think it was anymore obtuse than any of his other heralded movies ("Day of Heaven", "Badlands") and furthermore I feel like you know what you are getting into when you see a Malick movie, and his movies are, in some sense, above criticism. It would be the equivalent of walking out of a P.T. Anderson film and complaining about the constantly moving camera or griping about the nervous guy in a Woody Allen picture. With "To the Wonder", I got everything I signed on for: the picaresque imagery,  the reflective, plotless narrative, and yes even the tedium.

The Tree of Life

5/22/12 I viewed this film again and once more found it to be a beautiful, far reaching, and spellbinding work and just wanted to add that I can't imagine anyone, other than the most closed minded of individuals, not being able to connect with this movie, at least on some level.

6/24/11 In a career spanning almost 40 years, director Terrence Malick has made only five films. Yet each time he does, he strives to create a masterwork bringing his grand vision and stunningly beautiful visuals to the screen. With The Tree of Life, a movie possibly inspired by his childhood in Texas, Malick has crafted perhaps his most ambitious film to date. The film tells of Jack (Hunter McCracken), living in a Texas town with his brothers, his lighthearted mother (Jessica Chastain) and his stern but loving father (Brad Pitt). As the film shows Jack in present day (Sean Penn), we see his relationship with his father and how he grew into such disillusionment. At the same time this story is being presented we get glimpses of the cosmos, the creation of the world, dinosaurs, The Ice Age, and the evolution of life. The Tree of Life is a high aiming and stunning film, replete with beautiful images and landscapes. Brad Pitt is wonderful as Jack's father, portraying a complicated character and McCracken is equally fine as the young Jack. Sean Penn's character's story is underdeveloped, and like many Malick films this is light on plot development. Still, this is another beautiful work from poetic writer/director who never ceases to swing for the fences.

The New World

As Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) arrives in Jamestown in chains in 1607 and is pardoned for his mutinous ways, he is sent on a mission by Captain Newport (Christopher Plummer) to trade with the local tribes. There he has an extended stay as he learns the ways of the native people and falls in love with Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher), the beautiful and beloved daughter of the mighty Chief Powhatan (August Schellenberg). When he returns to the settlement, his pacifistic nature upsets the settlers who begin to engage the natives in war. Smith continues his love affair with Pocahontas until he is sent on an exploratory mission. At this point, she is brought to live in the settlement and eventually marries John Rolfe (Christian Bale), an admirable plantation owner. The New World was Terrence Malick's fourth film since his career began some 33 years prior and contains all the beauty and wonder we have come to expect from his films. Shot on location in Virginia, The New World almost casts a spell with its stunning imagery and trademark Malick laconic narration. The film also contains a spectacular and should have been breakthrough performance from Kilcher as the intelligent and playful Pocahontas. Although the film is typically light on narrative, Malick once again crafts such a hypnotically spellbinding wonder that makes it difficult to harp on its shortcomings.

The Thin Red Line

Reclusive and seldom active writer/director/philosopher Terrence Malick used his expansive sensibilities to bring James Jones' once before filmed novel to the screen. Set during the Battle of Guadalcanal, The Thin Red Line is a philosophical polemic about the conflict, beautifully shot over vast expanses, focusing in on several soldiers in a platoon. We meet a young deserter (Jim Caviezel), a reflective pacifist who seems content with the island people but would honroably give his life for country. There is also a gruff sergeant (Sean Penn), who has a rough outer shell but still has some humanity left inside him. Then there is a captain (Elias Koteas) who refuses to sacrifice his men's lives for minimal gain as the behest of a lieutenant colonel (Nick Nolte) who is in his last years in the service and is only interested in career advancement. Then there is another private (Ben Chaplin) who's memories of his wife back home keep him going during his arduous service. Malick is a director who only thinks on a large scale, and The Thin Red Line is a measured, but always captivating and beautiful. It doesn't seek to make grand statements on war or offer pulse pounding battle sequences. It wants to introduce you to its characters, get taken away by its visuals, and reflect on your own, all goals which it achieves completely. I don't believe it to be a perfect film, but when a movie can create feelings in you so profound through acting so great and visuals so beautiful, how can this be anything less than four stars.

Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick's career as a director spans almost 40 years during which he has made a mere five films (which includes the upcoming Tree of Life). Yet, due to the sheer and unmatched visual beauty of his films, he has cemented his name as one of the great directors and his 1978 film Days of Heaven is the epitome of his work. The story involves Chicago steelworker Bill (Richard Gere) who has just inadvertently killed his supervisor and flees south with his kid sister and his girlfriend, who he passes of as his sister. Upon reaching the Texas panhandle, they find arduous work in the wheat fields of a rich farmer who takes a liking to Bill's girlfriend. When he proposes marriage, and after Bill learns of his terminal illness, he encourages the union which leads to a love triangle destined to end in tragedy. Days of Heaven is almost biblical in scope, with panoramic shots, and scenes filled with locusts and conflagrations. It contains some of the most beautiful visuals ever committed to film, which act as its own character and mute the still engaging story. The hypnotic tone is further given weight by the young girl's eerie narration and great composer Ennio Morricone's score. The camera work is that of Spanish cinematographer Nestor Almendros  (as well as the great Haskell Wexler who had to replace him due to scheduling conflicts) who won an Oscar for his work and goes through great lengths in his autobiography A Man with his Camera to demonstrate what went into this sumptuous film. Malick, who has a background in philosophy, together with Almendros crafted an arresting film whose visual beauty speaks louder than its story, and still leaves us too enthralled to mind.