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I wouldn't call any of Malick's films average but the one film of his that I'd consider less than the sum of its parts (despite having fabulous sequences in it) is The New World. I've seen it twice theatrically and the most recently released cut on Blu-Ray, yet it never truly clicked with me.

I have seen the film yesterday, and I consider it Malick's crowning achievement.

The film juxtaposes the small history (rarely have I seen such a subtle description of characters considering the lack of interest for dialogue and literary material of the film) with the large one (the big bang sequence with an extraordinary sense of music and silence, and the numerous shots of nature) and makes us feel the subtle connection between them. It is not about shots of romantic nature full of poetry put there to make thing pretty. That is not to say it was the case with Malick's previous efforts, but Tree of life conveys more than ever the feeling that cinema, when associated with nature, can reach the greatest heights.

The photography captures all the forms nature can provide, the human form included. The choices of scale and angle of camera tend to give the appearance of all things a sense of abtraction, and this mix of realism and abstraction is fascinating. The soft colors remind us of Days of heaven with the skies more white than blue. Nature never looks like a postcard in Tree of life, it looks just like itself, and I guess it makes the film a success.

knives wrote:For the guy who said the he wished the critics would just say they found it to be the one of the greatest here's the review for you.

And, yet, apparently making "one of the greatest movies ever made" will only garner you a "B", maybe "B+" on subsequent viewings!

I just saw it. Fragments keep popping up in my head and that's exactly what I think Malick intended. You live the film trough the main character's memories of his childhood in a very fragmented way.
The depiction of an era gone by is very convincing, the belief and values of the family are what makes the film work in my opinion,
but some people seem to think that makes it to preachy.
Stunning photography with very nice wide-angles, and a very nice score.
An overall satisfying experience

Jonathan Rosenbaum, on his blog, reposted his reviews of Badlands and The Thin Red Line, claiming they are films that he liked "much more than The Tree of Life".

A rather beautiful new clip.

Roger Ryan wrote:

knives wrote:For the guy who said the he wished the critics would just say they found it to be the one of the greatest here's the review for you.

And, yet, apparently making "one of the greatest movies ever made" will only garner you a "B", maybe "B+" on subsequent viewings!

He is saying that during the first hour he felt like he was watching one of the greatest movies ever made, then it fell apart after that.

Jeff wrote:

Roger Ryan wrote:

knives wrote:For the guy who said the he wished the critics would just say they found it to be the one of the greatest here's the review for you.

And, yet, apparently making "one of the greatest movies ever made" will only garner you a "B", maybe "B+" on subsequent viewings!

He is saying that during the first hour he felt like he was watching one of the greatest movies ever made, then it fell apart after that.

I did get that; my response was more aimed at knives' description of the linked review. I found the structure of the review itself to be disconcerting in the way the reviewer front-loaded the piece with the hyperbole, then began backing away from it mid-review only to end on a rather "meh" note.

Just bought my ticket for next Friday. Holding off on all judgments and meta-judgments till then. But this Tweet by Michael Sicinski caught my eye:

THE TREE OF LIFE (Malick 11) [9] The 1st hr or so is as close to a vernacular Dorsky film as we're going to get in this life.

I heard the ending is pretty cheesy/ and or bad. Spoilers are fine but how was the end?

People had better spoiler tag the shit out of whatever post(s) follow in response to Peter's, or else

i heard that a bunch of dinos kill everyone at the end.

gokinsmen wrote:Just bought my ticket for next Friday. Holding off on all judgments and meta-judgments till then. But this Tweet by Michael Sicinski caught my eye:

THE TREE OF LIFE (Malick 11) [9] The 1st hr or so is as close to a vernacular Dorsky film as we're going to get in this life.

I just bought my tickets as well for next Friday at The Landmark in LA. There was one ticket purchased ahead of me. If it's you, see you there.

The ending was inspired by Lost, no?

mfunk9786 wrote:People had better spoiler tag the shit out of whatever post(s) follow in response to Peter's, or else

But I still hear them walking in the trees: not speaking. Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out of the halls of vapor and light, beyond holland into the hills, I have come to wound the autumnal city. So howled out for the world to give him a name. The in-dark answered with wind.

Dan Callahan from Slant on Tree of Life

I can't believe this is opening in Manhattan @ the Lincoln Plaza, which has the smallest screens this side of Film Forum. WTF

tavernier wrote:I can't believe this is opening in Manhattan @ the Lincoln Plaza, which has the smallest screens this side of Film Forum. WTF

It's also at Landmark Sunshine Cinema.

tavernier wrote:I can't believe this is opening in Manhattan @ the Lincoln Plaza, which has the smallest screens this side of Film Forum. WTF

Oh boo hoo. I along with most of the US won't be able to see the movie for another month and a half.

Heres the showing calendar for whoever is interested.

How do you do the embedding within a sentence thing? I'm new to forums.

Does anyone have any more detailed information on Canadian dates/cities? The distributor only lists a general date of June 10th.

This was listed as "coming soon" at the local arthouse in my area but has since been removed, I hope this doesn't mean it's not coming at all.

^re: link embedding: Just use this code

Grand Wazoo wrote:

tavernier wrote:I can't believe this is opening in Manhattan @ the Lincoln Plaza, which has the smallest screens this side of Film Forum. WTF

It's also at Landmark Sunshine Cinema.

never been there...how's the screen size?

Terrence Malick's 'The Tree Of Life' Wins Palme d'Or. That should help the box office some and create a little bit of word-of-mouth. :)