THE DANMAN CAN

Terrence Malick 's Days Of Heaven (1978) is one of those films where literally almost any frame could be considered a work of art. The painterly "golden hour" cinematography by  Néstor Almendros  and  Haskell Wexler  is enrapturing. The improvisational style—including one of the most unique voiceovers in any film, courtesy of the singular  Linda Manz —blankets the picture in a dreamlike quality. Ennio Morricone 's gorgeous score is the icing on this cinematic cake (which is more like a full-course meal). Terrence Malick Feature Films Ranked

As I feared—as was the case with  Knight Of Cups   (2015) (my review here )— Song To Song   (2017) is more of what the former film consisted of: rich people wandering aimlessly in mostly extravagant settings in mostly expensive clothing with seemingly little of the hardships that the average person faces.  Even as a musician and music lover, that aspect of the film did nothing for me. I liked STS slightly more than KOC , as I actually felt some emotions from Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling 's performances, but this era of Terrence Malick is just not my thing. Fortunately, I did like  A Hidden Life   (2019) (my review here ) quite a bit more, so I haven't given up on Malick altogether. You can find my  Terrence Malick Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

Unlike  Knight Of Cups   (2015) (my review here ), I felt more connected to the characters in  A Hidden Life   (2019) and it felt a bit less meandering. Unfortunately though, the film feels unnecessarily long at just shy of three hours. I think the same ideas could have been delivered in a two or even two and a half hour long film.  AHL is based on the true story of  Franz Jägerstätter  (played here by  August Diehl ), an Austrian who refused to fight for the Nazis in WWII. Franz's resistance and refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler led to him being imprisoned and eventually executed in 1943. The performances/narrative are typical of what you'd expect from a  Terrence Malick  film—lots of gazing off, upward or downward, touching the earth/objects/other characters, little dialogue, poetic voice-over. Nothing bad, just a bit formulaic for Malick at this point (what used to feel spontaneous now comes off as staged). Of cour...

After the letdown that was To The Wonder (2012) (still a good film, but a far cry from all of Terrence Malick 's previous work) and with neither the trailer for  Knight Of Cups   (2015) or Song To Song (2017) (which I have yet to see) appealing much to me, I've unfortunately been lukewarm on Malick for some time now. And to be clear I love his first five films. In Knight Of Cups —as is to be expected— Emmanuel Lubeski 's cinematography is simply stunning. I do appreciate what Malick does—he loves to capture the moments between  the scenes we traditionally see in narrative films. But what once felt naturalistic, poetic and engaging in his work now feels staged, meandering and a bit of a chore to sit through. Watching Christian Bale drift through random scenes with mouth agape, little to no reaction to what happens around him and basically no dialogue while impossibly beautiful but often vapid and naked women dance and shower him with attention, and dozens of big...

Terrence Malick 's non-traditional narrative style has perhaps never been put to better use than in  The Tree Of Life   (2011), which is truly a visual poem, a cinematic dance. A poem with so much to behold— Jessica Chastain 's impossibly angelic beauty and motherly grace, Brad Pitt's tumultuous jealousy and fatherly anger, the three boys' individual quirks, the naturalistic performances, the sumptuous combination of existing classical pieces with  Alexandre Desplat 's subtle score, just to name a few things. The "creation of the universe" sequence is striking to behold, evoking  2001: A Space  Odyssey   (1968) (even utilizing special effects wizard Douglass Trumbull ), but I've never been a fan of the CGI dinosaurs (they already look dated IMO)—they take me out of the moment. Fortunately, once that scene is over it's easy to soon be engulfed by the movie once again. I also can't help thinking that those "macrocosm" scenes, as gorg...

Drive **** * The Tree Of Life **** ( Review ) Hanna *** * ( Review ) Contagion **** Hobo With A Shotgun **** ( Review) X-Men: First Class **** ( Review ) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ***1/2 ( Review ) Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes *** 1 / 2 A Dangerous Method *** 1 / 2 The Muppets *** 1 / 2 ( Review ) Honorable Mentions 1 . Source Code *** 1 / 2 ( Review ) 2 . I Saw The Devil *** 1 / 2 3 . Insidious *** ( Review ) Biggest Disappointment Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy *** ( Review ) Worst Film Attack The Block * ( Review ) Note: The reason that some selections have higher star ratings, but lower positions has to do with replay value, entertainment value, credibility/deliverance within genre, etc. I thought it would be fun to include all my previous Top Films since I started keeping track of them, when I used to work for Newbury Comics . Looking back at these, there are a bunch of titles that I would definitely shift to higher or ...

Still an excellent film, upon second viewing. My original review  here . Far far too many gorgeous images in this film to post, but here's a couple of very blue ones.

I liked The Tree Of Life (2011) a lot.  If you like Terrence Malick films (story and traditional narrative are not typically the focus), you may or may not like this one, but you should have at least an inkling of what you're getting into if you go see this.  I've now had the priviledge of seeing 3 of Malick's films in the theater, when they were released. That's not bad, considering the only other 2 films that he has directed were both released before I was born. I also like The Fountain  (2006) a lot, another film which I feel Tree is similar to, and which has also been described as "pretentious."  It's hard to avoid 2001: A Space Odyssey   (1968) comparisons, but this is definitely a different type of film.  I actually think this summary, from a user on IMDb, hits it home pretty well: _______________________________________________________ How can you sum up trees? and life? If a summary was possible then the film it'd deal with wo...