Two critics debate Terrence Malick’s family-and-everything-else epic.
Also, the Big Bang.
DARREN:We are here in the year 2021.
Credit: Merie Wallace/Searchlight Pictures
(TheEW.comcommenters are so angry that Chris writesa very funny follow-up post.)
It also garners three Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture.
Something calledThe Artistwins; was that a movie?
Everett Collection
What I’m getting at, Leah, is thatTree of Lifewas a major topic of conversation.
Other people wondered, with some justification, what the hell was happening.
in the Lower East Side to Brooklyn.
Merie Wallace/Searchlight Pictures
(Did I walk across a bridge, or float across the East River?)
I enjoy seeing three brothers grow up in ethereal midcentury Texas.
I love the dinosaurs.
I love them, Leah!
Where did you stand on the movie when it came out?
Has your opinion shifted in the intervening years?
(Thin Brad line?
Sorry, I’ll see myself out.)
While I too swooned at certain moments tell me more, dinosaur!
I admit I was also intrigued by the premise, such as it is.
(Is Brad a bad dad?
Why is Sean sad?
Wait, what were those patents for?)
Speaking of Chastain, let me dig into another extremely personal peeve.
Darren, am I being insane?
DARREN:You are as far from insane as any of us are from learning Mother’s first name!
My only response to your accurate fetishization argument is thateveryoneis an intangible god-vibe.
Pitt is stern and remote and Industry.
Penn is A Man Cut Off From The Natural World.
Chastain is Gaia-Eve who has an oh-so-titular Tree.
But they’re also given very specific flashes of personality, which pulls them out of perfume-ad territory.
Mother’s playfulness with her children contrasts with barely-spoken marital tensions.
Pitt’s postwar toughness is a recognizable Eisenhower pose devoid of the usual confident swagger.
Penn is… well, a Man Cut Off From The Natural World.
But I enjoy his Penn-sive meandering way more than the overwork that usually gets him Oscar nominations.
Also,Song to Songis okay andKnight of Cupsis a masterpiece, bye!)
Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, andTye Sheridangive unforced performances that are soul-raw even when the events turn elliptical.
That vital humanity goes missing sometimes Malick works with polished stars.
McCracken especially has a razor stare that grounds the dreamy style.
You become aware that you’re seeing the ’50s world through his suspicious, confused eyes.
Malick’s themes are not hard to grasp: Parents, Brotherhood, Earth, Memory.
I’m curious, Leah.
And can we at least agree this was the best Best Picture nominee of 2011?
No disrespect toMartin Scorsese’s fancy Paris train.
All disrespect toAaron Sorkin talking baseball to death.
LEAH:Dammit, Darren!
You’re making me feel like a Malick crank.
you could have your shock-and-awe cinematic tricks, and a sensical plot too!
But it’s a film I recommend, as long as you go in without any preconceived ideas.
It’s up to each person to find their own personal, emotional or spiritual connection to it.
Those that do generally emerge very moved."
As someone who does not meet those criteria, I was still indubitably moved.
