Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Cinematheque Reviews: Terence Malick's The Tree of Life

When I caught this remarkable film a second time during a visit to Philadelphia (the first time was in NYC, the film is opening locally in a few days) at the wonderful Ambler Theater in one of the city's suburbs (Glenside to be exact) the place was packed and I just knew there was going to be much grumbling afterwards.  And guess what?  I was right.  Hearing fragmented pieces of conversation as the theater let out (ironically too, since Malick's film is set up in the same manner of fragmented moments) I heard such things as "that was terrible", "thank god it's over", "who gave that four stars?", "next time I pick", "just awful", "who would like that?" et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  Now of course this means that I can rightfully call these people philistines and feel better about myself and my love for this movie, the best damned one of 2011 so far (von Trier's Melancholia being the only one in the foreseeable future that I can picture topping it for the best film of the year - we'll see).  Anyway, my review is up and running over at The Cinematheque.



2 comments:

Sam Fragoso said...

I've called one film a masterpiece this year ... and it wasn't The Tree of Liffe". A bit to ponderious and self-indulgent . Still, beautifully crafted.

By the way typing a comment on here is insanely difficult. Something's up with the spacing.

Just letting you know.. Keep up the good work

Kevyn Knox said...

Thanx.

Not sure what is up w/ comment writing. It seems to be working fine on this end. Sorry.

BTW - what was that one masterpiece this year?