The Tree of Life

[Atreides]

Tree of Life won the Palm d'Or. Congrats!

[huntergrayson]

Presumably, the win will cause Fox to expand the limited release early on, but in the meantime, here's their post of where & when it will be at a Theatre Near You before it opens wide on July 8th.

(And they're only handling the US release - I checked on the Canadian distributor's site and it looks like June 10th for bstewart and his countrymen).

[magazinewhore]

I am so excited for this movie that I've prewarned my friends I'll need to see it alone so as not to draw attention to myself, sobbing uncontrollably, as I did at the soul-shattering poetry of "The Thin Red Line".

I'm thinking the same thing. My husband doesn't get Malick's movies and the trailer alone makes me cry so I should see it alone.

[huntergrayson]

Fox Searchlight wants us to see it stoned.

[satellite]

May 17, 2011 22:44:43 GMT -4 Atreides said:

Jessica Chastain must have one hell of an agent/publicist to get her name on the poster and trailer along Pitt and Penn. Her resume is very light. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the audience who thought "who?" when seeing her name pop up on the screen.

I saw her in a well-reviewed straight to DVD movie Jolene a few weeks back, and spent half the time thinking she was Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica on "True Blood").

So I looked her up on IMDB and Chastain is also starring in the film adaptaion of The Help.

[addison]

Here's the Salon review

He has mixed feelings, but in the end likes it. It sounds like a movie (like a lot of Malick) that people either really like or don't get it at all. definitely a movie experience and we don't seem to get those much anymore. I have to like a movie that makes the critics a little poetic:

But even though I suspect that "The Tree of Life" is pretty much nuts overall, it's mostly a good kind of nuts, a possible or probable classic of contemplative cinema to rank alongside "2001" and Tarkovsky's "Solaris," alive with passion for nature and God and art and the world, for all that is lost and not lost and still to come, everything we try to seize at and cannot possibly understand.

[huntergrayson]

Just got back from this and, wow, absolutely gorgeous.

There is a good 15-minute or so diversion in the opening section of the film that is devoted to the history of earth - from the big bang to dinosaurs to man - that is a stunning blend of special effects, nature photography and who-knows-what-else. It doesn't really have much or anything to do with the plot, but it is beautiful to watch.

The ending is a bit of a WTF with Penn seemingly having a vision of the afterlife and/or being in heaven for reasons unexplained.

The middle section, in which Penn reminisces on his childhood, is probably the strongest. Malick does an extraordinary job of making it seem not as though we're watching mere flashbacks, but actually experiencing it through this child's eyes. The young actor who plays Jack - a nonprofessional they discovered in Texas - is a real find. It also plays as a very archetypal and universal story of a family of a certain era.

Of the adult actors, I'd consider Pitt the strongest.

Fair warning: this film has virtually no dialogue and there are the usual voiceovers, but even that seems less than in his other films. I did zone out a bit at times, but didn't mind too much.

[Atreides]

Just found out the Toronto Film Festival will be having a retrospective of Malick's films with screenings of Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, and The Tree of Life starting on June 4. Neat!

[magazinewhore]

Just saw it. I liked it. I have to say I thought it was a bit too long. I didn't mind the creation of the earth-big bang-dinosaurs scene. I can't dislike a movie that makes a great spiritual statement with science at its core. I actually thought the scene of the boy's childhood dragged on a bit too much, although of course, it was gorgeous and evocative. But length aside, I always enjoy Malick's movies, they are somewhere between a feverdream and a poem and what I hope it's like when we die. And, overall, his vision is so kind, positive, and visually stunning that I can forgive him any indulgences. He also did a great job conveying a suburban childhood with its wonders and ordinary events.

I'm finding myself thinking a lot about the film, which is a good sign, I think. My God, the boy who played Sean Penn's younger brother looked like so much like Brad Pitt.

The theater workers said someone complained that the movie had no plot. Seriously? Do a little research before you see a movie. And don't complain to the guys who shill popcorn.

[huntergrayson]

How many of said theatre workers do you think are following Malick's detailed instructions to the projectionist delivered in each print?

ETA: Fox is relying on Chris Nolan and David Fincher talking about its greatness to try to get folks in the theatre as it expands heavily this weekend.