Terrence Malick is famous for directing artsy movies where you may not have any idea what they’re about, but you know damn sure that the camera is going to slowly pan across atmospheric shots that look super pretty. His next film, Tree of Life (trailer), opening May 27th, stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in “an impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 50s.”
Except, when Terrence Malick makes an impressionistic film called Tree of Life, you know it’s not just about the protagonist family, it’s also an attempt to create a grand, comprehensive meditation on existence itself, from the Big Bang on through sexting. I assume that’s how the dinosaurs fit in, but generally speaking, if velociraptors are involved, I tend not to sweat the details. I hope that it’s part of a larger montage that starts with creation, slowly makes its way through primordial sea, the spark of life, fish, reptiles, then the dawn of the dinosaurs, beginning with an egg, from which hatches a full-grown Dicknose James Franco who rampages through Paris rapping about stegosauruses. It’s a metaphor, you see. Everything is connected.
(Semi-related)
[Picture via the Tree of Life-affiliated tumblr site TwoWaysThroughLife, hat tip: GordonandtheWhale]
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I dunno, Malick’s burned me before. The Thin Red Line was supposed to be about Americans killin’ Japs, and all I got was three hours of boring-ass nature film.
Even more impressively, it appears that he might have actually accurately portrayed their real size.
Aw come on Uff, when Woody blew his ass off with a grenade, comedy gold!
As long as the velociraptor eats Sean Penn I’m OK with this movie.
Isn’t that the same stretch of water where Jim Caviezel gets ambushed by the Japs?
As long as the velociraptor eats a pack of screaching zipper heads I’m OK with this movie.
The Thin Red Plot
It’s like he sees into my mind, I can’t think of the 50′s without dreaming of velociraptors and bullet bras.
the Big Bang through sexting
Funny, for me it goes the opposite way. Sexting first, banging after.
It’s contemplating the universe’s mysteries, no doubt. Thinkin’ about nature and space and baby feet and such.