To the Wonder -- Terrence Malick's eventually forthcoming romantic film with Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Javier Bardem

The film often employs circles and moving objects spinning in rounds – including ferris wheels and a rollercoaster – for symbolism. But, after the screening, people were talking about the constant twirling that Kurylenko’s character engages in. She almost never stops moving – leading folks to wonder if she wasn’t dizzy for half the shoot.

McCarthy saying same things

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wonder-terrence-malick-venice-367295

Good god, that whole thing sounds like a trudge.

There is one type of viewer who will definitely go for the film in a big way — those with a literally unlimited appetite for watching Olga Kurylenko prance, waft, twirl and cavort through sun-flared handheld shots to exult in being carefree and happy. There is truly no end of shots like this, quite a few of which also involve various soft fabrics she can touch or pass; Rachel McAdams gets to partake in a bit of this too, although Ben Affleck does not. In fact, he doesn’t get to do much of anything except look sullen, grim and/or blank in the back of or on the edge of shots while the camera emphasizes the woman.

so is he basically making screen-savers timed to a playlist

finally classical music has it's russell mulcahy

Haha

dude's lucky he has spiffier taste in tunes than, say, Pink Floyd, or the backlash might have come a movie earlier

Guy Lodge liked it: http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/review-to-the-wonder-is-terrence-malicks-typically-enchanted-tree-of-love

One could wonder why a director as famously indifferent to actors as Malick (Rachel Weisz's role has been given the old Adrien Brody shaft here) continues to cast such big-name stars: you might think he of all directors would be in favor of non-professional casts.

The same reason Woody Allen does: it gets your movie made.

I really like the phrase "typically enchanted"

Malick’s last picture, Tree Of Life, certainly had its fans and detractors, but people I spoke to today felt that film had “more of a story” and “real characters.”

lol, jeez

o_O

i could watch olga twirl and prance for a while i think

Lots of twirling in "Tree of Life," iirc.

Good question:

One could wonder why a director as famously indifferent to actors (and commerce) as Malick -- Rachel Weisz's role, incidentally, has been given the old Adrien Brody heave-ho here -- continues to hire such big-name actors. (You might think he of all directors would be in favor of non-pro casts.)

haven't seen ToL yet but it sounds malick's making a wondrous, ecstatic, naturally-lit eternal tracking shot over the shark

I wonder how Malick's recent movies would work with casts of complete unknowns? Which I guess "Tree of Life" is not totally unlike; could it have still worked with nobodies in place of Penn and Pitt? I don't think "New World" would have worked without a name as John Smith, though. "Thin Red Line" has a perfect balance of well-knowns, half-knowns and unknowns, which works parallel to its theme.

i think "thin red line" and "new world" are his best. how small of a minority am i in?

i like the first two but they're just too "americana" for me

I consider "Thin Red Line" his best, "New World" most underrated (or, alternatively, a thematic post-script to "Thin Red Line.")

"Badlands" is its own sort of masterpiece, I think, perhaps best viewed in isolation from the rest of "Badlands." Obviously there are lots of ur-Malick ideas at work in it, but "Days of Heaven" (my least favorite Malick) seems like a ground run for what he would achieve a couple of decades later.

"new world" i think has the most interesting "message" of any of his movies i think

too many "i think" there

but yeah as far as history of colonization goes don't think there's a better movie out there except maybe "the mission" and "aguirre" which are not the same thing at all (i.e. not so much about colonization of america)

whats the message of teh new world

come over and we'll watch it together and i'll show you

that's why i said "message" and not message , it's not something i could easily break down. i would say "best themes" or whatever but you would just deconstruct that too and then eat my ass

but it has to do - in my mind, anyway - with the complexity of colonization and the two-way nature of it. colonization changes the colonist and colonized in equal amount. which is i think kind of an ongoing theme, like in "thin red line" how war gives us equal access to moments of unbelievable violence but also moments of transcendent peace

there is also a "love conquers all" disney pocahontas story in there that i find quite affecting

maybe i am tripping though

not sure if somebody said this upthread but "to the wonder" must be the most comically "malick movie titles in character" of all time

that's why i said "message" and not message , it's not something i could easily break down. i would say "best themes" or whatever but you would just deconstruct that too and then eat my ass

haha no way dude, i barely know what i think of TNW. i like your colonization take! i just remember that you hated it when it came out, so your POV on it now is interesting

TNW a lot about adaptation and death/rebirth

Directors really should get in the habit of posting summations of their forthcoming films on ILX and confirming that they're awful before they go wasting time and money making them. The downside, I guess, would be no more movies ever being made again since every idea is stupid and lame.

oh old lunch, there you go again

there's a whole religion vs spirituality thing that is writ large in thin red line, new world and (i assume) tree of life

also the war of sexes thing in the new world was great

yeah i had a hard time adjusting to the filmmaking style, i was reading about russian formalism and into marxist movies at the time (like pasolini and godard or whatever) and it just seemed to "pretty" to take seriously (esp the rowr native americans) it seemed (as i said at the time) like pocahontas done by calvin klein, and i had problems with bale and whatshisface too

but i had a hard time forgetting it too, and then i got older and lightened up, and i watched "thin red line" and then re-watched "barry lyndon" and i was like oh huh natural light etc and retried "the new world" at a time when i was getting over hardcore lit crit and LOL cultural studies and getting really into basics of "american" history (not USA) and it just clicked

and i also realized how fucking good the woman who plays pocahontas is, her performance was amazing

TNW's ending also one of my favourites in recent years. *SPOILERS*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhj4b5CzyhU

yeah the ending "going to god" part is so amazing, it practically brings me to tears thinking about it

i am still not crazy about the middle third but the beginning part with the native americans seeing the british boats creeping up those estuaries and following them through the treelines is so beautiful and foreboding, sui generis

Not sure why people seem to be pegging this new one as a shark jumping moment--I guess because it's appeared so soon? It's not as it there are any major stylistic changes from TTRL to ToL. Diminishing returns, I guess?

Like the discussion of TNW here. It was a weirdly passed over film given how much an event TTRL was.

i'm pegging it that way only because i'm just reading a lot of complaints and not much positive press

I mean I know Malick is gonna be Malick, and I'd be as interested as anyone in seeing him push or adapt his style in unexpected ways--but I'm not sure if that's because it'd be worthwhile art or just something to talk about besides "oh a new malick film like the other ones."

i seem to be reading "oh a new malick film like the other ones ... except this one sux"

I think TTRL was the first one where people started to fall off because of it's perceived hokey/bullshit poeticism. Some people couldn't get past shots of light coming through the tree, and a dying bird, and then "What laaaaiiights this flaaaeemmee in uuuuuuss". Since then it's just been a series of escalations on Malick's part.

I remember Mark Kermode (i know i know) talking about The New World, and those criticisms of TTRL which he always scoffed at but then you had Pocahontas talking about spirits and trees and whatnot and he felt it was a cornball bridge too far. ToL doubled down on that sort of thing.

So I guess it's fans/critics finding how much they can take before they feel it tipping over into self-parody.

that sounds right

anyway native americans really did talk like that! you can meet their white descendants in sedona and taos.

I hope before he retires he directs someone else's script--or at least another adaptation. He has such a distinct and powerful sensibility that it would be really interesting to see clash with someone different a la James Jones.

I hope he signs on for the final Hunger Games

Yeah that take on "escalations" strikes me as right. I tried to argue elsewhere that Malick is being intentionally provocative and out-of-step with the seeming cliches and naïveté. A sort of Dostoevsky-esque idiot making movies and putting them in multiplexes.

terrence malick's should do a superhero movie

come to think of it that's almost what the new superman looks like

New Superman looks like that John Hillcoat ad for Jeans that was blatantly ripping off/"paying homage to" Malick

forgot it used Wagner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=635XItRDU7g

haha i thought the same thing gukbe. that commercial's better than any malick film though

Will give TNW another chance someday, but for now it's def my least fave Malick.

i guess i dont really mean that. i do find it interesting how easy it is for commercial/music video directors like hillcoat and snyder to passably imitate malick, and also how amusingly suited to trailers malicks work is. tree of life's trailer gets my blood pumping, but then i watch the movie and im asleep lol