Comment

Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of West Vancouver Memorial Library.
Aug 12, 2017ehbrisson rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
With SONG TO SONG (2017), director Terrence Malick seems intent upon finishing out the decade the same way he started it-- with deeply personal, religious films about faith, love, and redemption set against the decaying backdrop of contemporary America. Those familiar with Malick’s previous efforts TO THE WONDER (2012) and KNIGHT OF CUPS (2016) may see these works as together forming a sort-of-trilogy in which the subjects of each film navigate similar pseudo-heroic arcs that lead them out of worlds of confusing excess and toward a redemptive vision of beauty and truth. The film’s circuital editing can be frustrating at times, and intoxicating at others. Emmanuel Lubezki’s camerawork is as proficient and deliberate as ever, and there is something to savor in every shot. (Note the subtle changes in elevation throughout the film and consider these details in light of the film's original title, "Weightless.") The film’s genre-spanning score, a mix of contemporary indie rock, classical music, and opera, complements the film’s preoccupations with contemporary disorder, recursivity, and the possibility of a transcendent, redeeming love, with the line between diegetic and non-diegetic sound not always fully decipherable. Dramatic high points of the film include mesmerizing performances by both of the film’s leads, Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling, as well as a particularly memorable appearance by poet/singer-songwriter Patti Smith (as herself) who serves as spiritual guide and moral compass to Mara’s Faye (a secular analog perhaps to Javier Bardem’s Father Quintana in TO THE WONDER). I suspect many viewers will attempt to dismiss the renegade humanism of this film as a front, or worse, misconstrue Malick’s “blessed rage for order” as simple, reactionary conservatism. The film is, however, at its core a timely message of love that carries no judgement. Along with its literal and spiritual predecessors, TO THE WONDER and KNIGHT OF CUPS, this film is just as worthy of our attention as the director’s earlier, more widely celebrated work.