According to this site, the DP for Terrence Malick's TO THE WONDER brags that this flick is the most "abstract" movie ever made. Fine and dandy. But let's accept this premise, and examine the faulty and deceptive advertising such an admission implies. If someone told you the 2014 Chevy Camaro was the "best tasting car" GM has ever made, would that be useful information? Assuming it was true, would that mean automobile consumers have had a hankering all these decades to EAT THEIR CARS and GM had finally jumped on it? Or would it mean that GM was film-flamming the public by trying to create a "need" where none existed, spending precious R & D resources (and jacking up the sticker price of Camaros) with money better spent on cup holders, airbags, gas mileage improvements, or not charged to buyers in the first place? Sure, they have "abstract" paintings in some museums, but NO ONE IS CHARGED TEN BUCKS TO SEE ONE ABSTRACT PAINTING! Further, no museum would stay open long by advertising traditional art and presenting only a big room full of sunflower seeds with a few wood chips mixed in. TO THE WONDER is the screen equivalent of seeds and wood chips, but movie theater chains are showing it (and charging admission for it) as if it were a REAL MOVIE with an understandable plot, characters, actions, and point. Terrence Malik could chew up a million pieces of gum, paste them all over a gallery, and call it "art" (or a "movie"), but no self-respecting museum would charge the public ten bucks plus with no clue as to what they were paying for. Yet American movie theater chains are doing exactly that with TO THE WONDER. Shame on them and Malik for stealing our money!!
Review of To the Wonder
