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smittywest
Reviews
Song to Song (2017)
Has Terrence become a caricature of himself?
I'm an absolutely *MASSIVE* lifelong Malick fan, but with this film wasn't afraid to ask myself what I'd been meaning to ask myself after his past couple releases: has Terrence become a caricature of himself?
His films seem to try and address the fundamentals of life, but his last few releases do little more than alienate the viewer due to their lavish backdrops, which don't exist in real life for 99% of the population. Real life doesn't allow us near as much time as these characters have to contemplate it. Contemplation of the meaning of life is a luxury, at least when done on any real level. The pace of every day life simply doesn't allow it.
Aesthetically a fairly pleasing film, but insufferable elsewhere most of the time. Tree of Life was the first of this new Terrence, with Knight of Cups solidifying the new framework, but by the time he got to Song to Song it was too much for me. I'll admit I haven't seen Voyage of Time- which I assume is a sort of supplement to Tree- or To the Wonder so won't comment on those insofar as his progression the last few years is concerned.
To call Song to Song vapid and frivolous is paying it too much of a compliment, imo. I think the reviewer who called it self-indulgent probably hit the nail on the head best- it's the utmost practice in that. But I feel bad writing like this about a favourite director of mine. Maybe it's cliché, but he was central in creating the cliché so maybe it's okay? Giving it a 5 because... well... Malick!
American Violence (2017)
absolutely insufferable
First review on IMDb, simply had to come out of the woodwork for this one.
Preface: I gave up about 30 minutes in- the agony was akin to that which half the cast was put through, except mine was real. It was an onslaught of bad.
Nice to see Denise try and breakaway from the bimbo typecast with this 'serious' role, but perhaps it's best she stayed there? Her performance in Bond was Oscar-worthy next to this piece of rubbish. From the very start her lines in this movie (refuse to dub it a film) seemed completely forced, utterly unnatural to her- you can tell that the characters lexicon and train of thought is far removed from Denise's via how unnatural the delivery is.
The lead actor-- you know, the rugged Gosling wannabe-- was painful to watch and actually somehow managed to best Denise in his horrible performance. The acting in the cell scene where he's first introduced to Denise is some of the worst I've ever seen; he was a caricature/mockery of a hodgepodge of our favourite Hollywood bad boys. The whole "tick tock" thing was laughable, as was his attempt to come off as mysterious (or was it more coy?). Seriously, I developed a twitch watching this guy act.
"Martin", the guy who takes him under his wing out of prison was another insufferable casualty of this film. Absolutely deplorable 'acting'. Think "Tony Soprano as a fetus" and you'd still not quite be there. What a joke of a character.
Didn't get far enough to comment on the story. Frankly, it could of been the next Shawshank from a story standpoint, but no way was I gonna' sit through another second of that. The torture in the film is a great analog to how I felt watching it. I don't know whether to fault the director, screenwriter, casting director or actors. Oh, also the CGI...