Comments on: Ryan Reviews The Tree of Life

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:44:58 +0000

Possibly, but if so, I’d still not call it a “perfect score.” I would, however, call it “the highest score possible.”

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:26:39 +0000

Hey Guys,
I’ve talked to Ryan a little bit about this movie, but I’ll put this down here as well for the sake of argument: I really wanted to like Tree of Life, and for the most part I did, but in the end I felt like by leaving much of the film’s meaning open to interpretation that Mallick drifted a little into obscurity. I sometimes wonder if he knew what he was doing on set (I really want to believe he did, because if you read interviews with the actors, they generally didn’t know what the hell was going on) or if he felt like he was just capturing the moment, and then he thought he could build it all in post.
Again, that’s totally cool, but then I started to wonder why he felt like he needed to bring in Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain for the larger roles in this film. If you want to pose an exploration of life, or the life of a single individual, why not make a documentary in the vein of “56 UP” or “Boyhood” with real people who are experiencing their life in the now? Sure, it’s a different time, but it just seemed like such a small slice of life from the past that as a pseudo-documentary it didn’t hit as hard as it could have.
A little bit of that is playing devil’s advocate since, like I said, I still enjoyed it, but they’re just questions that popped up when I was watching it.

By: Deuce

Deuce — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 05:46:35 +0000

If you were rating on the 10-point scale, would you have given Tree of Life a 10? Someone has got to ask the “tough” questions…

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 07:48:34 +0000

Haha, I know I for one was on the edge of my seat! By the way, sorry for the fingernail marks I left in your couch’s armrests, but it was a pretty intense movie…

By: Deuce

Deuce — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 05:51:20 +0000

I’ve seen (and own) three Terrance Mallick movies, and all of those are some of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. I would probably go ahead and say that this movie is the most beautiful movie ever shot. I also suggest seeing this film. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Before we started this movie, I cracked myself up when I told Sitz before pushing play, “Get ready for a non-stop thrill-ride”. No one else laughed.