While my other movie series, I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Film School, looks back, I figured I should place at least one foot in the here and now of giddy anticipation. Therefore, Can’t Wait focuses on upcoming movies I, well, can’t wait to see, along with a few reasons why.
[Oh hey, let’s make fun of the dork who forgot to schedule yesterday’s post. Anyway, here’s the “Can’t Wait” I owe you.]
I’ve been slow to appreciate Terrence Malick’s work. Last spring I saw the trailer for The Tree of Life and couldn’t stop thinking about it. It looked so mysterious and abstract that I felt it necessary to study his filmography. I watched his four previous movies — Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and The New World — and only truly enjoyed The Thin Red Line. The voiceover use bordering on excess and the lingering shots of nature were intriguing if difficult to connect to. Then last week I was able to see Tree of Life on a big screen — the first time I saw it was on a small TV in the afternoon, much like the rest of his movies (not exactly a prime viewing situation) — and everything clicked in that greater medium. When immersed, the poetry of the voiceovers doesn’t feel abstract; it enhances the beautiful imagery washing over the screen.
And with Malick’s late-career surge of productivity, he has showcased To The Wonder on the film festival circuit the last couple months to gain a distributor. It may not have received the warmest of reactions, and I have only the vaguest of understandings as to what kind of thematic or plot ground the film covers, but if I have the opportunity to see another Malick on a big screen, I’m going to do it. Now, someone pick it up and release it.
Defeating Boredom 