Has anybody seen The Tree of Life....

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I guess it didn't open wide enough so far.

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this

Its not anywhere around here, and I want to see it badly.

i'll be in NYC next week so I plan on seeing it there.

couple of interesting articles about it from Slate

Review - no spoilers (except if you click on the audio discussion)

Name That Thistle: Terrence Malick Cutaway or Nature Documentary?

I'm sure it's out here, but I haven't made the effort to go see it.

I have actually never seen a single Malick film.

That's kinda sad for a guy who has watched quite a bit of film from all generations.

I'd recommend watching Days of Heaven first, perhaps his best movie (though the more my mind lingers on ToL the more conflicted I am in picking his best... ToL comes off as so epic and existential that ranking it seems immaterial).

I have a feeling you might appreciate it rather than scoff at it like some do. He's one of those love/hate directors, it seems.

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but am i helping myself by expecting little dialogue, lots of monologues and not an entirely cohesive storyline whatsoever?

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more or less. I'll put it this way: most movies put you in a passive-trance. by that I mean you just watch a steady, traditinoal narrative play out. ToL will put you in an active trance, where for better or worse, you must draw your own impressions for meaning. I find people that don't like his movies are those who want to make a stubborn attempt at rationalizing, whereas your mode of viewing should me letting the scenes dissolve slowly as blots of emotion and introspection. his films are, in a word, elliptical.