The Tree Of Life And The Oscars

[The Captain]

I'm sort of combining two topics here, but I think it's worthwhile.

While the Oscars are an over-hyped night of self-congratulating celebrities all enjoying their own success, as someone who works in that industry, I still pay attention every single year. I try my best to see as many of the movies as I can, usually when they are playing during an afternoon I'm not busy.

The general consensus is that The Artist will win Best Picture this year and I did enjoy it very much. It was well-made and a nice homage to the silent film era. However, I wouldn't say it was the "best" picture by any stretch of the imagination.

Hugo and War Horse were both good movies too, though lesser then others made by the giants of Scorsese and Spielberg (That would be a helluva a law firm).

Moneyball and the Descendants were enjoyable almost exclusively for the leading men as both Pitt and Clooney were terrific even if the films themselves were a bit lightweight.

Which leads me to the other topic here: I saw Tree of Life in the theater and then again a few weeks ago and both times was left with the same feeling: frustrated, confused, overwhelmed, and thoroughly intoxicated by film-making.

For those who haven't seen it, the Tree of Life in a nutshell is a story about adulthood, about growing up in the 1950's, about choices we make and also, about how we are shaped by our family. Yet, none of this is actually the story. This is the rare film which doesn't have a "plot" so much as a "mood". Yes, there is a storyline and characters are introduced, go through conflicts and such, but that is so much less then the sum of the parts here. It can best be described as a tone poem.

Visually, this movie is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It brought together one of the most brilliant DP's working today, Emmanuel Lubezki who was the DP for Children of Men, among others, with one of my personal heroes, director Terrence Malick, a man who has only made 5 films in about 30 years but you can see the love and care in each frame.

This is one of the few films that I can honestly say continues to stay with you long after you've seen it. The haunting images astound you, the plot frustrates you, the message lingers just out of sight and yet, I knew this was an achievement in film-making nonetheless. In particular, a shot of children playing where we see only their shadows reflected on the pavement still burns bright in my mind's eye.

Come Sunday, I expect it to maybe win one Oscar, hopefully, for Lubezki who is seriously overdue, but I don't think Tree of Life will win anything else because it isn't a movie that people in a general sense will like. As I said, it doesn't hold a true story and seems just as likely to confuse as articulate anything. Yet, I can't help feel that this movie is the one that in 10, 20, 40 years will be looked at as pushing our collective understanding of cinema forward.

So, to give this thread some discussion:

What movies have seen you in your lifetime that stayed with you? What movies have you seen that changed the way you think about cinema itself? About what a movie can do for you?

And sure, I guess, who do you think will win Oscars, blah, blah, blah?

Take care all.

[charliepanayi]

Well I would say The Tree of Life is very much a love it or hate it affair. Personally I think if they'd stuck to just the central plot strand of Brad Pitt's family, it could have been an excellent film. Pitt and Jessica Chastain are both brilliant, it looks stunning, it's got a real coming of age feel to it. But the whole film is bogged down by the extraneous 'creation of the universe' stuff (as hypnotic as that is) and the frankly pointless plot strand with Sean Penn. A bit more discipline would have worked wonders. It wasn't quite my cup of tea in the end, but it's stayed with me I admit.

As for films that have really stayed with me, Mulholland Drive immediately springs to mind. Just that feeling of 'what did I just see?' after it was over, truly brilliant. I'd need to think about others.

And Oscar predictions for the major categories:
The Artist (deserves to win, best film on this year's shortlist by a mile)
Michel Haznavicius
George Clooney
Viola Davis
Christopher Plummer
Octavia Spencer
Midnight in Paris (Original Screenplay)
The Descendants (Adapted Screenplay)
Rango

And Man or Muppet for Best Song :)

[DMKA]

I heard The Tree of Life was a thinly veiled remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I don't know if that's true or not, but I hated 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[charliepanayi]

Where do people get these daft film comparisons from? It's nothing like 2001.

[Miriel]

I haven't seen Tree of Life yet, but I have a feeling I would like it. I tend to like evocative, moody films. And I kinda love Jessica Chastain. She has such an amazing fluid quality about her.

But I just have to say that I hated War Horse. I thought it was awful and it's unfathomable to me that it's getting the kind of recognition that it is. And this is coming from a person who adores animals and generally doesn't mind it when Spielberg gets all schmaltzy.

Of the nominated films, I think I enjoyed Midnight in Paris the most.

It's hard for me to think of movies that were cinematic game changers because more often than not, pure enjoyment factor is more important to me than a deftly crafted or innovative film that I may I have liked but not loved. Like for example, the camera work in Children of Men was great, but I pretty much forgot all about it after I left the theater. A lot of the movies that stick out in my mind are just personal favorites that may not be the best movies in an objective way.

But two movies that come to mind as impressive and innovative filmmaking... Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception.

EDIT: I just got through 3/4 of the movie and then I had to call it quits. Good lord.

I actually really loved the first 20 minutes or so. The imagery is stunning, and the non-linear, fragmented glimpses into tiny moments and thoughts really drew me in. And then it kept going... and going... and going. Jesus Christ it got repetitive and boring. I'm not someone who needs to be constantly riveted by action scenes or even dialogue. One of my favorite scenes of any movie, ever, involves the cracking of eggs into bowls in The Hours. So the fact that my patience ran so thin that I had to STOP THE MOVIE (I never stop the movie!!) really says something. It was like watching an endless Lana Del Ray music video. Sullen children are amongst the worst things ever in life, and to watch sullen pre-teen boys in a movie is not my idea of a good time. It was over-worked, way too self-involved and I had no idea why in the world I was supposed to care about ANY of this. It got to the point where I wished they'd all just die already so the movie would be over. No emotional connection whatsoever. And all that whispering? Uuughghg.

Jessica Chastain I must say is a marvel. She was the best thing about the movie.

This movie won't stay with me because I will actively force it from my mind. I don't want to think about it because I do not caaaare. I care more about picking up toilet paper at the store tomorrow than I do about ruminating on this film. I feel like this film was made by someone with way too much time on his hands.

[The Captain]

Point of fact: Emmanuel Lubezki was DP for Children of Men too.

And your strong reactions to the film in my mind reinforce everything I am trying to say about it. Malick definitely had too much time on his hands as it took him something like 20 years to make the movie.

I actually HATED Inception in a lot of ways because it attempted to be all "outside the box" and thought-provoking when in the end it just devolved in to an action movie with amazing special effects. Movies like that often leave my cold because they offer so much and then end up having nothing really to say for themselves. I'll take a mess of a movie that takes real risks with alienating its audience over the latter any day.

Take care all.

[Miriel]

It may have been risky since anything beyond the formulaic Hollywood stuff can be seen as risky. And for a feature film to be so nonlinear is not the norm. But the film played like a million different music videos or artsy indie films that have existed for years. I once went to a college multimedia art show where someone showed repeated clips of home videos with weird blackouts and bursts of colors scattered throughout. And the visuals, while beautiful weren't exactly new. Maybe in the context of a feature film it was unusual and innovative, but in terms of just pure imagery... Well I've seen a lot of it before. With the exception of the creation of the universe parts which I admit were truly special. But the other stuff, like the shadow of children playing wasn't exactly brand new.

For me, Inception was great fun to watch.

Tree of Life was boring as hell. Inception never acted like it wasn't an action film. I mean the whole thing starts off with an action sequence. But it was a unique action movie. Entertaining, smart, and engaging. Tree of Life leaves you wondering, "What is the point of this movie and why should I care?" This was like the epitome of hipster art house, look-how-different-I-can-be filmmaking. If a movie doesn't move you to feel something, why waste the time? I'm sure some people may have been enraptured by it, just like some people are enraptured by Jackson Polluck, but I'm not one of those people.

[charliepanayi]

One thing Inception and The Tree of Life have in common is both could be improved by losing about 20 minutes fron the runtime. When it comes to Malick, I think something like Days of Heaven retains the beauty of The Tree of Life (the locust invasion is jawdropping) but is a lot more concise, and is all the better for it.

[Pheesh]

I couldn't really comment on films that stuck with me because of the actual film-making techniques and what not, but as far as a movie that left me with my jaw on the ground and will never ever leave my mind I'd have to go with Requiem for a Dream. That movie was intense.

[fire_of_avalon]

The first movie I loved was E.T. I was maybe four.

The movie that made me love the anachronism of movie-going was The Lion King. I was maybe eight.

The movie that made me love movies, everything about movies was either Saving Private Ryan at age fourteen or The Seven Samurai at seventeen.

[charliepanayi]

Bret McKenzie and Jim Rash have Oscars! Hooray!

[Shiny]

The Tree of Life was nothing more than a Moma type film. I'm all for out-the-box films, but doing something simply to be out-the-box is not appealing to me. Dare to be different, but take it an extra mile and make it entertaining because bottom line while I love movies and consider them an art, they are also probably first and foremost, entertainment and should be treated as such. It's geared towards a certain group (mostly cinematographers) who can appreciate such a film.

As for The Descendants, I'm really tired of movies with rich white people doing nothing of importance to me. I'm tired of George Clooney and Brad Pitt being hyped up like they're the next Paul Newman. They are no Paul Newman and never will be. gtfo

[Peegee]

I take your question to mean 'is there a movie I (PG) enjoy no matter how many times'

And that movie would be Forrest Gump. It's stereotypically sappy and melodramatic and he comes off a little mary-sue ish (but since it's not an action flick I don't really mind), but it makes me happy to watch every time I watch it.

It is a rather sad movie though and that's okay.

I should watch it again tonight.

[charliepanayi]

George Clooney isn't Paul Newman, he's our generation's Cary Grant. I think him and Brad Pitt are both great, though Clooney has done better work than The Descendants (as has Alexander Payne).

[Shlup]

About twenty minutes into Tree of Life I was ready to hang myself. I only even made it that long because I kept telling myself to suck it up for the sake of feeling artsy and sophisticated, but really the panning close-ups of actors' faces as their internal monologue whispers in half-sentences and open-ended questions was killing me. Once it switched to just a screen full of nebulae or creation or God or whatever with a background of opera music, I felt my sanity quickly slipping away, and when it was still doing this after several minutes, with the characters whispering questions like "Do you care?" I was done.

I was no longer in the mood for anything that even had the potential of any depth, and so I unapologetically switched over to Puss in Boots. Which was kinda funny, I guess.