Dann in reel life: 'Tree of Life' a cinematic experience
Reel Life mini-review: ‘The Tree of Life'
The best way to describe Terrence Malick's highly anticipated film “The Tree of Life” might be “Stand By Me” as filtered through “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but even that description is woefully inadequate.
Using flashbacks and flashforwards — with sparse dialogue in most scenes — “The Tree of Life” is, partly, an impressionist reflection on a boy's life as he grows up in rural America during the 1950s. Young Jack is the son of a nurturing mother (Jessica Chastain) and an insensitive macho father (Brad Pitt).
The story begins with a death, and a family in paralysis. Those scenes are mixed with languorous, artfully filmed footage of the earth's firmament being formed in the cosmos. (Hence the “2001” comparison.)
There are kaleidoscopic moments of joy, sadness, anger, fright and other emotions as Malick's alter-ego, master cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, captures lyrical, moving images of everyday life, and every shot bleeds with Malick's love of depicting nature as a mysterious, powerful force.
It's ridiculous to try to explain “Tree of Life,” because it's a cinematic experience, not a narrative exercise manufactured according to the template of Aristotle's rules of drama.
Still, as much as the images and the sheer ambition of the film impressed me, “The Tree of Life” also strikes me as a masterpiece one step removed. Yes, it's personal, it's poetic and it's maybe even profound.
But it's also an intermittent snore and exactly the sort of seemingly pretentious un-mass-marketable movie that's easy fodder for “Saturday Night Live” comedians to lampoon.
Granted, Malick doesn't make movies for malls or teens. They are visualized meditations, personal poems as cinema, and his fifth feature, “The Tree of Life” (in the editing bay for three years since it was shot), is nothing, and everything, more than that.
The film includes velvety voice-overs communicating pure thoughts and feelings of its characters through inner monologues.
Sean Penn plays Jack as a middle-aged man, now surrounded by imposing structures of a cold cityscape in sharp contrast with the earthy heaven of his youth. (Can't anyone make a movie featuring tall trees without shooting them straight up with a super-wide-angle lens?)
As a kid who grew up in rural Illinois, I could relate to young Jack's frustration with a Stoic dad, and how the search for fulfilling activities was a daily challenge. My brother and our neighbor found an abandoned shack in the country, just as young Jack does.
I get those parts.
Yet, even though “Tree of Life” touched my emotions, it strangely could not capture my heart.
“The Tree of Life” won the top award, the Palme d'Or, at the Cannes Film Festival last month. Viewers both cheered and booed after its screening. I suspect local audiences might do the same.
“The Tree of Life” opens at the Century Centre in Chicago. It will expand to Chicago's River East 21 and the Evanston Century 12 on June 10. Rated PG-13 for “thematic material” (translation: we don't know why it's rated PG-13). 138 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ½
The CNGM mixer is on
The independent, not-for-profit Northwest suburban filmmakers at CNGM Pictures are throwing their second summer mixer to raise funds for their upcoming productions. There will be cocktails, a chat, prizes and previews galore at the mixer starting today at 7:30 p.m. at the Ashland, 2824 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago. I attended last year's CNGM mixer, and the prizes (some won by bids, others by raffle) were very cool.
CNGM is mostly made up of graduates from Palatine's Fremd High School, including Steve Coulter, Michael Noens, Michelle Higgins, Nick Cardiff, Tony Schiavone, Dennis Florine and many others.
Suburbanites in ‘D.I.N.K.s'
Several Northwest suburban actors are featured in Robert Alaniz's independent comedy “D.I.N.K.s” playing at 8 p.m. today at the Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago.
Maura Locke Antas of Wheaton, Blake Buczkiewicz of Huntley, Sharon Dalla Costa of Winfield, Jack Guasta of Glendale Heights and Cassie Olson of Hoffman Estates play key roles in the comedy.
It's about a couple in the fictional Legacy, Ill., who decide not to have children and wind up becoming the targets of discrimination from the plethora of local couples who do have children.
“D.I.N.K.s” (double income, no kids) is a film about parenting, birth control, sex, discrimination and the right to choose. It was shot in several suburbs, including Orland Park, Kankakee and New Lenox, as well as Chicago.
The film premiered at the Portage Theater in March and was popular enough to warrant a return engagement.
Tickets cost $10 ($8 for students and seniors) and can be purchased at dinksthemovie.com or at the box office. There will be a meet and greet with the filmmakers at 7 p.m.
Underground fest is on
The 18th Chicago Underground Film Festival continues through June 9 at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. Go to siskelfilmcenter.org or call (312) 846-2600.
Night with Jamie Foxx
Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx hits Chicago Saturday night to raise funds for the Gene Siskel Film Center. He'll be at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 160 E. Pearson St., Chicago, from 6 to 10 p.m. Robert Downey Jr., last year's winner of the Film Center's Renaissance Award, will host the evening and interview Foxx. Tickets start at $400 and can be ordered at (312) 846-2072 or at jmangers@saic.edu.
Ÿ Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!