Review of Song to Song (2017) by Vanessa L — 09 Jul 2017

From "Lawless" to "Weightless" and finally "Song to Song", the latest Terrence Malick experiment has arrived - for better or worse - and once again has received polarizing critical reception, which is not surprising considering his latest projects. Was this 5 year experiment worth it?

Set on the music industry, we focus on a romantic square involving Mara, Portman, Fassbender and Gosling.

After enduring, somewhat enjoying and being mesmerized by "Knight of Cups" I thought that I would like Malick´s latest experiment which include some of my absolute favorite musicians - Patti Smith and Iggy Pop - but sadly I could barely finish it. Being shot back to back with "Knight of Cups", this film follows most of the same formula: Handheld cinematography that feels improvised but it still gorgeous, pretentious voiceover that tries to come off as poetry (but it isn't as successful as it was last time), naturalistic performances that mostly work perfectly, slow pacing that goes nowhere, rotating subplots, and minimalistic and meaningless dialog. However "Song to Song" is what I feared "Knight of Cups" would be: Uninteresting and pretentious. "Song to Song" is hampered by its dull romance story as we never care about these characters, instead this comes across as a dissection of romance rather than a love story. What made "Knight of Cups" interesting was the rotating ´storytelling´ where each segment was a snippet of the relationships Christian Bale´s character had with different people (ex-wife, brother, father, girlfriend, coworker, etc.) which each were different and some were relatable. However "Song to Song" is 100% focus on the romance so we need to care for them but this experimental storytelling diminish any emotion we may have gotten for them, thus making it a painful experience. I honestly can't believe that a movie that has Patti Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy Pop, John Lyndon and Arcade Fire could be as dull as this failed experiment.

"Song to Song" is an experiment that tries to be abstract and structureless but its hampered by its almost nonexistent romantic plot. This film represents every Malick´s trademark gone completely wrong. An experiment that not only failed completely but it is also one of the worst films on Malick´s filmography.