Terrence Malick isn’t interested in stories. Ever since TREE OF LIFE (2011) his interest in telling linear, plausible, and psychologically realistic stories has dwindled. That fits with the biography of a cranky artist who began as an intellectual wunderkind, disappeared from the limelight for decades, and reinvented himself as a workaholic cinematic philosopher a few years ago. TREE OF LIFE was an aesthetically composed film, but Malick has left the cage of formalism as well. His new film staggers across the world, butterflies run after each other, fall in love in the bright light of a metropolis at night, and climb every peak and tree in the range of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s hungry cinematic eye.

You can think it’s arbitrary, commercial, or the pretentious murmurs of an old man who’s promoting spiritual honesty. It’s undoubtedly a reasonable way of interpreting it, but it ignores the ecstatic excess that Malick’s newer films celebrate. SONG TO SONG is concretely about ecstasy. After taking on the film biz in KNIGHT OF CUPS he now turns to the music business – two industries that stand for the profaneness of people’s need to poeticize the world. Malick “tells” the story of the lively music scene in Austin. Faye (Rooney Mara), is a musician who finds herself in a love triangle with fellow musician BV (Ryan Gosling) and sardonic producer Cook (Michael Fassbender). Cook is also interested in waitress Rhonda (Natalie Portman) and pulling a fast one over BV.

What could have become a sweet, bland arthouse story from anyone else becomes a stream of consciousness flood of images with a voiceover that grounds the free-floating story. Malick sets himself free from narrative binds and delves into what it’s really about for him: people’s need for human touch. The film ends in a way that could be called conservative or dreamily naïve. It doesn’t change the fact that SONG TO SONG marvels and celebrates the need to sing and laugh, love, dance, and touch.

Thomas Groh (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy