Art Cinema At Its Best

When Malick first pitched the idea of Tree of Life he was called "crazy"; plot details were veiled and nevertheless it became patent that this was to become the most ambitious and philosophically rich film. Having seen this film numerous times now it is still difficult to outline the plot details. Tree of Life film paints a picture of everyday life in 1950s American midlands and creates an unflinching vision of the childhood belonging to Jack O'Brien, portrayed by Sean Penn. Malick injects realism and dream sequences simultaneously evoking the innermost human feelings, achieving this with artistic imagery and unconventional, fragmented and non-linear narrative; the film transitions from Jack's stark memories of child play, sights of his parent's secrets, feelings of his sexuality and guilty trespass to a backdrop of the origins of the universe and the inception and end of life on Earth. And that is what marks Tree of Life from mainstream Hollywood.

There have been films in passing years that have been endowed cult status that perhaps don't deserve it. People believe the film is "cutting edge" and will "revolutionise" cinema whilst endeavouring to fabricate nonsensical interpretations. However, Tree of Life is art and as an art house film its experimental and not designed for mass appeal. To watch Tree of Life it is necessary to look at his film as a piece of art. It's not geared towards escapism and pure entertainment and one needs to expect that there is deviations from mainstream film norms. The Tree of Life is simply art cinema at its best.

10/10