Chris Barsanti

No matter how deep Terrence Malick loses himself in imagery, those vistas which have captivated from Badlands to The New World, he was normally able to anchor them at least fleetingly in some blooded human drama. In The Tree of Life, however, he comes closer than ever before to severing ties with story nearly completely. This leap into bold abstraction is as awe-inspiring as it is irksome—in other words, par for the course in terms of Malick’s quixotic career…

The Tree of Life — starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and some of the most jawdropping imagery ever put to film — opens Friday. See it on the big screen, if you care about cinema. Read the full review at Film Journal International.