Song to Song Movie Review

Song to Song (2017)

Rent Song to Song on Amazon Video
Written by: Terrence Malick
Directed by: Terrence Malick
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Val Kilmer
Rated: PG-R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Two intersecting love triangles. Obsession and betrayal set against the music scene in Austin, Texas.

Verdict
Malick movies have a distinctive style. It's a lot of pretty images with voice over that lend themselves to making the movie appear introspective and deep. His style is music, images, and maybe a movie somewhere in there. It's usually very artistic, but with this movie it's just needlessly abstract. This story unfolds asynchronously, seemingly just to be be more confusing. I like Malick, but this feels like a Malick imitation.
Skip it.

Review
Set in and around the music industry seemed perfect for a Malick movie. Knight of Cups was a collection of music and images. It felt like a characters memory, a train of thought exercise from the character's point of view.

I expected Song of Song to perfect the style, but it doesn't. The music isn't as integral as I expected. I thought this might be even more abstract, but it isn't. The story is told out of order. While I can usually see why Malick orders the scenes in the way he does, I couldn't find a connection here. This movie attempts to have more of a plot. While it has the hallmarks of Malick movies, it feels like an imitation of a Malick movie.

A Hidden Life, which came out later, manages to find the balance of story, images, and style.

This has the hallmarks of Malick's movies. There's lots of voice over, fleeting images of life, nature, and a movie somewhere in between. Initially I wasn't sure if the scenes were non-sequential. This is that kind of movie, where you just don't know. It turns out it is non-sequential. This is intentionally complex. Usually Malick's movies have a thread or a thought that would serve for non-linear scenes, but I didn't see it.

Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara play BV, Cook, Faye.

This is a story of love and an affair. Cook is a free spirit, hard partying music exec having an affair with Faye who hopes he will further her career. Faye's boyfriend, BV is a moderately successful musician. His producer happens to be Cook. That's the plot and it takes over an hour to piece that together. I almost wanted to watch the first half again to make sure I had the right idea, but it's not good enough to do that. This is a reflection on twisted relationships.

Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman.

I really wanted to see more bands and music. We do see a lot of people jumping into water fully clothed. It's a Malick trademark. While this has some nice shots, it doesn't have the impressive cinematography I expected.

The first cut of this movie was eight hours long. I can't imagine. Christian Bale, Benicio del Toro, Boyd Holbrook had their scenes cut from the movie. Val Kilmer is in the movie for a few seconds.
At two hours, I wondered if this one would ever end.

Malick's movies are memories, dreams, and snippets of everything else. It's left to the viewer to piece together the movie. I don't know of any other movies that consistently put that much work on the viewer. I like Malick's movies, but this is taxing even for a Malick movie. If I hadn't see Malick's other movies, that are better, with this unique style, I might like this one more. This concept is a nice change of pace, an artistic exploration, but if every movie were this obtuse, people would watch fewer movies.