Our father

The Tree of Life

Crit

So many ways to begin. For example, . . .

If I could give one piece of advice to a movie character, it would be to shy away from any film that begins with an epigraph from the Book of Job, and not just Job but Job quoting one of God's pissiest "fuck-you-I-don'-gotta-show-you-no-stinkin'-badge" speeches. Just leave now; it's not going to be fun. Or . . .

This is a lot like Monty Python's The Meaning of Life except without the vomiting, gratuitous display of bouncing breasts, and laughs. Or . . .

Wait a minute: I thought it was the eldest son who is killed at 19, but the eldest is clearly Young Jack, no? But he turns into Sean Penn as an adult. So who died? Or . . .

Pretty cool birth-of-Earth and dinosaur scenes, huh? Or . . .

Well, you get the idea. The point is I have no idea where to begin, where to go from there, and what's worth saying. Did I like it? Well, that's complicated--yeah, in a way, but I doubt I'll ever go out of my way to see it again (though you never know). Did I admire it? Oh, hell, yeah! Did I find it one of the most ambitious pieces of cinema that has rolled into town in ages? Check! Also one of the oddest? Check, and I might lose the "one of."

I pretty much grew to hate the trailer and was essentially bullied by the reviews into seeing it, so I'll add my bullying to theirs: if you care about movies, you have to see it. Just don't expect it to try to make you like it.

Trailers

• Another Earth--These first two seem to have been chosen to get us ready for the feature. Potentially megadumb premise here is that there's a planet up there just like ours peopled with just-like-each-of-us.
• The Future--Latest from Miranda July, which means I almost certainly will not be indifferent toward it.
• Pariah--Black Brooklyn teen lesbian.
• The Descendants--Alexander Payne directs George Clooney? Need you even ask?