Song to Song (2017)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
BV	Ryan Gosling
Cook	Michael Fassbender
Faye	Rooney Mara	½
Rhonda	Natalie Portman
Amanda	Cate Blanchett
Lykke	Lykke Li	-
Duane	Val Kilmer	-
Zoey	Bérénice Marlohe	-
Miranda	Holly Hunter	-

Review

Terrence Malick’s version of a modern love triangle is a world of meandering and weirdly repetitive trains of thought and vapid acts of self-destruction. His characters have the visual likenesses of Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara and Natalie Portman, respectively, but they all act and reflect more or less the same – like young adults who have been suffering from arrested development since the 1970s. So why has a seemingly serious project by a filmmaker as merited as Malick turned out like this? Has Malick lost his touch completely, or did the movie end up in development hell before just barely escaping? Probably a bit of both. Malick has an artistic stubbornness that can make his images almost unwatchable when he strays off track. Because he sure as hell isn’t going to be led back onto it by anyone else. Additionally, the myriad of scenes, takes and cuts in Song to Song aren't just the result of Malick’s unorthodox narrative style (which I believe could have been effective and poignant in another film with a better script), it’s also most likely a result of a production which was so protracted and unfocused that what ended up in the cutting room never really seemed like a complete film. At any rate, the end product is a woeful, almost preposterous movie. There are hints of interesting bits and characters – all of which seem more like the result of flukes or ad-libbing, and which incidentally make the main plot lines of the film seem, if possible, even more alien.