Tree of Life

AroView: Terrence Malick’s astonishing Cannes-winning epic, centred ostensibly on the life of a Midwestern family in the 50s (presided over by a gruff Brad Pitt), but ultimately concerned with the greater mysteries of life and the universe.

Easily the most polarizing film of 2011, the director’s personal faith, philosophy, and biography reaches a kind of cosmic apex here, crystallized in bold, stunning images of nature; poetic, near-operatic editing; and a thematic density that has made the film the subject of endless discussion and debate. To that end, it’s impossible not to admire the scale and spectacle of its vision, regardless of whether you’re baffled or mesmerized by it, or consider it a masterpiece or a mess.

“A beautiful, messy film: at times lyrical, intimate, and uplifting; at others, vast, inscrutable, and maddening.” ~ The Atlantic.