Critics are agonizing

......over the Tree of Life and I love it. Well, not really flipping out, but the reactions are extremely divided (oh, like no one was expecting that….). The movie premiered early Monday morning in Cannes and ended to dramatic boos and scattered applause, and while there’s a general consensus that why yes, this movie is a visual orgasm because did you not realize that this is Terrence Malick and there are dinosaurs and visions of primordial Earth and God knows what else in the movie, everyone seems to either hate it or worship it in equal measure.

Weirdly enough, the initial frenzy of Tweets sent immediately after the screening succinctly summed up the gist of the polarized reactions:

“As beautiful as TREE OF LIFE is, it’s pretentious drivel of the worst Cannes kind.”

“Tree of Life is naive, pretentious, hypnotic, enthralling and absolutely unmissable.”

“Utterly mesmerising first hour, slightly listless second, generally unmissable”

“visually breathtaking and technically masterful, but excruciatingly drawn out and annoyingly pretentious”

“A glorified perfume ad” Ow.

“Tree of Life just ended, and it’s a very sad and beautiful…wank? The ultimate refutation of narrative? An interminable tone poem?”

“Tree of Life is a prayer.”

and my favorite:

“….sad to report that Samuel L. Jackson does not show up after the credits. Unclear as to how Tree of Life fits into The Avengers.”

A month to goooooo.

2011: A Whiff of Hope

Well, Oscar season is far from over and I still have multitudinous tumultuous Oscar rants to rage about, but for now I'm looking ahead to 2011 in film.

Even if I've come to the realization that mediocre superhero flicks and trashy princess fairy tale live-action "interpretations" (aka Twilightfied) will saturate the movie market for the next, oh, twenty five years, there are always still glimmers of hope to be found.

Feb. 11: The Eagle - Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell

What? Don't judge me. Most likely it will end up being this year's "Clash of the Titans" (at least, just as funny and not as boring), but maybe it will be the best guilty pleasure of 2011. And that to me is just as wonderful as any movie plied with Oscars.

March 11: Jane Eyre - Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender

OH MY GOD. I JUST CAN'T WAIT. Have already done my fair share of obsessive pre-conjuncturing.

May 27: The Tree of Life - Sean Penn, Brad Pitt (or the other way around?)

Well obviously even if we get redundant rhapsodizing of sheer nonsense from Malick, I'm just happy just to be bombarded by his sublime montages.

June 10: Super 8 - JJ Abrams (is always the real star of his movies)

It just looks real cool, is all. A bit of nostalgic Spielberg-feeling. I like the fact that Kyle Chandler is in it, though ENOUGH WITH THE ELLE FANNING. Child stars get overexposure like no other, and right now there are like, twelve. I haven't even seen "Somewhere" and even I'm sick of seeing her everywhere. She's supposedly modeling for Rodarte or something equally preposterous precocious.

July 15: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part II

I hope that this will be as haunted and self-assured as its companion piece, and I know that I will have a major breakdown after the movie fades to credits and the full realization that my childhood Harry Potter is over, really over, hits me at last. Just me and every late teen/young adult, just blubbering incessantly and weeping inconsolably. All beautiful things have to come to an end. For the time in my life, I'll feel the full impact of the words, "they'll never understand what it was like". OK shut up now. Pull it together til July, dammit!

Nov: Twilight - JUST KIDDING. FUCK THAT SHIT. Wow 2011 is going to be an emotionally unstable one for me when it comes to the movies...

Dec 21: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Rooney Mara

(Trailer TBD????)

Fincher Fincher Fincher Fincher Fincher

Possibles: War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, Hugo Cabret, Arthur, X-Men: First Class, Your Highness

Looking back at my 2010 list of anticipated movies, I realize that a third of the movies I never saw on that list and a third of them didn't even come out. And that was in April. Making a list at this time of the year is starting to feel futile.