Popular reviews

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 42

  Terrence Malick is back. Back from the present. Back from the twirling. Back from his battle with the boundlessness of digital technology, a neutral force that nevertheless has the power to seduce certain filmmakers away from their convictions. Malick has always been the cinema’s most devout searcher, his faith and uncertainty going hand-in-hand. But the work he’s made over the last few years hasn’t been searching so much as lost. 2011’s “The Tree of Life” found the auteur pivoting away from the past for the first time in his storied career, and that semi-autobiographical masterpiece came to serve as the auteur’s bridge from historical frescos to contemporary sketches – from profound awe to puzzled wonder.

  If “Badlands” and “Days of…

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  Review by Karsten ★★★★ 6

  Such an ambitious and emotionally gripping experience. I’m just exhausted. The man could not be more self-indulgent (to a point where it’s honestly just obnoxious) but Malick sure knows how to make a movie.

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  Review by Mike Flanagan 13

  My friends and I concluded our 7-film Terrence Malick screening series last night with A HIDDEN LIFE, which was a perfect way to close the curtain on this little journey.

  A thoughtful, deeply felt chronicle of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. It's a simple story about a complex moral question, and our responsibility to refuse to participate in what we know is wrong, despite the consequences and pressures from even those closest to us.

  Malick's poetic sensibilities feel much more focused here than the films that immediately precede this in his filmography (TO THE WONDER, KNIGHT OF CUPS, SONG TO SONG), and the story is vitally relevant to today's…

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  Review by Patrick Willems ★★★★ 13

  Terry is back babyyyyyyyyyyy

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  Review by David Sims ★★★★½ 16

  "What has happened to our country? To the land we love?"

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  Review by travis k ★★★★½ 36

  The legend goes that, after watching Silence, Terrence Malick wrote a letter to Martin Scorsese asking “What does Christ require of us?” As a question prompted by the film, it was a good one, well-merited and existentially urgent. What does Christ require of us? Must we confess Him only in our hearts, or also in our words? What great deeds must we do to be worthy of Him? For someone like Malick, like myself, like countless others who take matters of faith very seriously, there can be few questions of greater concern. 

  Another legend tells of a mason and carpenter who, as he labored in construction of a great cathedral, hid tiny, intricate carvings in the spaces between the stones and…

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  Review by Thomas Flight ★★★★★ 2

  I don’t think I’ve ever watched a film that’s made me such an emotional wreck as this one. Watched it with my wife this time and we were both a mess by the end. 

  This is such a powerful story of conviction, and sacrifice, brought to life so beautifully by Malick’s contemplative approach. 

  It’s also one of the most beautiful settings in an film ever. I’m still stunned by the mountains half way through the film. You don’t get used to them.

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  Review by Doug Dillaman ★★★★★ 20

  Speculation has abounded about Terrence Malick's latest, that it might be something "more conventional". It is, and it isn't. Here's how it is: it has its clearest dramatic structure since BADLANDS, possibly even more clear. An Austrian couple during the outbreak of WWII gradually discover that the man will be required to make an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler. He believes, because of his Christian morality, he cannot do so. This dilemma drives the entire film, and the relationship of the couple throughout this test is its backbone.

  Here's how it isn't: Malick has deeply internalised all the techniques he has used in his previous films to make an incredibly assured yet highly idiosyncratic film. It's "Malickian", and yes,…

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  Review by Sethsreviews ★★★★½ 7

  Without a question, one of the most outrageously striking films I have ever seen. The long, stunning rural landscapes make the perfect backdrop for a film like this. The cinematography feels so personal, complimented by the most astounding score, maybe one of the best I've ever heard. The entire film is meditative, but with a sense of genuine urgency, raising numerous questions about values, relationships, and loyalty to a purpose. I got similar feelings while watching this as I felt when I first watched Scorsese's Silence. Not only in terms of methodical pacing and eye-catching visuals, but also in respect of the overriding themes of faith and moral conviction that define both films' perspectives. And, like Silence, I'm looking forward…

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  Review by 🎃🔥Mr. Like🔥🎃 ★★★★ 5

  Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
  Metacritic Metascore: 78
  IMDB: 7.5
  Viewing Platform: Redbox

  89/100

  Release Date: 31 August 2019
  Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
  Worldwide Gross: $4.6M
  Filming Locations: Berlin, Germany
  Filming Locations: St. Radegund, Austria

  2019 Ranked
  Redbox Ranked 

  Franz Jägerstätter: "Does a man have the right to let himself be put to death for the truth? Could it possibly please God? He wants us to have peace, happiness. Not to bring suffering on ourselves."

  SYNOPSIS: The Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II.
  - Source: IMDb 
  
  Based on true events, A Hidden Life is Malick's most direct exploration of faith since To the Wonder, and perhaps his most fully realized work yet.…

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  Review by Neil Bahadur ★★ 18

  This is almost certainly my least favorite Malick, but it's not necessarily uninteresting - interesting for the ways it's revealing towards the fundamentals of Malick's worldview, the same way I find say, many of Eastwood's films fascinating. But whereas those Eastwood films show a part of a country that most of his other countrymen find embarrassing, Malick here hones in on specifics and as a result much of the ambiguity that made his work tolerable (at least for me) dissipates into a kind of extended prayer. I'm reminded of when this movie was first announced, and Malick noted that this was the first time he was working with a full script in years, which made me think of Kiarostami and…

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  Review by Mike Thorn

  This plays as some sort of response to Scorsese's Silence, in that both films contend with theodicy through the challenges of "embodying" Christ in a post-lapsarian world whose collective state of hereditary sin seems to be at its worst. Tangential note: I sensed a connection to Dovzhenko, which is probably coincidental.

  Malick is one of the few major living American filmmakers who's unafraid of believing in something.