The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Review: ‘Song to Song’ fails fans of the indie genre

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By Logan Meyer, A&E editor

We should all take a moment, right now, to thank Terrence Malick for producing for our pleasure his new work “Song to Song.” It is the shining example of what not to do in an independent film.

The independent genre has given us such treasures as “Pulp Fiction,” “Juno” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” Malick, however, seems to take no inspiration from such gems. Instead, he has given us proof of why it is worse than a bad idea to direct a movie for which you wrote the screenplay.

“Song to Song” disguises itself as a romance, a musical and a work of cinematic genius. It delivers no such gift.

“Song to Song” is a film about sex, with a little bit of drugs and rock ‘n’ roll to round out the mix. With an all-star cast of Natalie Portman, Ryan Gosling, Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender and Rooney Mara, one would expect at least two of the three items from the list above. But, at least this disaster of a film is not the fault of the cast.

Each actor embraces their role as wholeheartedly as we can desire, and as competently as we should expect. However, masterful acting is useless without substantial dialogue, adequate characterization or even a semblance of plot.

Within the first five minutes, the audience learns that Faye (Mara), a struggling songwriter, wants to learn to live life in the moment, or, ever so cleverly, from song to song. However, there’s no question as to why she struggles with her chosen career given that throughout the entire film, she fails to actually write a song.

The remainder of the story, otherwise known as the longest 1 hour and 45 minutes in the history of film, portrays the lives of Faye, BV (Gosling), Cook (Fassbender), Rhonda (Portman) and Amanda (Blanchett) through seemingly anachronistic, ephemeral vignettes during which each falls in love with at least one other, but more often two or three. These short flashbacks, if that is indeed what they are, make the plot ever more incomprehensible as the film progresses.

Unfortunately, Malick makes further errors. He sets his original, recent work in the metropolitan Austin, Texas. This area is anything but demographically homogenous, yet “Song to Song” features solely white cast members.

Apparently representation is still out of the question. Or perhaps his goal is to say that no one of an ethnic minority ever goes into the arts? Either way, Malick’s artistic freedom goes a touch, or a mile—take your pick—too far.

“Song to Song” is, in short, a supposedly artistic film which tells next to no story and takes far too long to find its non-ending. Malick embarrasses the good name of the independent film and wastes the talent of his cast and the time of his viewers.

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