Ever since 2012's To the Wonder, Terrence Malick's movies have more or less consisted of two lovers staring, caressing and often appearing to be engaged in an extended foreplay with one another. A filmmaker of quiet, visual prose whose movies were once admired far and wide (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line), Malick has turned into a director whose works are all photographically beautiful, but are otherwise lacking in heart. In other words, he's become the art cinema's Michael Bay: all style, very little substance.
In his most recent examination of the Music Festival scene, Song to Song, the reclusive auteur once again lures some beautiful actors in the likes of Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman, among others. As Gosling's aspiring musician falls for the innocent and equally ambitious Mara, their relationship is affected by their acquaintance of a shady music producer, played by the ever engaging Michael Fassbender. Their love triangle soon evolves into an orgy of relationships of both sexes (I honestly lost track of all the protagonists' lovers, just the way I did in Malick's last effort, Knight of Cups), and the romance at its center never quite emotes to anything the viewer will hang on to after the credits roll.
A Malick trademark of late is a series of exotic locales (both architecturally and in nature) during twilight hours in which everyone seems to be in a spiritual mood, an element used almost thoroughly for the third straight time here. Song to Song may not be a great movie, but it's also less pretentious than its filmmaker's last two predecessors. I just hope that Terrence Malick returns to making movies for his audiences some day, rather than just for himself.
C+
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