The Tree of Life Reviews and Clips

Terrence Malick’s delayed The Tree of Life has premiered at Cannes and the first reviews are already making their way online. In addition to sharing some of those reviews, I have a pair of clips from the film starring Brad Pitt shared below.

Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum was in awe of Malick’s ” visual bravado,” but ultimately came away feeling “less serene” than she had hoped and places the blame on the machina behind the work that is “distractingly visible.”


Variety’s Justin Chang is more upbeat on The Tree of Life, calling it “something extraordinary” that is “pure-grade art cinema.” Chang makes references to 2001: A Space Odyssey from an early CGI sequence that depicts life in its simplest form through to some of its most complex.

THR’s Todd McCarthy feels The Tree of Life will split opinions and praises Brad Pitt’s performance as his best to date. He warns The Tree of Life is not a movie for the masses and will be difficult to market outside the arthouse movie crowd, but in his mind is a an “exceptional and major film” nonetheless.

The Tree of Life, only the fifth film from Malick in roughly four decades, opens in a limited North America theaters on May 27 and will expand during the month of June.

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