The Tree of Life - Review

It's a unique kind of film that attracts a packed art house audience, only to send half of them packing before the end credits roll. The last time I saw so many people leave a cinema was when Closer wasn't quite the Julia Roberts Rom Com a lot of old ladies clearly expected. But The Tree of Life's divisive nature is on a different level: those that left apparently found in unbearable, but those that stayed loved it. Perhaps it's Brad Pitt's name on the poster that draws in audiences that clearly have no prior knowledge of the film, but I don't remember the same response (in either attracting or repelling audiences) to Pitt's Assassination of Jesse James.

Cinema-going experience aside, The Tree of Life is without a doubt one of the year's most unmissable cinematic experiences. And it really should be experienced on the big screen. It may be self indulgent and taxing, but its dizzyingly realised scope & ambitions put it in a class of its own. You could watch it purely as a two hour audio-visual experience and be mesmerised, but there's also a wonderful story (or something like it) if you're willing to take it for what it is and be swept along with its stream of consciousness meditations on childhood, loss, death, creation, God, justice, nature and grace, all built around an urban business man's recollections of his suburban 1950s childhood, the moments that shaped his world view and the impact of his parents - his gracious, gentle, open-hearted mom and his loving but harsh and fundamentally disappointed dad.

With bar-setting camerawork from Emmanuel Lubezki, and a classical Alexandre Desplat score to match, the film is already a masterclass in cinema, but its a marvel that Mallick managed to put his impressionistic ambitions to paper in the first place and that his team of editors managed to put it all together. The special effects team take in lengthy sequences charting the creation of the Universe and episodes with dinosaurs that are not only beautiful, but slyly show that it's not always the fittest that survive.

Lending the film its weight and lasting impact, however, is the strong cast, both young & old, Oscar winning & unknown. Brad Pitt & Jessica Chastain create captivating characters while embodying adult Jack's memories & Mallick's themes of Nature and Grace. The child cast, led by the exceptional Hunter McCracken, is uniformly gritty, complex and real, much to Mallick's credit. Only Sean Penn wanders somewhat aimlessly through the present-day scenes (& fantasy climax), but as an actor his angst is effortlessly convincing & what he lacks in definition, Emmanuel Lubezki more than makes up for with the camera work that surrounds him.

Manically ambitious, unique & unmissable.

Awards Tracker - Best Actor

Year end awards are out and it's easy to lose track. I have been a nerd and tracked all the nominees and winners to date on a tidy spreadsheet, for your cinematic data pleasure. Yellow is a win, grey is a nomination, orange is a runner-up win & pinkish is an honourable mention or "special" award like "breakthrough performer."

The biggest nominees so far are Jean Dujardin in The Artist & George Clooney in The Descendants, with six nominations each, followed by Michael Fassbender - getting plenty of mainstream acceptance for Shame, Ryan Gosling in Drive, Brad Pitt in Moneyball & Leonardo DiCaprio in J Edgar, with four each and, surprisingly, Demian Bichir in A Better Life, with three.

Technically that would make them the Oscar frontrunners, but somehow Gosling, DiCaprio and Bichir don't feel quite like locks yet. Definitely not Gosling.

Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, Woody Harrelson in Rampart & Brendan Gleeson in The Guard show up with two nods each and Gary Oldman, some more Ryan Gosling, Owen Wilson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Peter Mullan, Tom Hardy, Jacob Wysocki, Mikael Persbrandt, Michel Piccoli & Andre Wilms round it out with one nomination per head.  

The critics sing a slightly different tune, with Fassbender by far in the lead at eleven critics nominations, three wins and two runner up wins, a strategy that probably got him onto Golden Globe and Critics Choice ballots but, unfortunately, not the Screen Actors Guild, which still makes his Oscar nomination a maybe. They back Clooney too, with ten nods, followed by Michael Shannon, Brad Pitt and Jean Dujardin showing up nine times each. They tried to push some love for Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, but not enough and it didn't take.  

Only a mild showing for Woody Harrelson, Paul Giamatti in Win Win, Ralph Fiennes in Coriolanus, Gosling in Drive and Brendan Gleeson.

Ultimately, there are still some awards to roll in, and the Academy can always pull in their own surprises, but for now, Jean Dujardin, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are locks, Fassbender is on a winning trajectory and probably either DiCaprio, Bichir or Shannon will fill in the fifth place.

NY Film Critics love The Artist, Moneyball and Meryl Streep

After postponing voting to screen Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the New York Film Critics Circle have named their favourites of 2011:

- French silent film The Artist picks up Best Picture and Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius
- Meryl Streep wins Best Actress, again, this time for The Iron Lady. Her fifth win off the NY Film Critics
- Brad Pitt wins Best Actor for his turns in both Moneyball and Tree of Life
- Pitt's co-star, and the year's biggest breakout star by far, Jessica Chastain wins Best Supporting Actress for Tree of the Life, The Help and Take Shelter. 
- Drive's Albert Brooks deservedly wins Best Supporting Actor for his gangster turn.
- And Aaron Sorkin continue his winning streak (after last year's The Social Network) by winning Best Screenplay for Moneyball, together with co-writer Steve Zallian.

Who to watch for Supporting Actor

The supporting race is really still quite open until the first awards start rolling in, but there are a few actors who have worked their way into the Oscar conversation by grabbing the best reviews in their respective films, as a best supporting actor should. 

The biggest contenders so far:

Christopher Plummer – Beginners

The 82 year old actor plays a 75 year old widower who is diagnosed with cancer, comes out of the closet and starts hitting the clubs to make up for lost time, six months after his wife’s death. From arty indie director Mike Mills, this is much more of a heartfelt thing than a sitcom thing. Recently nominated for the first time in a long, excellent career, Plummer is currently the frontrunner to win.

Albert Brooks – Drive

The 80s funny man revels at the chance to play against type as a B-movie producer turned dealmaking gangster in Nicolas Winding Refn’s acclaimed arty thriller, stealing all the best reviews from already highly acclaimed Ryan Gosling & Carey Mulligan. Villains are supporting actor gold, and this is a bit of a comeback for Brooks, a previous supporting nominee back in 1987 for his hilarious turn in Broadcast News.  

Nick Nolte – Warrior
The Hollywood veteran draws on his rough past to play a devastatingly vulnerable recovering alcoholic trying to bond with the sons whose life he wrecked. Quietly painful with a powerful, unexpected finish. A two time Best Actor nominee (he was on the way to win for The Prince of Tides in 1991, until Anthony Hopkins & Silence of the Lambs came along).

Strong competitors:


Brad Pitt - Tree of Life

As a figment of Sean Penn's memory, Pitt's father figure is necessarily vague around the edges, but he anchors the film in his personification of "the way of nature" - his Mr O Brien an ambitious, disappointed man who dominates young Jack's childhood as a loving, but misguidedly harsh & intimidating, 1950s father. I don't quite see Pitt as a double nominee, though, and at the moment it feels like he is more likely to be nominated as lead actor for Moneyball.



Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Pre-weight loss Jonah Hill brings his every man charm and sharp wit to Bennett Miller's baseball / statistics film, proving that baseball can be won by brains as well as brawn, as he rattles off Aaron Sorkin's quickfire dialogue opposite Brad Pitt. A known comic actor turning in a serious performance in one of the year's biggest films; sounds like an Oscar contender to me.

John Hawkes - Martha Macy May Marlene
The seasoned purveyor of indie eccentrics, and recent Oscar nominee for Winter's Bone, delves into the mind and skin of a creepy cult leader. Manipulative charm a-plenty. As with Winter's Bone, his nomination is hooked on the back of his lead actress's breakthrough performance, in this case Elizabeth Olsen as Martha Marcy etc. If she misses her nomination, it is unlikely he will make it without her, unfortunately.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman - The Ides of March / Moneyball

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has always been the highlight of any film he's in. No-one can make dialogue come alive with more freshness and immediacy than Hoffman. In Ides of March, he takes on Ryan Gosling & George Clooney in a game of shady politics, in Moneyball, he has fun with Aaron Sorkin dialogue opposite Brad Pitt. Hoffman's last Sorkin-scripted film was Charlie Wilson's War, which landed him the film's sole nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. Kind of like a younger, male Judi Dench, his presence in Oscary films is just impossible to ignore.

Corey Stoll - Midnight in Paris

The biggest standout in Woody Allen's Best Picture contender (and highest grossing film ever), Stoll essays Ernest Hemingway's infamous intellectual charm, toughness & genius. A small part in a big cast, but he still has the film's best reviews and plays a legendary literary figure. The academy should be grateful after Chris O'Donnell's version of Hemingway in 1996's In Love and War, who was out "toughed" by Sandra Bullock's love-struck nurse. 

Viggo Mortensen - A Dangerous Method 

Viggo is a legend. Regrettably, his only nomination has been for the very brilliant Eastern Promises. (among his several snubs, A History of Violence is the most painful). In A Dangerous Method, he plays Sigmund Freud opposite Michael Fassbender's Carl Jung. The film has met only lukewarm response from critics, with Fassbender and Keira Knightly getting most of the attention as the film's forbidden lovers. Fassbender's Best Actor campaign is for his sex addict in Shame and Knightley is fast being edged out of the Best Actress race, but don't count out Mortensen's detailed perfection if the Academy finds themselves looking for a fifth slot nominee.

Ezra Miller - We Need to Talk About Kevin

The rising indie star plays Tilda Swinton's psycho-in-the-making teenage son. Complex family dynamics, to say the least. If Swinton's campaign pays off, Miller could tag along. If not, count him out.








Unseen contenders:
No-one's seen their performances, but great things are expected.

Max Von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The novel's most interesting character. Legendary actor. He has been good lately, but not in English, and not in a big, tear-jerking Best Picture contender.

Tom Hanks - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

Oscar favourite in the film's most heart-string-pulling role as Oskar's beloved and tragically fated dad.

Jim Broadbent - The Iron Lady
Previous Oscar-winner for playing Iris Murdoch's long-suffering husband in Iris, British legend takes on another real-life background husband, this time as Denis Thatcher, husband to the better known Margaret.

Armie Hammer - J Edgar
After making a big impression as both twins in last year's The Social Network, handsome Hammer got cast as J Edgar Hoover's apprentice / alleged lover in Clint Eastwood's biopic. Probably not likely to make the top five, but should certainly show up in nominations along the way.










Not Contenders (but should be) :

Ralph Fiennes - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
Fiennes finally gets to unleash Voldemort's weird intensity, but can the Academy take a non-Tolkien wizard seriously?

Michael Fassbender - X-Men: First Class
Fassbender has more than enough Oscar contending roles in the mix, but his turn as the wounded, sharply intelligent man who will go on to become Magneto is pure perfection. Again, though, try to make the Academy take a comic book villain seriously.

Moneyball - Officially a big deal

I may have to eat my words. With $19.5M US Box Office in its first few weeks & a 94% Fresh rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Bennet Miller & Brad Pitt's Moneyball has officially become a big deal & a bona fide Oscar contender. Perhaps I underestimated America's connection with baseball & underdogs taking on the system. Plus Phillip Seymour Hoffman is never a bad thing.

Best Actor Contenders

Serious Contenders:

George Clooney - The Descendants

George Clooney has been on fine form since winning his Oscar for Syriana, turning in one grippingly understated performance after the other. The Descendants is the latest from dramedy legend Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways), and Clooney's performance as suddenly-single dad Matt King, trying to connect with his daughters and confront the news of his wife's affair, while taking a trip through Hawaii, is said to be one of his best and most heartbreaking. Oscar nomination assured.

Leonardo DiCaprio - J Edgar

No-one has seen Clint Eastwood's J Edgar Hoover biopic, but based solely on the strong reputation of its Director and Star, as well as the persona and reportedly sordid private life of the famous FBI Director, as penned by Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk), the Best Actor Oscar is already considered his to lose. Of course its far too early to make such predictions, performance unseen, and early hype can be difficult to live up to, but provided the film delivers, the match of character and actor should play right into Oscar's hands.

Jean Dujardin -The Artist

The Cannes Best Actor winner is the charming centre of a film the Academy is sure to love - a sweet, old-school black-&-white silent film about show business & movie making. He won over the french and, unless the film flops in the States, is sure to charm his way onto many Academy voters' ballots.

Gary Oldman - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Simply because George Smiley is such an intriguing literary character, Cold War espionage dramas are so easy to like and because Gary Oldman, despite shifting from raging psychos (Leon) to gentle law-enforcers (The Dark Knight), has never been an Oscar nominee. Not once. Not even for Sid & Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, JFK or The Contender, not to mention his long-list of iconic crazies & oddballs. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy gives him the chance to lead a large, fantastic cast with a subtle complex performance. Time will tell if it will be enough.

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

I frankly don't know why Brad Pitt's performance in Moneyball is being considered Oscar-potential. He has made good movies post-Troy, and has stretched himself as an actor, but this true story of a Baseball manager's apparently revolutionary endeavor to select players based on computer-generated statistics, and upset the order of the Baseball world, seems highly underwhelming. The only things backing up the excitement is the involvement of Capote director Bennet Miller and last year's Oscar-winner Aaron Sorkin, as co-writer. Pitt will, of course, bring on the charm, the winning determination & the legendary smile and Terrence Mallick's Tree of Life will ensure he is already on everyone's radar, but I still don't see it being one of the year's strongest performances.

Ryan Gosling - Drive / The Ides of March

Gosling's intense, understated & largely silent performance in Drive seems destined to be an iconic standout in his already-impressive resume, but it could be too edgy / subtle / cool for Academy voters. His lead performance in George Clooney's political thriller Ides of March is yet to be seen but has all the makings of an Oscar-friendly journey from idealism to compromise. Gosling is an exceptional young actor who was overlooked for his astonishing performance in last year's Blue Valentine but is fast becoming impossible to ignore.











Michael Fassbender - Shame / Dangerous Method / Jane Eyre

Michael Fassbender burned his way to critical acclaim as Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's 2008 hunger strike drama, Hunger, and into the public consciousness as slick, doomed Lt Archie Hicox in Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. And he has been very busy since. Just this year, he has impressed critics as the bitter man who becomes Magneto in X-Men: First Class, an intense and untamed Rochester in Jane Eyre, and groundbreaking psychoanalyst Carl Jung in David
Cronenberg's psychological drama,
A Dangerous Method. But it was his turn as Brandon, a troubled sex addict negotiating endless sexual escapades & his complicated relationship with his troubled sister (Carey Mulligan) in Steve McQueen's latest, Shame, that saw him win Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and step into the Oscar golden circle. Provided voters can stomach the edgy subject matter, his performance in Shame is sure to put him on the map.   


Maybe Contenders:

Tree of Life Trailer

Originally posted: 2 Jan 2011

Anything by Terrence Mallick is always big news. Just four films to his name, and a planet of acclaim. Badlands & Days of Heaven in the 70s, then a 20-year wait before 1998's The Thin Red Line (Saving Private Ryan with more nature, poetry & more indie names in the cast). His most recent, The New World, did not impress everyone, but I loved it. The story dragged on & perhaps the characters did not convince, but with Mallick's potently poetic combination of images, music & internal monologues, I could sit through hours of ineffective plot & mopey Colin Farrell.

His latest is a sprawling epic that takes in everything from dinosaurs to a troubled father-son relationship (Brad Pitt is the father, Sean Penn is the son - in two different timelines, of course).  

Leans toward pretentious, but oh so beautiful. I could watch this trailer all day.