senses of cinema

A film journal produced with the assistance of Film Victoria, senses of cinema contains many great articles from contributors the world over, like this one The Treasure of the Sierra Madre or, Socrates in the Desert

I stumbled upon this via a contributor, Brad Nguyen, who is co-editor of Screen Machine, an online collection of film, media and cultural criticism. He wrote an engaging review of Tree of Life which can be read online here.

The Tree of Life

"There are two ways through life. The way of nature and the way of grace."

After a year of suspense, we all raced to see Malick's polarising new film on the day of its release. Within fifteen minutes, ten people had left the cinema. Two hours later, we sat speechless, winded by a film that I feel unable to review. I feel it is almost artless. It is the closest any film I've seen has come to revealing the minute, the cosmic, the meaning of natural order and chaos.

There is a particular moment amidst the infamous 16 minute birth of the universe sequence where the emptiness and endlessness of the universe seemed exactly as I've imagined it. Watching The Tree of Life, there are many moments like this, where it is as though your memories or imagination are being recreated on the screen. This is cinema at its greatest.

I don't know what else to say.

You must see this film.