Mud Songs

Cassandra’s Dream is Woody Allen trying to get back in form as a writer-director, but not quite making it. It’s the story of two brothers, Ewan McGregor and a mis-cast Colin Farrell (he sunk Terrence Malick’s The New World for me) who get tangled up in a criminal situation where people end up getting hurt. One brother struggles with his conscience; the other brother doesn’t. Certain scenes are well directed and affective, but there are too many elements of the movie that don’t work. Still, I admire Woody Allen for the attempt to present a story with both style and substance. I might like this one more if I get around to watching it again, but I’d rather just watch Crimes and Misdemeanors, which is pretty damn close to a masterpiece; same deal with Match Point. All three films deal with a similar subject manner, only the last two do it brilliantly.

Terrence Malick and Nestor Almendros sure know how to compose lovely shots. It’s almost sacrilege to say anything bad about Malick. It might take another viewing, though, before I’m in the “love it” camp for Days of Heaven.

Badlands is another Terrence Malick film that didn’t grab me. The story was a zero. I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of it. So sue me.