There is absolutely no reason any human being would want to waste their time watching this plot-less, character-less, emotion-less piece of absolute garbage. In the midst of laughing hysterically at what is intended to be a dramatic and thought-provoking piece of 'cinematic art' I kept telling myself "This has to be the worst film ever made". I have a great deal of respect for most of the artists involved in the making of this film including Malick, who has made some absolutely amazing, groundbreaking movies in his career. On top of that I can't stand the formulaic and overplayed Hollywood movies that keep flying off the shelves, which is why I go out of my way to watch films like this.
Similar to the two previous projects of Terrence Malick (To the Wonder and Knight of Cups), we are introduced vaguely into a small window in the lives of a few individuals without being given any character development of narrative base. Without a basic understanding of who are characters are and what they like about each other or what their personalities are like we cannot even force ourselves to have the smallest bit invested in the story. Not only is the acting impossible to take seriously, the directing is ten times as bad. We are constantly unsure who's story is being told and the role that each character plays on the lives of the others. This is a star-studded cast of trained actors, but they are thrust into this overbearingly indulgent sphere of artsy fartsy cinematography and false profundity being delivered through emotionless voice-over.
Ryan Gosling has by far the best performance, and can almost be believed to be a real person once or twice. Yet we cannot be sure what's happened to him or what his desires, intentions, or beliefs are. The other performances are all absolute garbage but maybe has to do with the editing, which removed almost every scene with any dialogue. If you went through this movie, amongst the touching of walls and occasional touching of shoulders and stomachs, I don't think you could find a single cohesive scene where the goals or relationships of the characters could be defined or even interpreted without making huge assumptions.
The Texas music scene was a complete gimmick and had absolutely nothing to do with the storyline or characters in any way. It was just used as a way to create some rhythm to the editing of what would have otherwise been a film entirely devoted to absurd prancing around, birdlike mating rituals, touching each other sensually, and then having a glow-stick party just to transition smoothly to another pointless, indulgent scene that doesn't develop anything new. So the "music scene setting" was an excuse to get a few famous musicians to film in your movie, and a way to explain the background of a film without a background.
The fact that this was shot in 2012, and not screened until 2017, gives me a pretty clear idea of how much garbage they originally shot. But it also raises the question as to why these specific shots and 'scenes' were chosen for the final cut. I feel terribly bad for Rooney Mara, who may have had a few good performances in there somewhere, but must have been cut somewhere along the way. For the first half of the films she doesn't say a single word on screen but seems to be the main character. In the end we don't feel sorry, we don't forgive, we're not proud of her, we basically don't give two shits what happens to any of them. And we aren't told what happens to any of them or given even the slightest glimpse of a conclusion. As someone who loves unanswered questions as a natural part of storytelling, normally I wouldn't mind this. But in Song to Song I found myself constantly saying, "what the heck is happening?" and "Who are these people?" and "Why are they doing these strange mating ritual things and looking away from each other in empty public spaces?" Those aren't the kind of unanswered questions that make you think.
The absolute number one criticism I have for the film is that hardly a quarter of the time are the characters doing anything that I would consider "normal" human behavior. Not one natural exchange, not one human emotion that wasn't overridden by self-proclaiming, melodramatic, bourgeois, in-your face filmmaking. It is trying to explore big ideas like trust and betrayal, obsession and connection, and past vs present, but there have simply been far too many films that have already explored these concepts in much better, easily interpreted and more enjoyable to watch ways. Majority of the film is spent with two characters walking in different directions running their hands along poles or walls, and the other half they are doing inappropriate public displays of affection. Also the setting changes almost every shot and there is never any explanation as to why or any logical explanation given as to why they are so alone in these public environments. I thought for a second he was pulling another artistic gimmick like "they are in their own world" or something like that, but that reading can't be justified because there is once in a while a few other people around.
My condolences to the editors, who had to cut this down for Malick's original 8 hour cut, and the actors who's performances were sabotaged by a crappy vision.
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