'Song To Song' A Review

Song To Song is an experimental romantic drama filmed in Austin, TX loosly about singer/songwriters BV(Ryan Gosling) and Faye(Rooney Mara) their relationship with nebulous producer Cook(Michael Fassbender) and to a lesser extent about his marriage with server Rhonda(Natalie Portman). The film weaves in and out of chronology using image and score to convey meaning rather than the sparing dialogue.

Mara as the defacto main character is serviceable but seems to be constrained by the style, without scenes to play or lines to speak she is presentational more than natural. We can see her acting. To be fair she is the focus of many painfully protracted close ups where she has nothing to do. Gosling, Fassbender, and Portman all fair better, more comfortable with what was(or maybe more accurately what wasn't) required. More fluid and more honest. However the main cast is all limited by what they can do simply by the nature of the script, or lack there of, its convoluted and muddled. We're never quite sure what dynamics are at play, who wants what, or why we should care. All despite the best efforts of the talented actors.

Visually, of course, the film is beautiful. The score haunting and evocative. Typical of writer/director Malick. And yet an actual film fails to coalesces. Because of the pseudo narrative affectations its more pastiche than complete thought. There are spontaneous moments of real beauty and scenes of really compelling honesty but they fail to add together to make anything like a whole.

More montage than movie, more experiment than actual idea, interesting but not moving.

Don't See It.