M. Leary

To The Wonder (Malick, 2013)

Curator Magazine posted my review of To The Wonder last week. It was a delight to write for them. But more could have been said about the O’Keefe orchid and succulent shots, the shot focus on the mirror image of the unicorn in one of the medieval “Lady and the Unicorn” tapestries, the Lorica of St. Patrick, […]

M. Leary

They Who See God’s Hand: The Tree of Life as an “Upbuilding Discourse”

[Ed. note: A very, very welcome guest post from Nicholas Olson] The very moment everything was taken away from Job, he knew it was the Lord who’d taken it away. He turned from the passing shows of time. He sought that which is eternal. Does he alone see God’s hand who sees that He gives? […]

M. Leary

Tree of Life as Biblical Theology

The Tree of Life is not my favorite Malick film. It is a great experience, and it is saturated with great thoughts about fatherhood, sonship, and the cosmic significance of what happens to us as children. But it lacks the continental vigor that gave birth to Days of Heaven and decades later, The New World, which […]

M. Leary

What Malick Teaches Us About Cinema

The Gospel Coalition recently posted a review of Tree of Life that makes some interesting claims toward the end. I have emphasized the words that caught my attention:  “Recently, philosophers have begun asking the question of whether or not film has/will become a new form of thought itself.” “If these analyses turn out to be […]

M. Leary

Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978)

“To dwell is to garden.” (Heidegger, “The Origin of the work of Art”) And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of […]

M. Leary

Rosenbaum on Badlands

Rosenbaum has been retro-posting reviews he wrote for the Monthly Film Bulletin in the 70’s on his website. Among these trips down memory lane is a dense review of Badlands that caught my eye on account of the way Rosenbaum’s descriptions become so lyrical: The stylistic familiarities, on the other hand, appear too quickly and […]