Film Review: The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life sat on our dining room table in it’s Netflix sleeve for a week and a half before we finally committed the two and a half hours necessary to watch this behemoth.  I have seen Malick’s A New World and the director’s cut at that, so I was prepared for a ponderously long film with lots of whispering, but not for two and a half hours of nature footage intercut with a cold man in a cold glass tower, who I hardly cared two straws about, intercut with an intimate, well-acted, if impressionistic childhood story.  I found this film extremely frustrating to watch, at times infuriating.  I am extremely busy with lots of films in my queue and to feel I’m wasting an hour on a ridiculous grandiose vision of life and the cosmos and evolution and being etc. etc. does not sit well.  Mostly, I was frustrated because it felt like a missed opportunity.  The childhood story was great and the performances delivered, particularly by the children were phenomenal, so to ruin it by going so over the top with all the other stuff just seemed a shame. 

Ostensibly, the story is about Jack, a man who has found commercial success in his life, but is still unhappy.  He is remembering his childhood and feeling the struggle within himself of the two opposite world views of his dominant, "take what you want in life" father (Brad Pitt) and his mother pious, selfless, and loving mother (Jessica Chastain).  Really, we hardly even meet adult Jack or care about him at all.  This element to the story, seems completely unnecessary really.  I don’t even understand we bother meeting adult Jack at all.

Malick’s other motive for creating this film, besides telling the story of Jack, a baby-boomer who grows up in Waco, TX, with his two brothers, is conveying some sort of (possibly deist) concept of the origins and meaning of life.  To do this, he feels it necessary to take us from the big bang through dinosaurs to their extinction, all scored with huge orchestral and choral pieces from the annals of classical music history.  For a moment I thought I was watching Fantasia.  One piece he uses, Smetana’s "The Moldau", is used for the trailer as well, and is actually a wonderful piece, that I’ve always liked.

Overall, I felt like there was so much subtlety and nuance in the performances of the actors, but in the storytelling I felt I was being bludgeoned over the head with symbolism that didn’t feel subtle at all.  Every time I felt myself being drawn into the film and the story of young Jack, Malick would do something to jerk me out of the story again.  Very frustrating to watch, especially when everything is so beautiful and he was able to elicit such amazing performances from such young children.  Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this film unless you are a solid Malick fan or a serious film buff and need to make sure you’ve seen it.

Ugliest House

While people all over the country are losing their homes, this resident of the Arcadia neighborhood in Phoenix, AZ took it upon himself to build this monstrosity.  This is possibly the most confused architectural abomination I have ever seen.  We have Grecian columns everywhere, some sort of ugly 80's tan stucco panels, and Spanish red roof tiles and what would be a beautiful Spanish door if belonged anywhere near this misguided opulence.  Don't forget the random barn door and the waist-high ugly cement foundation.  What is going on here?

I hate to be negative, because this blog is supposed to be a collection of inspiring images, but I couldn't resist.

Chicago Preview

During our Chicago weekend, I took all my photos on film, but here's a preview from photos I took with my phone.

The Rubicon Trail in the Sierras

These photos are from the Jeep commercial we filmed this summer.  It was a beautiful five days, camping in the Sierras and hiking the Rubicon Trail with the Jeeps.  Jeeping is a unique way of approaching the wilderness and a long held tradition on the Rubicon Trail.  While it's probably not my preferred way to experience nature, it was interesting to learn about and we couldn't have chosen a more beautiful set.

Touring London

Netflix: The Big Flip Flop

So Netflix has abandoned the Qwikster plan for now.  But I still am not sure we are keeping our subscription.  The whole thing is priced inefficiently if you want to have both services and the reason is noted in this New York Times Blog Article : Netflix, in Reversal, Will Keep Its Services Together: 

"Netflix said it never actually separated the services or started Qwikster. But the planned breakup was rooted in Mr. Hastings’ belief that DVDs and online streams have different cost structures and different consumer demographics."  Hastings couldn't be more wrong in terms of the consumer demographics.  The public outcry at the planned breakup has proved there is a significant overlap between people who consume DVDs/blu-rays and those who consume streaming content.  And this, for the most part, is created by the fact that their streaming library is still not as extensive as their DVD library.  Without this problem, he would likely be correct.  I don't know what the cost structures are for Netflix for the two different services, but I know I'd be willing to pay more for streaming than I currently do if I could be guaranteed HD streaming of every title in the DVD library.  Alas, I think it's the studios and media conglomerates that stand in the way of that.  They would rather sell DVDs than streaming rights it seems.  This will obviously evolve, but these media behemoths move and change slowly and Netflix just got a little too impatient for their own good.

More Commentary, interesting point of view from Popular Science:

Forbes: Netflix Did the Right Thing
Popular Science: We Should Forgive Netflix—But Maybe Netflix Shouldn't Forgive Us

The Picturesque

Regent's Park

Borough Market

Netflix Replacement: The Hunt Is On

Why Netflix?  Life was so easy and you had to make it so complicated.  And expensive.  At first you hike the rates, now we have Qwikster? It’s so convoluted now.  Is this a play by Netflix to convince the media conglomerates to move on from physical media?  Because with a name like Qwikster, I think it’s doomed to fail.  Not mention all the crap Netflix has pulled lately, alienating its entire customer base.  Now, I’m sorry to say, the search is on in our household for a better service.  Well, it seems like Netflix is trying to shift everyone to the streaming service ultimately and abandon the disc model.  Which is not that bad of an idea.  How many times have we gotten a blu-ray and it didn’t work? At least 60% of the time we get blu-rays, which is why I tend to stick to dvds.  How many times have I been unable to stream a Netflix video?  Twice.  Buffalo ’66 and The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet).  So a much higher success rate.  I would love to only stream, I think we all would, but we all know that isn’t feasible, because their library just isn’t there yet.  If every movie on my DVD queue were available on instant, I would not longer be searching.  I’d cancel the dvd subscription and stream to my heart’s content.  Unfortunately, the Netflix dvd only collection is for the most part made up of recent releases, extremely popular titles, and some obscure classic films that somehow they didn’t get streaming rights to.  So here are some options for on demand streaming of those recent releases that Netflix can’t seem to offer instantly. (For the obscure films, coverage is pretty spotty at all these other sources.)

Amazon Instant Video and Amazon Prime
Subscription Fee: $80/yr for Amazon Prime (comes with other perks too).  Allows unlimited streaming of many TV shows and some films.
Cost of Recent Release Bridesmaids: $3.99 for a 48 hour pass (unclear whether it was more if you rent it in HD on your TV)
Highest Video Quality: 1080i for TiVo, 720p for everything else
Selection: The best after Netflix. Also offers season passes to current TV shows.
Delivery to TV: Cumbersome/Limited- Certain Smart TVs, connect computer to TV, Roku Player, TiVo
Streaming or Download: Both (Computer download only available with PCs)
Overall Rating: 6.5
PC Mag Review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387719,00.asp

YouTube Movies
Subscription Fee: N/A
Cost of Recent Release Bridesmaids: $3.99 for a 24 hour pass
Highest Video Quality: 480p (DVD quality, not HD)
Selection: Extensive, but not as good as Amazon or Netflix.  They do have a number of films that are free, but apart from a few old classics, most of them are free for a reason.
Delivery to TV: Cumbersome/Limited- Connect computer to TV, Motorola Xoom Tablet, or Android Device
Streaming or Download: Streaming
Overall Rating: 5.5

Hulu+
Subscription Fee: $7.99/mo
Cost of Recent Release Bridesmaids: N/A
Highest Video Quality: 720p
Selection: Pretty much just TV, does not solve the movie access problem which mainly concerns me.
Delivery to TV: Easy/Ubiquitous- Smart TV/Blu-ray player
Streaming or Download: Streaming
Overall Rating: 3
PC Mag Review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366593,00.asp#fbid=aOiJtr94HcJ

Vudu
Subscription Fee: N/A
Cost of Recent Release Bridesmaids: $4.99 for 720p, $5.99 for 1080p
Highest Video Quality: 1080p
Selection: Surprisingly decent.  It seems focused on recent popular films and its foreign film selection doesn’t seem very good.  The classic film coverage is spotty, but it did surprise me with a few films that Netflix doesn’t have at all.
Delivery to TV: Easy/Ubiquitous- Smart TV/Blu-ray player
Streaming or Download: Both
Overall Rating: 5.5
Vudu Set top PC Mag Review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2270955,00.asp#fbid=aOiJtr94HcJ

iTunes and Apple TV
Subscription Fee: N/A
Cost of Recent Release Bridesmaids: $4.99, available for 30 days with 24 hours to watch once you begin
Highest Video Quality: 720p
Selection: Not as good as Amazon for the films.  Probably on the same level as Vudu, but it also boasts a large television selection.
Delivery to TV: Cumbersome/Limited- Apple TV or connect computer, must have iTunes
Streaming or Download: Download
Overall Rating: 6
Apple TV PC Mag Review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387719,00.asp#fbid=aOiJtr94HcJ

Conclusion:  Okay so the going rate for a recent release HD movie rental is $4.99.  $3.99 for SD.  Other films can be had for $0.99 to $2.99.  This is probably a more economical option than the 1-at-a-time Netflix dvd/blu-ray option at $9.99/mo, especially if you are really busy and don’t want to have to cycle the discs fast enough as often happen at our house.  It also gives more flexibility and freedom.  The problem remains, the access to that Netflix dvd library is not to be had anywhere but your local independent video rental store.  We happen to have a good one fairly close by, but unless it was in walking distance, which it isn’t,  I just don't see it replacing me putting a movie in the queue and forgetting about it until it shows up in the mailbox.  Unfortunately, I think the search is just going to continue.  I didn’t find any good replacements yet and I want to see what happens with Netflix and Qwikster split.  I heard about some other options and will be looking into those next.  To be continued...

East London