“There’s this shot of a woman soaring upside-down on a swing, and I can’t tell you why, but I’m going to carry that with me the rest of my life.” Our late, great editor/hero Jim Ridley said this about The Tree of Life, the abstract yet cinematically poetic 2011 head-scratcher from uber-elusive filmmaker Terrence Malick. This is perhaps the closest he’s ever gotten to making an autobiographical film, mining memories of his childhood to tell the story of a middle-class family, led by producer Brad Pitt’s stern dad and Jessica Chastain’s supportive mom (aka the swing lady) in mid-20th-century America. Since this is a Malick film, do not expect that story to be told in a conventional fashion. The movie is basically a dreamlike collage of images and interior monologues, bouncing back and forth in time — even dinosaurs show up. Like most of Malick’s filmography, you either roll with it, swimming in the befuddling yet awe-inspiring fluidity of it all (like Ridley did), or find yourself asking, “What the fuck is this all about?” Either way, it’s an experience. Showing as part of the Belcourt’s ongoing Milestones of the Last Quarter Century series. Visit belcourt.org for showtimes.
May 17 & 20 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
