Song to Song - Terence Malick (2017)

What is the difference between need and desire and how can you tell when you have switched from one to the other? There is an early part of the relationship when you want to be with someone. Then, with no warning, turns them into someone you can not live without?

Terence Malick's "Song to Song" is a film about love, (well, more desire than love) rejection, betrayal and other ugly creatures we've all had in the pits of our stomachs at one time or another. It is set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene.


The first thing we hear in "Song to Song" is Faye (Rooney Mara) telling us how she associates sex with violence. What does that say right off the bat about our heroine? Faye is the kind of person who will look anywhere, fly as high as she needs to, to find her place in life. The problem is she does not know what her place looks like.

From the start, her relationship with Cook (Michael Fassbender) is doubtful. Cook is presented as a chaser and an opportunist. A man who goes after pleasure, higher and higher without regard to the people around him. He is also wealthy as hell, so so he can search out pleasure to no end. As the movie progresses, we see how riches can sabotage what could have been romance, or at least friendship.

Cook is a sharp contrast to BV, (Ryan Gosling) a man clearly out to fulfill his wishes, but with self-awareness and complexity. Like Faye, he has an infatuation with Cook. He believes the man has the key to starting his music career for him. Meanwhile, Faye just sees Cook as an opportunity for love.

As the three of them spend time together, we get the idea that Faye and BV could be very happy together were it not for Cook's influence.

This is the first love triangle we're introduced to.

Now, as we work our way through the movie, the study of desire slowly turns to a story about obsession.

Then, there is betrayal, both in romance and in other, far more personal forms. And at one point, it comes down to simple jealousy.

Next, Cook encounters Rhonda, (Natalie Portman) a shy, young out-of-work kindergarten teacher.

After that, I have no idea what happened because this movie is such a chore to watch that I could not finish it.

My God what a terrible, terrible mess.

I mean, you get to see Iggy, Patti Smith and Lykke Li, but it is not worth it.

I do not even have to the energy left to tell you how bad.

I apologize for making you read all of the above, but I had already gone through the tedious chore of writing it and I did not want it to go to waste.

But if you're a fan of Malick, prepare to be very disappointed.

Very.