I’m assuming that headline either made you dizzy with glee or nauseated with annoyance. There is, indeed, a new Terence Malick trailer, and that Terrence Malick trailer looks exactly like a Terrence Malick trailer, which means there’s a new way to get disoriented looking at famous actors from surprising angles, cut together with frenetic magnificence and questionable purpose. And indeed, these particular famous actors whirling across Malick’s screen are playing indie rock musicians — and they’re in some kind of very complicated love/lust. The first real look at Song to Song — the director’s anticipated movie set in the middle of the Austin, TX music scene — has been released, and can be viewed below. (The movie itself is out in LA and NY on March 17, and the drama is, per Indiewire, set for a thematically appropriate debut at this year’s South by Southwest.)
Since what we’re being shown thus far is neither intercut with dinosaurs, as in The Tree of Life, nor tarot cards, as in Knight of Cups, it looks like this could be a somewhat straightforward and visceral experience, as far as Malick goes. But… we can’t ever be too sure of that. According to a press release, stars Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling both play “struggling songwriters” while Michael Fassbender is a “music mogul” and Natalie Portman is a “waitress whom he ensnares.” And from the looks of it, the love square created by these two couples morphs into a bunch of tangled squiggles.
Here’s the trailer for the film:
And here’s the poster:
