New to Home Theaters: ‘Song to Song’ leaves audiences with a sour note

The latest film by director Terrence Malick (“The Tree of Life” and “The Thin Red Line”), “Song to Song” arrives on Blu-Ray and DVD this week.
Malick, who is known for producing films that are often times “too fragmented, mysterious and intuitive to connect with a wide audience,” according to RogerEbert.com reviewer Matt Zoller Seitz, shot the film without a script (according to actor and one of the film’s stars Ryan Gosling) and filmed part of it during the 2012 Austin City Limits Festival.
The plot centers around two intersecting love triangles involving BV (Gossling, “The Notebook” and La La Land”), Faye (Ronney Mara, “The Social Network” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Cook (Michael Fassbender, “Inglorious Basterds” and “Prometheus”) and Rhonda (Natalie Portman, “V for Vendetta” and “Black Swan”).
All of this love and betrayal is set against the backdrop of the Austin, Texas music scene that also features cameos by popular musicians such as Arcade Fire, Johnny Rotten, Iggy Pop, Florence Welch and more.
While Seitz, who is usually a fan of Malick, feels that the film just didn’t connect the dots completely.
“When a poet fails, it’s not always easy to put your finger on why, because the failures are created through the same elusive, interior process as the triumphs. I wouldn’t presume to guess exactly what went wrong here. Malick is employing the same audiovisual vocabulary as in his previous three films (with a few refinements, including the widespread use of tiny GoPro cameras), and he’s dealing with a lot of tried-and-true Malickian themes and situations,” he said. “But not matter how warmly you feel towards Malcik, the film still doesn’t click as it should. It’s a brainy concept album made up of B-sides and filler. The musicianship is superb but the songs needed work.”
It seems like the consensus agrees with Seitz as the film received a 45 percent and 50 percent fresh rating from critics and audiences respectively.
“Terrence Malick’s latest film isn’t so much a movie as it is a freeform collection of whispers and beseeching looks,” wrote Peter Howell of the Toronto Star.
J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader wrote, “This is the one with Ryan Gosling, and like Terrence Malick’s two previous dramas it’s a gauzy, improvised affair that looks like a photo essay out of Architectural Digest and regards its gorgeous, murmuring actors as if they were statuary.”
“Song to Song” is rated R for some sexuality, nudity, drug use and language.
Other films on Blu-ray and DVD this week include:
n “The Zookeeper’s Wife” starring Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh and Daniel Bruhl and directed by Niki Caro in this true story about how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people and animals during the German invasion.
The film is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, violence, brief sexuality, nudity and smoking.
n “Accidental Exorcist” starring Daniel Falicki, Faye Sills and Sherryl Despres and directed by Daniel Falicki in this horror film about a man who is a natural born exorcist.
The film is not rated.
N “Drone” starring Sean Bean, Patrick Sabongui and Mary McCormack and directed by Jason Bourque in this thriller about the colliding principles between a military drone contractor and a mysterious Pakistani businessman.
The film is not rated.
TV series on Blu-ray and DVD this week include:
N “Superstore: Season Two” starring America Ferrera, Ben Feldman and Lauren Ash in this comedic series about a group of employees who work for a big box store.
N “Homicide: Life on the Streets: The Complete Series” starring Richard Belzer, Clark Johnson and Yaphet Kotto in this crime series about a homicide investigations unit that handles the violent crimes in Baltimore.