Director: Terrence Malick Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki
Blu-ray
Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Lists:
-
- No. 203 on The Pendragon Society’s 1000 Greatest Films of All-Time (2019)
- No. 132 on Sight and Sound Directors Poll Top Films (2012)
- Listed among Peter Bradshaw’s top 50 films of the demi-decade (2015)
CAST
- Brad Pitt as Mr. O’Brien
- Jessica Chastain as Mrs. O’Brien
- Sean Penn as Jack O’Brien
- Hunter McCracken as young Jack
- Finnegan Williams as (aged 5) Jack
- Michael Koeth as (aged 2) Jack
- Laramie Eppler as R.L. O’Brien
- John Howell as R.L. (age 2)
- Tye Sheridan as Steve O’Brien
- Kari Matchett as Jack’s ex
- Joanna Going as Jack’s wife
- Michael Showers as Mr. Brown
- Kimberly Whalen as Mrs. Brown
- Jackson Hurst as Uncle Roy
- Fiona Shaw as Grandmother
- Crystal Mantecón as Elisa
- Tamara Jolaine as Mrs. Stone
- Dustin Allen as George Walsh
Directed by Terrence Malick
Produced by Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill
Screenplay by Terrence Malick
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, Mark Yoshikawa
Running time 139 minutes
Country United States
Language English
In the January/February 2012 issue of Film Comment they published results for the best films of 2011. The year’s critics’ poll, now in its 12th edition, saw around 120 North American critics rank their favourites in two categories: 1) those that received theatrical runs and 2) those viewed in 2011 but not receiving U.S. theatrical distribution until 2012—if at all. For each ballot, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on. Listed below are the Top 50.
Film Comment 1 year subscription
Listed below are the movies chosen by the prestigious film magazine, Cahiers Du Cinema’s for their famous annual top ten lists. The results are shown in order of preference.
Cahiers du Cinéma: The 1950s: Neo-Realism, Hollywood, New Wave (Harvard Film Studies) Paperback
The winner of the much coveted Grand Jury prize at Cannes, the film follows Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar), who, afflicted by acute kidney failure and convinced he will soon die, chooses to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears and brings him guidance, and his estranged son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave. Writer, producer and director Weerasethakul delivers an oddly unique dose of often profound magical realism that removes the boundaries between life and death and which has been recognised as one of the best films of the 2000s in several polls.
Rent (watch online)
Watkins’s mammoth six hour long historical re-enactment of the radical socialist and revolutionary government, The Paris Commune, blurs the lines between documentary and fiction. Shot in a mere 13 days in an abandoned factory, the film features television style interviews with the rebellious working class of Paris and the bourgeoisie government who they forced to flee to Versailles. Some will be frustrated by the length of the work but those who are open to cinema that defies the standard narrative conventions of mainstream filmmaking, will find the engaging and provocative look at a tragic point for socialist history, essential viewing.
DVD
In August 2016 the good old BBC compiled a list of the 100 greatest films of the 21st century from results gathered from 177 film Critics from around the world. The critics and academics were asked to pick their top ten films. Although it should be pointed out that nearly almost half of these critics were from the United States, there’s a good selection of international films and it’s hard to argue against the top ten. Below are links to some of those who contributed their top 10 picks for the poll. 
Michael Atkinson is an American writer, poet and film critic. He has written widely on film and culture, in Sight & Sound, The Village Voice, The Guardian, Film Comment, The Believer, In These Times, The Criterion Collection, Rolling Stone, The Progressive, Spin, Maxim, The Boston Phoenix, Details, Moving Image Source, IFC.com, TCM.com, Movieline, The Poetry Foundation, Chicago Reader, LA Weekly, The Stranger, The American Prospect, Baltimore City Paper, Modern Painters, and other publications. In 2006 Atkinson was one of 177 critics from around the world who picked their best 10 films from the 21st century for the 
(Wong Kar-wai, 2004)
(Spike Jonze, 2002)
(Michael Haneke, 2005)
(David Lynch, 2006)
(David Lynch, 2001)
(Raoul Ruiz, 2010)
(Michel Gondry, 2004)
The second feature film by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, who previously directed Japón, follows an overweight, poverty-stricken chauffeur (Marcos Hernández) and his equally downtrodden wife (Bertha Ruiz) who kidnap a baby boy for ransom money. Their longing for a better life is shattered when the child accidentally dies leaving the husband struggling with his conscience. The film may have polarised critics due to its provocatively explicit sexual content, but Battle in Heaven manages to fulfil the promise of Reygadas’s expansive, sometimes brilliant first feature with a challenging and uncompromising look at the tensions and inherent hypocrisies of Mexico’s social structure.
DVD
For the February 2010 issue of the BFI’s Sight & Sound magazine, the editorial team, Nick James, Kieron Corless, James Bell, Isabel Stevens and Nick Bradshaw came up with a list of 30 key films of the first decade of the 21st century. Each contributor selected their own top 20 but the debate between them led to coming up with the list of 30. Nick James makes it clear that TV series or mini-series were not considered for the list and they only allowed for directors to have one entry each. The 30 films are listed in alphabetical order.
Sight & Sound ~ May 2018 ~ BFI Film Magazine 120 BPM Lean on Pete Woodfall Films
(Paperback)
The second collaboration between screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and directer Spike Jonze, after the brilliant Being John Malkovich, is based both on Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief and Kaufman’s experience attempting to adapt the book into a screenplay while suffering from writer’s block. The film follows a fictional version of Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) who is confused and overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing and having to deal with his identical twin brother (a totally fictitious character also played by Cage) which is only worsened when he is hired for the adaptation. Maybe too surreal and experimental for some tastes but for those attuned to this style of filmmaking, Adaptation is an audaciously original comedy satire that seamlessly blends Kaufman’s genuine problems adapting the book with the troubles of the fictionalised characters.
Buy or Rent (watch online)
