After a fantastic week helping an insightful group of students craft their own cinematic moments for Marylhurst University's Show:Tell Workshop (a workshop to support the efforts of teen artists and writers), I decided to treat myself with a viewing of Terence Malick's The Tree of Life. 

In my mind, Malick is the most important film maker in the world today. The Tree of Life does nothing to refute this. . .

To watch this film is to know the feeling of participating in a miracle. It is the finest film I've ever seen, and might be one of the most ambitious art works created in a very long time.

I would suggest that if you are to see no other film for the next five years then tonight, without hesitancy, go out, buy a ticket, and be a witness. . .

I just returned home from seeing Werner Herzog's new film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which reveals the oldest discovered cave paintings thus far (c. 32,000 years ago). While the overall structure of the documentary seemed less considered than I would expect of Herzog, it didn't matter all that much, as the reason for viewing it is not to so much as to speculate on definitions of humanity as it is to simply marvel at the vigor of the artwork. The Chauvet cave drawings are infused with a sensitivity to the natural world that is not just born out of observation, but out of a relationship that can best be described as kinship. You can feel the spirit within them, even across 32,000 years (and with a projector acting as intermediary). 

To see a 3D film that isn't interested in explosions or stomach-turning aerial pans was a welcome experience. In Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the 3D honors the dynamic way the cave painters employed the natural contours of the wall to emphasize their compositions. I imagine it was also chosen because it is the most current means of photographic documentation and, consequently, captures the most information on film for posterity.