Sea of Trees (Gus Van Sant, 2015)

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It's been a while since I've bothered to sit through a Van Sant film, but if Sea of Trees is anything like the stuff he was doing in the early 2000s—and I have heard suggestions to that end—then it'll be well worth seeing.

Fremaux for his part thinks Sea of Trees is a relatively "commercial" and "mainstream" Van Sant joint. The script has been kicking around for a few years and the comments I've seen on it don't point much to the more experimental mode of Gerry/Elephant/Last Days, nor does the fact it was on the 2013 Black List.

[hearthesilence]

Sounds kind of dicey, but if Cannes is showing it, there's reasonable hope that it's not one of his more abysmal mainstream efforts. I did enjoy To Die For quite a bit, and Milk was very fine for a conventional effort.

FWIW, I'd like to see Van Sant shake it up a bit. Elephant was the apotheosis of his Béla Tarr-inspired approach, but it's kind of worn thin.

[The Narrator Returns]

Sounds kind of dicey, but if Cannes is showing it, there's reasonable hope that it's not one of his more abysmal mainstream efforts.

Let's remember that Restless premiered at Cannes...

[domino harvey]

But that was one of his abysmal art house efforts

[hearthesilence]

Sounds kind of dicey, but if Cannes is showing it, there's reasonable hope that it's not one of his more abysmal mainstream efforts.

Let's remember that Restless premiered at Cannes...

Actually forgot about that - it was in Un Certain Regard though, not the main competition, which seems to be the dumping ground for "well, we like you, but we're not sure about this one" type of work.

[colinr0380]

Which is often what makes the "uncertain regard" section the most interesting one, throwing up the most exciting (or at least unusual) films.

[hearthesilence]

Yeah, you weren't kidding. The memory of The Bling Ring and others overshadowed a wealth of notable premieres under Un Certain Regard. Blissfully Yours, Crimson Gold, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Tulpan, Dogtooth, The Missing Picture, Police, Adjective…and those are just prize winners.

[mfunk9786]

@emilyyoshida: Gus Van Sant's SEA OF TREES wins for the first Cannes booing I've ever witnessed. It was magical! (The booing. The movie was very bad!)

Peter Bradshaw's one-star review

[FrauBlucher]

@emilyyoshida: Gus Van Sant's SEA OF TREES wins for the first Cannes booing I've ever witnessed. It was magical! (The booing. The movie was very bad!)

Peter Bradshaw's one-star review

More negative tweets, plus Roadside Attractions purchased the rights on Wednesday....how about second thoughts by them.

[Finch]

The Playlist hated Sea of Trees as well, calling it Van Sant's worst film. Ouch.

[hearthesilence]

@emilyyoshida: Gus Van Sant's SEA OF TREES wins for the first Cannes booing I've ever witnessed. It was magical! (The booing. The movie was very bad!)

Peter Bradshaw's one-star review

More negative tweets, plus Roadside Attractions purchased the rights on Wednesday....how about second thoughts by them.

Yeesh, maybe they can sell it that way? "It's so monumentally bad, you've GOT to see it for yourself!"

[colinr0380]

Just for fun I'm going to do some 'potentially' spoilery (but also potentially completely off base) speculating based on some bits from Bradshaw's review, mainly just to come back to and see if the eventual film did work out this way once I eventually get to see it:

SpoilerShow

"Once there, Arthur has clearly reached a terrible decision. But then he sees another pilgrim of despair: Takumi (Ken Watanabe), a Japanese businessman in a rumpled suit, staggering into the clearing, covered with blood from wounds on his wrists, having evidently botched a suicide and perhaps now changed his mind. Arthur comes to help, and the two men begin a kind of friendship as they try to find a way out of the forest. Conveniently, Takumi speaks excellent English, which is neither remarked upon nor explained."

"It is Van Sant’s depiction of the forest itself which is at the centre of the problem. It is a hostile place from a straightforward view of survival: Arthur is always falling heavily down rocky slopes and getting deluged by floods, and yet McConaughey’s supposed physical pain never seems to be any sort of plausibly interesting dramatic problem. We see the dead bodies of suicides there, revealed so casually that it is at first unclear if these are hallucinations - but the film can’t decide if they should make us scared or sad. So we are neither: they are represented blankly, like the forest itself, and like the film, they are inert."

I'm assuming from these two quotes above that we are going to be seeing the characters post-suicide and the film itself will be heavily suggesting a kind of post-death purgatory? If that is the case, that could potentially make it interesting to compare to the ghostly ascent ending of Last Days in addition to the trudging death march of Gerry.

[The Narrator Returns]

And here are the real spoilers, for those who are curious but not curious enough to actually watch the damn thing.

SpoilerShow

"Ken Watanabe is actually Naomi Watts in spirit, guiding Matthew McConaughey."

"they're rushing her [Watts] to the hospital, and she's gonna be fine, she's going to be saved...except they get into a terrible car crash and she dies."

[hearthesilence]

I just saw the released clip, which is only a minute long, but it seems to answer any questions on style. It plays really slick - honestly, I never would've guessed this as one of Van Sant's art films. The music seems like something you'd hear on a run-of-the-mill NBC prime time drama. It's even applied in the same manner - over the entire length of the clip in almost superfluous manner. And the camera movement has no personality, disappointing coming from a director who has done some marvelous stuff with slow zooms and Steadicam shots inspired by Béla Tarr. Maybe the rest of the film is much better, but it would be very incongruous to this one clip.

[colinr0380]

SpoilerShow

Narrator Returns, it sounds as if this film might be the new What Dreams May Come!

[hearthesilence]

On paper that plot does sound awful, but some incredible films (including at least one very well-known Japanese masterpiece) uses a similar plot twist. Plot and narrative reversals are incredibly overrated, but only when a film has everything else going for it, and again, that clip doesn't suggest any tangible hope of that.

[Thornycroft]

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky's impressions over at The AV Club are much the same as Bradshaw's - if more interestingly expressed.

[domino harvey]

McConaughey gives a rather zen defense of the film. I think it's a bit funny that the media is treating this like a big deal, given that films getting booed at Cannes regardless of their quality or merit is one of the festival's proudest and longest-standing traditions. I'm assuming it's just because this one has stars in it they can write about and everyone wants some click-bait these days

[Jeff]

I think it's a bit funny that the media is treating this like a big deal, given that films getting booed at Cannes regardless of their quality or merit is one of the festival's proudest and longest-standing traditions.

That's certainly true, and I'm sure the media is eating up the "McConaughey film booed at Cannes!" angle, but this does appear to be a little different than those films that get mixed reviews or are seen as a relative disappointment. I haven't seen one graded review above 1-star/F, and the ungraded ones certainly leave the impression of similar feelings. As Donald Clarke of the Irish Times said:

Audiences do, in this place, have a lamentable habit of booing films they don’t care for. It’s a horrible business. But, just as there are theoretical circumstances where the use of chemical weapons might be appropriate, there are certain films that deserve to play to the sounds of the abattoir.

There exist, I suppose, people who wonder what Gus Van Sant directing Nicholas Sparks might look like. After all, there are people who eat soil. Your time has come, folks.

[John Cope]

Well, I at least really liked Lasse Hallström directing Nicholas Sparks so that may mean it may work for me.

[domino harvey]

Has anyone heard anything about this getting released anywhere anytime soon?

[mfunk9786]

Roadside Attractions tends to really bungle releases and hold them off forever and ever. I'd expect them to throw it out in March or something on a few screens as an afterthought. But that's just a guess.

[Ribs]

A24 has picked this up for god knows what reason

[ianungstad]

Probably to dump on VOD and in a handful of specialty theaters. It will probably follow the same trajectory as Dark Places and some of the other duds they pick up on the cheap to flip for a quick buck.

[hearthesilence]

Maybe they can cut it up and sell the pieces as stock footage, it'll be more profitable than any VOD or theatrical release.