Every Terrence Malick Movie Ranked Worst To Best

9. Song To Song (2017)

It's become fashionable to consider Malick a pretentious, self-indulgent filmmaker whose style overshadows the things he's trying to say, but the truth is his best work often knows exactly what it wants to say, and its structure always compliments its message. The same cannot be said of Song To Song.

The story of a woman (Rooney Mara) who finds herself at the centre of love triangle with two musicians (Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender), Malick's experimental exploration of romance and music allows for some strong work from its stars, but ultimately ends up feeling emotional stunted by its needlessly complex narrative.

Malick has always played with time, usually to great effect, but his daring style simply doesn't mesh with Song To Song's relatively simple love story. It's not completely unforgivable, but it's hard to watch it without thinking it could have been far better had it just adopted a more straight-forward approach.