10 Most Underrated Movies Of 2017 (So Far)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 43%

Look, not everyone can handle the poetic, swirling camera work that drives pretty much everything Terrence Malick puts out into the world these days. Nor are they able to get on board with the way that his movies tend to dance around themselves for the sum of two hours, asking vague and pretentious questions into the ether, as actors like Ben Affleck and Christian Bale wander the Earth, melancholy defined.

Song to Song, Malick's most recent foray into filmmaking, has received mixed reviews, of course, but it's hard to accept the fact this movie, out of all his recent movies, has garnered his lowest Rotten Tomatoes rating ever.

Maybe it stems from the fact that a good number of critics have tired of Malick's late-stage approach to cinema. While they might have given Song to Song a pass a few years ago, before To The Wonder and Knight of Cups, they've deemed this one to be the last straw. If that's the case, it has only painted an unnecessarily negative light on what is the best of his recent "trilogy" - and his most accessible flick in ages!

Song to Song, however you look at it, is an absorbing, mysterious, and brilliantly acted meditation on human beings trying to escape from themselves. The festival setting - in Texas, if you're wondering - makes for a perfect backdrop for Malick's confused and conflicted characters, played here by Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, and Rooney Mara. It is beautifully shot, beautifully romantic, and it even has a cameo from Val Kilmer. What more could you want?

If your answer to that question was "a proper narrative," then Malick probably isn't ever going to be for you. Still, the fact that this is considered by the majority of critics to be his weakest film is pure blasphemy.