T his decade hasn't been up to much, movie-wise, but I am more than ever convinced that when every other scrap of celluloid from 2000-2009 has crumbled to dust, one film will remain, like some Ozymandias-like remnant of transient vanished glory in the desert. And that film is The New World, Terrence Malick's American foundation myth, which arrived just as the decade reached its dismal halfway point, in January 2006. It's been said that The New World doesn't have fans: it has disciples and partisans and fanatics. I'm one of them, and my fanaticism burns undimmed 30 or more viewings later. The New World is a bottomless movie, almost unspeakably beautiful and formally harmonious. The movie came and went within a month, and its critical reception was characterised for the most part by bafflement, condescension, lazy ridicule and outright hostility. And, less often, by faintly hysterical accolades written too soon and in terms too overheated to convey understanding. I know, I wrote one of them.
Stream Here 12 Snowpiercer (2014) Before Bong Joon-ho won his Oscar for Parasite, he helmed the far more Hollywood (but equally bleak) Snowpiercer. As in the graphic novel it's based on, this film depicts a post-apocalyptic world in which everyone has perished—save for the inhabitants of one long and strange train. Here, the poor reside in the back, subsisting on scraps, while those at the front live in the lap of luxury. ("So it is, " Tilda Swinton's character can always be counted on to mention, by way of justification. ) Or at least, that's how it works before leading man Chris Evans has his say. Stream Here 13 Arrival (2016) Arrival has all of the trappings of an apocalypse blockbuster—aliens, military camps, the threat of international conflict—but belongs squarely in the cerebral camp. Expect a poignant exploration of language, loss, and time—and to actually be satisfied by a plot with multiple timelines. (Sorry, Westworld. ) (Not sorry. ) Stream Here 14 Akira (1988) Hailed as one of the best animated films of all time, Akira demands a viewing (or two, or three) at any time.
Plenty of people hate this about Malick, and resort to the conventional line about voiceovers being the last resort of lazy film-makers. Many also dislike the structure of The New World, which is adapted from Wagner: ascend, ascend, ascend, ascend. That is how The New World works, on an ever upwardly moving scale towards the climactic moment of release, when the movie ends on a bird skittering out of a tall tree in the edenic forest with a frrrrrp-sound of beating wings – fade to black. If you allow it, if you lower your resistance, The New World is not a movie you simply watch – it is a movie that happens to you, overwhelms you, like the weather, or true love. Malick took his time with this, his one true masterpiece, and so should you. As everything else rots away, it will abide.
Its cultural hinterland is made up not just of other movies, but of Buddhism, ethnography and naturalism, Wagner, Mozart and the structural forms of classical music, Malick's enthusiasm for bird-watching, and a helping of Heidegger and Kant. The New World could be called the first western, it could equally be called the last. We know that it was conceived during the Vietnam war (around the time of the American Indian Movement's occupation of the Wounded Knee massacre site, and during the heyday of the great revisionist 70s westerns) and only bore fruit three decades later, as America stumbled into another, similarly pointless and evil neo-colonialist expedition, all of which hums quietly within the movie like an engine. But whatever it is politically, cinematically it offers a tantalising vision of alternative cinema's roads into the future, with its huge $50m budget and total creative freedom afforded its maker. It may seem like an exaggeration, but with The New World cinema has reached its culmination, its apotheosis.
The New World 2005 Critics Consensus Despite arresting visuals and strong lead performances, The New World suffers from an unfocused narrative that will challenge viewers' attention spans over its 2 1/2 hours. 63% TOMATOMETER Total Count: 188 58% Audience Score User Ratings: 148, 108 The New World Ratings & Reviews Explanation Show all services Photos Movie Info Arriving with a British expedition in Virginia in 1607, Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell) is captured by Native Americans. His life is spared thanks to Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher), daughter of the tribe's chief. Smith and Pocahontas fall in love, to the mutual dismay of the Native Americans and the British. Smith is sent away, and his death is reported. An unhappy Pocahontas marries settler John Rolfe (Christian Bale). When Smith turns up alive, Pocahontas is torn between the two men. Rating: PG-13 (Some Intense Battle Sequences) Genre: drama, adventure, romance, history Original Language: English Director: Producer: Release Date (Theaters): Jan 20, 2005 wide Release Date (Streaming): Mar 18, 2013 Box Office (Gross USA): $12.
With visuals as sublime as they are grotesque, and a plot at once poetic and action-packed, it's well-earned its status as a classic. And given recent events, the central presence of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (remember, this was made in the '80s) seems highly prescient. Stream Here 15 Take Shelter (2011) Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain star in Take Shelter, another worthy entry into the understated, cerebral apocalypse sub-genre. Curtis (Shannon) begins experiencing visions of a disaster-laden future—but those around him, and sometimes even himself, it seems like Curtis might be the real danger. Stream Here This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at
An ebbing and flowing current of dread, an impact on the horizon—and nothing to do but wait. Stream Here 6 Titanic (1997) For those not looking to rub salt in the wound right now, Titanic is the rare disaster movie that might feel distant enough to actually enjoy. The first half is, of course, delightful, featuring the rare romance plot that's appealing across generations. And the second half is... less so, but it's reassuring to know that naval technology has improved since Jack and Rose's day. Stream Here 7 La Jetée (1963) It's about (avoiding) the apocalypse, yes, but it's also about a whole lot more. Chris Marker's classic La Jetée is composed mainly of still images and voiceover—a combination that might sound dull, and absolutely isn't. This one will stay with you long after you've seen it. Stream Here 8 The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Largely panned at the time of its release, The Day After Tomorrow is nonetheless a classic in its own right. With the world suddenly plunged into a second ice age, a crew of noble experts and laypeople alike act out their somewhat predictable roles.
In other words, barebones, stripped-to-the-chassis, organic plein-air film-making. The second unit was despatched to gather beautiful and captivating visual ephemera – including breathtaking images of the film's two lovers before a real lightning storm at sundown, and pennants of ducks quacking their way though the magic-hour's crepuscular golden light – while soundmen taped riotous birdsong, forest murmurs and the hiss and babble of water in motion. And the handheld shots in Virginia are, in fact, just one half of an overarching visual scheme; in bold contrast, the English scenes (where the landscape is sculpted and tamed, where life is governed by rites and rituals as baffling and ornate as those of the Indians), the camera is almost always locked down or running, tamed, on tracks. And then there is the editing. Malick extrudes his movies from the film-bins in the editing suite, "finding" as much of the movie there as he does on location. I've seen three separate edits (the 150 minute pre-release version that knocked me out, the 135 release cut (25 of those 30 viewings), and the Blu-Ray director's cut of 172 minutes) and all strike distinct and equally wondrous variations on the same themes, yet seem radically different to one another at a gut level.