Terrence Malick deploys his wafting, exquisitely superficial approach to a sprawling, interconnected love story set in the US music industry. And, perhaps due to the scaldingly sexy casting – Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Michael Fassbender play three points of a love triangle – Malick’s waking dream imagery results in an atmosphere that comes into sharper focus than usual. That said, the increasingly tiresome Malickian tropes are all present and correct: disembodied voices ask big, meaningful questions; stunning women skip and spin in girlish abandon, then sob uncontrollably against a backdrop of infinity pools and palm trees. It all adds up to a beautiful nothing.
