Good reply/post. Thank you. I don’t think anything Mallick’s done is negative. I just don’t think he understands his themes well enough to present them other than an almost naive and sophomoric manner. Perhaps his creating the films allow him to further investigate and understand what he’s delving into. My observation come from having traveled on a very conscious spiritual journey and studying and reading some pretty heavy material about enlightenment and truth realization that Mallick’s probing into it doesn’t further my own interests or curiosity. He seems like he might be in the 1st grade…and if I’m lucky I might be in the 2nd grade….lol….
His work certainly does no harm and might even be a positive force for others to look at the themes he’s fascinated with and that can only be a good thing I would think. Peace.

I’d say I agree to some extent. Especially with Days of Heaven being his best (such a beautiful film). Past that, I think he got self-indulgent, but not always negatively (though sometimes). I still love Tree of Life, which is so self-indulgent as it’s autobiographical, it draws parallels between what he could possibly know, his life from birth to wherever, to the creation of all. Which could be seen as egocentric, I simply choose not to see it that way. One can only make what one knows of, and with that film, I think he made a film about his everything. I can understand why people don’t care for it (I certainly don’t for anything he made after), but I hope it’s a mutually understanding agreement. If that makes sense.