Odd Couples, Part II

BADLANDS (1973) (B-minus) - Maybe I'm just not Terrence Malick's type. This might have been bold during its time, but this rebel yell featuring bad-boy Martin Sheen and shy young Sissy Spacek feels dated -- a '70s movie set in the late '50s, based on a real-life killing spree across South Dakota. Malick enhances the age difference from real life and makes Kit (Sheen) 25 and Holly (Spacek) 15.

After a slow build-up, the first shooting is rather shocking. Kit takes Holly on the road, and she's scared but giddy to be on the lam with her handsome lover. Living off the land is fun for only so long. In the end, Sheen is rather wooden, and we don't get a true enough sense of fear coming from Spacek (in her early 20s at the time).

Was it a mistake to ignore Malick the past few decades, missing out on his genius in the moment? "Tree of Life" was my introduction, and it didn't go well. Do we give him one more chance? Or has his time (and our time together) passed?

DANS PARIS (2006) (B) - Here we have brothers as the odd couple. One has just broken up with his single-mom girlfriend. The other is our narrator and a casual observer about life.

Christophe Honore (we reviewed his more recent "Beloved" in January) brings his typical bittersweet melancholia to the proceedings.  He uses the musical format more sparingly here -- unlike the overdone stylings in "Beloved" -- especially during a lovely key scene between estranged lovers. Scruffy Romain Duris is reliable as ever as the mopey heartbroken Paul. Louis Garrel -- whom we last saw in his dad's "A Burning Hot Summer" -- doesn't add enough as brother Jonathan, the more free-spirited brother. 

Joanna Preiss is fierce in a bold naked-breakup scene. Alice Butaud is charming as more of a puppy dog trying to figure out Jonathan.

If you have the patience to watch Duris brood at his father's house for the first hour, you'll be rewarded by the rekindling of a brotherly bond, and the stirrings of a three-way relationship that seems innocent but fulfilling.