Terrence Malick's Best Movies, Ranked According to IMDb (2025)

Terrence Malick is one of Hollywood's most celebrated directors. His ethereal films captivatefans with their stoic pace and presentation of beautiful landscapes. Some films likeThe Thin Red Line saw praise from a wide audience, while others likeKnight of Cups were less beloved. Malick's best movies aren't always the most well-known.

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The director'sfilmography has grown over the past several decades, and his films have changed along the way. However, the auteur has a distinct style audiences expect to see when he releases a film. Fans have taken to IMDb to present their take on Terrence Malick's filmography.

Song To Song — 5.6

Song To Song is Terrence Malick's second most-recent film. The movie follows a group of individuals in the music world and their tumultuous romances. It features an impressive cast including Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman, and Cate Blanchett.

The movie presents Malick's signature filmmaking qualities, including heavy narration and leisurely-paced tracking shots. The movie is a contemporary story, unlike Malick's more famous period works likeThe Thin Red Line. It's hard to say what makesSong To Song Malick's lowest-rated film, but it is among tough competition.

KnightOf Cups — 5.7

Knight of Cups is among Malick's few contemporary stories. It follows Christian Bale as Rick, a screenwriter in Los Angeles. However, Malick presents an abstract telling, juxtaposing the simple story with experimental sequences that don't innately apply to the narrative.

The film presents a tarot card theme, and the story is broken up into chapters based on different cards.A large cast of notable stars like Antonio Banderas and Brian Dennehy appear in the film. However, the complex thematic elements of the movie may have madeKnight Of Cups less accessible than some of Malick's higher-rated films.

To The Wonder — 5.9

To The Wonder gives audiences a simple romance story toldwith Malick's trademark elegance. The film brings together a couple from Paris and rural Oklahoma trying to work things out upon moving to the States. Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko are the main stars.

Malick introduces beautiful dreamscapes inTo The Wonder, both in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, he discusses interesting notions about faith in a subplot. However, the film's undemanding narrative may have turned some audiences off, givingTo The Wondera lower rating than some of his other works.

Voyage of Time: Life's Journey — 6.5

Malick gives audiences his only documentary withVoyage of Time : Life's Journey. The movie unpacks the history of the universe, using footage from the seemingly most stunning parts of the Earth, along with the outer reaches of space in which it hangs.

Voyage of Time is one of Malick's most unique films, in that it doesn't hold any fictional narrative like his other features. However, fans take to his vision of the world, giving the movie a higher rating than some of his other recent work.

The New World — 6.7

The New Worldpresents a fictionalized telling of the early days of the United States. The movie covers the stories of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith when they met in Virginia in. the early 1600s. Colin Farrell gives audiences one of his best performances as Smith in the movie. The story follows their romance and the settlement of the area.

The New World provides a strong narrative compared to some of Malick's lesser-rated films. Furthermore, it provides the stunning cinematography viewers come to expect in his work. The union of both these skillful techniques comes together in one ofthe director's most palatable films.

The Tree Of Life — 6.8

The Tree Of Life brought Malick's name back to theaters after asix-year gap. The film marks a change inthe director's work. For the first time, he presents a narrative interspersed with abstract imagery underscoring the themes discussed in the story.

Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Jessica Chastain are among the A-listers who help boostThe Tree Of Life's reputation. Many fans say it is one of Brad Pitt's best movies.The unique film which helped enrich Malick's style while elaborating on its elementsis one of Malick's highest-rated movies.

A Hidden Life is Malick's most recent film. The movie takes the director back to his roots, presenting a period drama recalling his earlier works likeThe Thin Red LineandThe New World. It follows the story of the real-life Franz Jägerstätter, a farmer who refused to fight for Germany during World War Two.

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Malick chooses not to go back to his well of collaborators like Brad Pitt and Sean Penn inA Hidden Life. The movie features a cast of lesser-known actors to help lay out his vision. However, the final product gives fans the director's highest-rated film of the last ten years.

The Thin Red Line — 7.6

Fans call The Thin Red Lineone of the most underrated war movies from the 1990s.However, it is one ofthe most famous movies by Terrence Malick. The story follows a battalion of soldiers fighting in the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific during World War Two.

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The Thin Red Linegives audiences a war film unlike any other. Although it presents typical war movie imagery and themes, Malick displays critical thoughts on war in his classically stoic narration. Furthermore, the movie sets itself apart from cliche war stories when a soldier goes AWOL and visits a stunning island community and interacts with its villagers away from the battle.

Badlands — 7.8

Malick gives audiences his first feature film withBadlands. The movie seems to separate itself from the director's other work in its story, which follows a young couple on a killing spree in the American west.

Badlands is one of Malick's most famous movies. The Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek-starring movie captivates audiences with its interesting story and beautiful landscapes. The film laid the foundation for Malick's career and is one of fans' most coveted works.

Days Of Heaven — 7.8

Malick's second filmDays Of Heaven is his most highly rated movie on IMDb. The film follows the story of a poor couple that travels to Texas during the early 1900s to work on a rich man's rural estate.It captures the beauty of the state in sweeping shots of landscapes, presenting endless fields of untouched land.

Days Of Heaven is captivating and displays some of Malick's moststunning shots. The movie is more accessible than more abstract works likeKnight Of Cups orTree Of Life. However,Days Of Heaven is concise, and not without subtext and depth. The movie seems to have the perfect collection of Malick trademarks and palpable story-telling,giving it such a high rating.

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