WONDER AS I WANDER // A FILM REVIEW OF "KNIGHT OF CUPS"
How you feel about a certain director can often either push you towards a film or shove you away. For example, Quentin Tarantino's films are famously bloody and talkative, pop culture references usually flying by. That might make your ears perk up or you could slink away and have none of it. Kevin Smith has a very particular (and dedicated) fan base. Same goes for Spike Lee. Lee's fans will flock to his films no matter if he's making a big budget crowd pleaser (Inside Man) or a well-crafted small film that hardly anyone sees (last year’s poignant Shi-Raq). Terrence Malick is most DEFINITELY a man who, if you know his name, you already have an opinion of the film going in. Which is both good and bad. Even when I haven't enjoyed his films, I find most of them to be fascinating, or at the very least, never dull. His latest film KNIGHT OF CUPS, is a wandering lush kaleidoscope of a mess. It's also beautiful and serene.
Christian Bale stars as Rick, a screenwriter whose work has made him very wealthy, and very lonely. There isn't much "plot" to speak of. Rick really just wanders from moment to moment, and we watch it as if it were a dream. Often if feels very much like a dream, a dream Rick is piecing together without searching for an answer. He wanders through back studio lots, though his flowing apartment, beaches, pools, Hollywood Parties (with many wordless cameos) and goes through several relationships that seem both romantic and pure and destructively bad (Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, and Imogen Potts fill in a few of them). His brother is played by Wes Bentley who seems to live for the moment and his father is played by Brian Dennehy, a disapproving figure to be sure.
The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity, The Revenant) is beautifully picturesque and it does have a sweeping beauty to it. And it does truly grab you in moments. And though Malik's scripts aren't usually the reason people head towards him, there doesn't seem to be one at all here, so it wanders forever, never finding ground to regroup or a character to emotionalize. Which could be his intention, but if it is, it leaves the entire thing feeling a bit soulless. It's a fever dream to both marvel at and long for more at the same time. If only Malik would have grounded himself in a rich plotline here to match his own delight of roaming. There is no doubt, however, of it's beauty of the scenery and its affect on the viewer. That being said, I can always hope for a richer dream someday.
MATEO'S GRADE: B
Written and Directed by Terrence Malick Starring: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Teresa Palmer, Imogen Potts, Cherry Jones. Now playing in Limited Release.
MATEO MORENO is an actor, writer, and a playwright. His plays Happily After Tonight, Bohemian Valentine, & Within Our Walls have been produced in NY and beyond (TBG Theatre, NY International Fringe Festival, Planet Connections Festivity, Boomerang Theatre, and FOHS Theatre). He most recently co-stared in the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway play City of Glass at The New Ohio Theatre. Mateo is also part of Athena Theatre's 2016 Playwrighting Group. He lives in Brooklyn.