Knight of Cups [DVD] [2016]

This is the only one of hardly prolific Terence Malik's I've seen. I avoided his first feature Badlands because it centered on a guy who kills his girlfriend's father for the heck of it apparently, much as I admired Sissy Spacek, who played the passive girl, at the time. Maybe my loss for it was a hit with the critics (if not with the general public who also stayed away). I can't imagine people coming in droves to see this concoction either. It gives the impression that Malik is saying "Don't care whether anyone enjoys this or not I' m making what I want to make right now" (this is conjecture so don't take it as a quote).I must say I am distinctly unimpressed about how he chose to spend his money. The film is almost totally plotless and apart from basically being about that long-suffering species, as movies invariably portray them, the screenwriter. Nicolas Ray did a better job on this subject decades ago in his movie (A Lonely Place I think it was called) with Humphrey Bogart. Christian Bale's unengaging character is financially flush through success of his metier at the studios, enjoys a freewheeling shallow spendthrift flit-about lifestyle (which includes bonking as many women willing to throw themselves at him) and finally, finally, realises that something is missing.Bale gives it more weight than frankly I thought it deserved (he is much funnier and more charming in the Berlin interview by the way). The only reason I don't give this movie 2 stars is due to Emanuel Lubezki & team's dazzling photography which helped to make me sit this one out. Otherwise, boy, does it test one's patience despite contributions from Kate Blanchette (as Bales' estranged wife) and other acquaintances such as kooky Imogen Poots, americanised, as is Freida Pinto (who gets some significant airplay) and a surprisingly miniscule role for Portman. It all looks very "trippy" though thankfully we are spared overt depictions of swilling alcohol or that drugs are involved. Also thankfully, threadbare though the script is, it manages to refrain from the 'easy way out' recourse to foul language. So while I don't actually dislike the movie and it is in some respects refined mature filmmaking (the music score sounds nice) its pretentions made me fidget a lot.Anyhow that's my opinion. It has to be said that was a big hit with the arty movie crowd at the Berlin Film Festival in 2015.

This is certainly not an easy film to watch, but if you're at ease with the prior two movies in this trilogy (Tree of Life and To The Wonder), then the style and composition of this work will prove familiar and yet unsettling. Moving from the canvas of nature in the prior tales, via the wilderness at the beginning of this piece, Malik unfolds a story of being lost amidst a world of desire and transitory gratification through a man, who due to his past, knows that there is a deeper need to quell.Set amidst the fleeting social world of Hollywood, the disquieting nature of the piece derives from its candid, constant movement through the peripheral nature of what passes as 'connection' - in both relational and spiritual terms - whilst seeking to jar these throughout with shards of something more transcendent in nature breaking upon the thoughts and the through the memories of the central character.I found the work's approach both disturbing and inspiring - in spite of all the inner numbing our world provides, a higher reality still calls to the appetite for eternity in our hearts, and this trilogy shows how so often beauty and true affection can provoke us towards satisfying the deepest thirst.Malik has only been a recent discovery for me, but if you enjoy his work, this is certainly worth a watch, and deeper consideration.

'Knight of Cups' DVD arrived early and was well packaged. This is not a mainstream movie. It's a movie that makes you feel like a Hollywood Star who has everything but is 'EMPTY'. Terrence Malick delivers the final part of his trilogy of movies 'in spades' ('The Tree of Life'; 'To the Wonder' and 'Knight of Cups'). As this movie 'breaks over you', like the surf on Malibu Beach, one feels that Malick has further enhanced his incredible 'poetry-in-motion. It's 'business as usual' for 'Malickmania'. Maybe some viewers will be left with a 'cold' feeling about stardom in California. For others, 'Knight of Cups' delivers a visually stunning presentation of life behind the Hollywood Sign. This movie 'hands a key' to the viewer to unlock actively thought provoking images and an amazing soundtrack. 'Knight of Cups' is a powerful and beautiful movie in many ways. Sometimes abstract; sometimes even celestial. All in all 'Knight of Cups' is a 'Tour-de-Force. 'Malickmania' almost guarantees that his earlier works have become classics. Add these other Terrence Malick movies to you collection:- 'Badlands' (1973); 'Days of Heaven' (1978); 'The Thin Red Line' (1998), 'The New World' (2005), 'The Tree of Life' (2011) and 'To the Wonder' (2012).

I fell for the star factor, but this was truly a waste of time. It's extremely "cry me a river"; a cliché of someone who has it all but is still empty and devoid of meaning. Can't believe I just spent over an hour watching a narcissist frolic on screen, the dialogue was basic, the women were basic, the stylist needs to be fired, and all these characters just need to get over themselves. The whole movie depended too much on aesthetic, but it really missed the mark for me. Looked like a bunch of stock photos for some fancy hotel/boujie brand.

I'm a big TM fan but this latest film left me cold. I'm not sure whether it was intended to leave me cold as its about a celebrity wandering aimlessly through his celeb lifestyle and seeing it for the pointless vacuous thing that it is. Whilst the film has TM's usual dreamlike quality there is little of beauty or of hope here. I think its a great expose of the Hollywood party lifestyle as being shallow and pointless - but in the end that's how the film felt. As a writer myself I have found his previous films very stimulating and inspiring but this made me glad I was a nobody...