Review of Knight of Cups (2015) by Matthew S — 09 Feb 2015

As someone who rates The Thin Red Line as one of his favourite movies I was so looking forward to this when I attended the Berlin Film Festival premiere. Unfortunately this movie cannot be placed even in the same category as The Thin Red Line. Though the hypnotically shifting imagery keeps the attention, it is absolutely beautifully shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, the actual style of the film is very much in the realm of Art House movies. It's a Hollywood A-List Art House movie where Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman spend most of their time on screen saying nothing whilst their off screen voices engage in very pretentious, monotonous monologues.

Don't be fooled by critics who try to claim Malick is off on some profound, life affirming riff with this movie. The point of the movie is fairly straight-forward i.e. The life of a successful Hollywood artist can be pretty meaningless.

I'm not sure whether we need to see Christian Bale wandering about aimlessly through Hollywood decadance and business meetings to understand that particular philosophical nugget.

The movie gives critics plenty to write about but it won't give you much value for your hard earned cash, unless you're a die-hard Malick fan who appreciates art-house pretentiousness.

The best thing about the movie is the beautiful cinematography and the soundtrack that goes with it is very effective. So if you're a fan of Malick and/or Emmanuel Lubezki it's worth seeing on the big screen once for that, just don't expect anything on a par with either's best work. In fact you can expect to be quite bored after a while.

There's nothing entertaining about this movie and that's the main place where it differs from The Thin Red Line. The Thin Red Line contained stunning imagery, excellent acting and a compelling story to make it an instant classic, Knight of Cups really just has the stunning imagery with aimless acting and a completely uninteresting story.

I will give special commendation to Imogen Poots, who lights up the screen in every scene as she has done in any movie I've seen her. She's a real star in the making if only someone would cast her in a star-making role.

2 stars for the visuals and Imogen Poots!