How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 12 March 2015
This article is a review of KNIGHT OF CUPS.Seen at the Berlin International Film Festival 2015. (For more information, click here.)
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“Where did I go wrong?” Rick (Christian Bale)
Might writer-director Terrence Malick, in self-flagellation, be asking himself the same question at the result of his latest? At a public screening of THE TREE OF LIFE in 2011, part way through, behind me, one of an exasperated couple expounded to the other, “I told you we should have gone to see THOR!” Previously, the reclusive filmmaker has used narration accompanying vivid sequences to poetic effect; the pinnacles being THE THIN RED LINE and THE NEW WORLD. His Brad Pitt-starrer tipped his style over into pretentiousness and obfuscation. Don’t get me started on tedious follow-up, TO THE WONDER. Yet, such an inspired and mysterious visualizer has so many queuing to see the next (you should have seen the crowds, for a 1600-seat auditorium, three-quarters of an hour before the press screening!)
Might writer-director Terrence Malick, in self-flagellation, be asking himself the same question at the result of his latest? At a public screening of THE TREE OF LIFE in 2011, part way through, behind me, one of an exasperated couple expounded to the other, “I told you we should have gone to see THOR!” Previously, the reclusive filmmaker has used narration accompanying vivid sequences to poetic effect; the pinnacles being THE THIN RED LINE and THE NEW WORLD. His Brad Pitt-starrer tipped his style over into pretentiousness and obfuscation. Don’t get me started on tedious follow-up, TO THE WONDER. Yet, such an inspired and mysterious visualizer has so many queuing to see the next (you should have seen the crowds, for a 1600-seat auditorium, three-quarters of an hour before the press screening!)
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Reading about ennui and misanthropy is one thing (‘The Catcher in the Rye’), yet watching or reading about the wealthy, in particular, suffering an existential meltdown can be alienating – see Dom DeLillo’s novel and David Cronenberg’s movie, COSMOPOLIS. Christian Bale’s Rick is a Hollywood prince that everyone wants to work or sleep with. Dialogue and voice over are too obtuse to pin down his exact profession. Is Bale a spoilt version of himself, an actor, or a director like Malick (though the latter does not have the reputation of a partier like his lead – but who knows right, could be an amazingly kept secret)? Whichever way, the ENTOURAGE arena has been entered – wish fulfilment for many men. Strings of beautiful actresses and models and glamour await the audience.
Rick’s ex-belles are a striking acting talent array – Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Imogen Poots – who are grist to his short attention span mill. Serial monogamy and threesomes litter the screen. While equally cloistered director Stanley Kubrick ended his career on explicit, intelligent sexual anxiety in EYES WIDE SHUT, KNIGHT OF CUPS has volumes of beautiful female nudity, though the whiff of exploitation hangs over the endeavour.
Beguilingly sublime for the first 30 minutes (cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (THE NEW WORLD, GRAVITY, BIRDMAN) has surely now reached living legend status), imagery-score-performances are a feast. Party scenes rival Paolo Sorrentino (see IL DIVO), but the Italian helmer annexes such flourishes to an engaging story. His THE GREAT BEAUTY can be compared and contrasted to KNIGHT OF CUPS, and not in the latter’s favour. Both are debonair and flashy; however, the former has emotional purpose and a winning melancholy. Malick’s runs out of ideas and repeats itself for 75 per cent of the runtime, forcing one to ask: Who cares about Rick’s predicaments? An empathy-less protagonist is a profound flaw. How many times is Christian Bale shown looking down, serious expression fixed on face? That is not character construction.
Hyperactive, relaxing, patience-testing, superficial; saved, just, by arresting eye candy.
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