Rating of
1.5/4
Lost My Patience With Malick
Unknown - wrote on 06/29/16
I've never been a true fan of director Terrence Malick, but I've always admired his wholly unique presentation of film. It's a quality that has carried me through all of his works despite my personal wavering of them over time. That appreciation was tested to the limit with 'Knight of Cups'. His signature style of aimless free-flowing cinema without boundaries has become monotonous here. I couldn't get into this at all. The lack of anything tangible to latch onto emotionally, as well as the complete absence of any coherence, was testing my patience. This really is nothing more than some beautifully shot images radically edited to sweeping music, with the most vague whispered narration sprinkled in. These are all things that encompass the auteur's style. However, they've become a cliche by this point. Nothing else is offered here that I can see. Every time I thought I knew what the film was trying to say in it's purposefully cryptic means, something else would negate that thought later. It's so damn hard to crack the surface of this film when it all feels as if there is no real intent other than to say: "Thoughtful meanings, what are they? Oh never mind. Let's just look at this aching beauty! There are no answers to these non-questions.". I got a seriously pretentious vibe from it all. After watching the film, I did some research and found that Malick didn't have a script or a goal in mind for what the film was to be. That makes complete sense. But it does not make for a good watch, sorry to say. The film is so aesthetically beautiful that I can't bring myself to call it bad. It's better viewed as a backdrop to whatever you feel like doing at the same time.
