Knight of Cups (Terrance Malick, 2015): USA

Review by Zachary T. Parker. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, 2016.

As a centerpiece of the film festival, Knight of Cups by Terrence Malick created tons of controversy, discussed from the night it was shown, until the closing night of the festival and, in no way a stretch of the imagination, beyond that. Starring Christian Bale as Rick, as well as tons of other big name actors, Knight of Cups is based in an old fable about a prince sent by his father the king to find a pearl, but the prince consumes a drink and falls into a deep sleep, forgetting who he is and what he came to find.

There are many meanings one could pull from the film, images of Los Angeles cut with shots of beautiful, breath-taking landscapes. Rick, a screenwriter in Hollywood, is speechless, described by Bale in an interview as a man of words who has lost his use of words. As is the inspiration for the film itself, each chapter is named after a tarot card, with the exception of the final chapter: Freedom. With few lines of dialogue in a sea of voice overs, the chapter names are what the observer must pay close attention to in order to derive the specific meanings of each scene.

Though many have critiqued the film as utterly lacking in narrative and meaning, they would be incorrect. This is not a film meant for every cinema goer, which quite frankly is sort of an excellent change of pace. It is self described as an experimental project and it’s production certainly fits the description. Malick wrote the script, but it was largely improvised during filming. Bale, for instance, had no lines whatsoever, only a character description given to him by Malick. Each day he showed up on set to shoot, he had no idea as to what he would be filming or what each scene was about.

If what you wish for is a fixed story with a perfect arc occurring over three acts, by all means avoid Knight of Cups like the plague, whine at its very existence, weep over hours lost, breaths taken, complain at every possible opportunity. However, as Roger Durling pointed out during his talk with the class, a film you dislike and find meaningless is one you can walk out of and forget, but if you continue to talk about it, complain about it, and curse it, perhaps there is something more to it than you believe.