If you’re not familiar with the name Terrence Malick, you’re not alone — it doesn’t help that he’s famously a recluse.
But Malick is one of the best and most unique American filmmakers, and in 2015, he teamed up with the Dark Knight himself, Christian Bale, for Knight of Cups.
A philosophical drama with jaw-dropping visuals, the movie is one of Bale’s most underrated features in his impressive filmography.
Watch With Us explains why the film is one of Bale’s best and why it’s a must-watch this October or any time of the year.
‘Knight of Cups’ Has an Incredible Ensemble Cast
If there’s one thing that should immediately draw you into Knight of Cups, it is that the cast is stacked with A-listers. The thing is, even if you’ve never heard Malick’s name before, most of your favorite actors have. The chance to collaborate with Malick isn’t one to miss out on — his reputation precedes him, and he offers a unique and challenging filmmaking experience that also gives the possibility of awards buzz. Plus, he doesn’t make films very often, so you have to get in there while the getting’s good.
Knight of Cups stars Bale as an aimless LA-based screenwriter, adrift and searching for something while reflecting on his many past relationships (mostly with women) and his interactions in the present day. Other characters he encounters are played by Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Antonio Banderas and Nick Kroll, but that’s not even half of the notable cast. Don’t spoil it for yourself on Wikipedia — it’s more fun to watch the film and see whose faces pop up.
It’s Thematically and Philosophically Dense
As with all of Malick’s work, Knight of Cups is a philosophically rigorous film and grapples with multiple different ideas at once. For one, the film is something of a religious quest as Bale’s character Rick is faced with ennui born from the cold and spiritually bereft modern world that he lives in and actively contributes to. Thus, Rick finds himself in the midst of existential despair while living within the bowels of Hollywood hedonism and decadence that he also partakes in with booze and drugs.
It’s something of a Dantesque tale in the way that Rick moves through these different realms of human experience on a journey towards attaining a form of enlightenment and meaning, mirroring the way that Dante travels through the underworld, interacting with different souls. Malick was directly inspired by a handful of religious texts that he quotes in the movie as well, such as the Christian allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. But don’t let that intimidate you; you can brush up on your religious allegories later.
It’s a Unique Film Experience You Won’t Soon Forget
Malick’s films don’t give you the normal movie-watching experience; don’t go into a Malick film expecting a typical three-act structure with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end like you get with something from Steven Spielberg. Rather, it’s best to approach Malick’s films as if they’re moving paintings, poems or even dreams. Film is a visual medium and it’s one that’s meant to be played in, and Malick’s way of playing around with the medium is creating films that are incredibly loose and free-flowing, and do not adhere to standard notions of narrative structure.
Knight of Cups is broken up into ten chapters, all of which, except the final chapter, are based on tarot cards from the Major Arcana or Minor Arcana. The Moon, The Hanged Man, The High Priestess, Judgement: each of these is loosely represents one of the film’s characters, and Rick is the Knight of Cups. The film moves in a stream-of-consciousness way, oscillating between Rick’s memories, real experiences, dreams and drug-induced reveries, frequently shepherded by voiceover. Soften up if this sounds pretentious to you, for art asks only that you remain open to it.
It Takes a Familiar Premise and Does Something New With It
There are probably way too many movies that already exist along the vein of “guy searches for meaning among the moral rot of the modern world,” let alone movies about men who are frustrated screenwriters, and movies about movie-making and also movies about how Hollywood is a corrupt and spiritually rotten place. So, if you’re gonna do that plot again, you have to come at it from a different angle.
There is no defined structure to the film, and there is no one thing that the film is about. It is, in its simplest form, a movie about a lost, frustrated screenwriter, but it’s also a melodrama, a soul-searching quest, a mid-life crisis, a romantic drama, a confessional and a religious experience, and Rick isn’t just a fictional screenwriter but he can also be interpreted as somewhat of a reflection of Malick himself. Knight of Cups takes an overused premise and gives it an entirely new spin just by coming from a director with such a unique way of creating art.
Watch Knight of Cups now on Netflix.
