Review

QuoteLook, I like an intelligent movie, one that makes you think, but there is this weird line between "intelligent and thought-provoking" and "opaque mindf**k that feels like something you were required to watch in high school."

Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love is a great example of something that makes you think, that has layers upon layers of symbolism and yet is easily accessible to your average filmgoer. The Green Knight is not.

Oof. I genuinely, seriously fail to see how TGK is apparently so inaccessible and inscrutable. It's a straightforward fantasy adventure story with some magic and weird imagery. There is some ambiguity, but only in a few scenes, and it's clearly the type of ambiguity that's meant to be savored. Otherwise it has a pretty clearly-structured beginning, middle, and end.

Really wanted to like this - but it came off like a beautiful chest without anything of use within; I can't imagine that the "chapters" in this film juxtapose each other, rather they mark segments in a wandering journey without footing in much thematic work. Like, yeah, I get the morality play of its onset and conclusion, but all in between is a mist. What's dope about that though is that those going through their own trials can interpret that last hour and change however they prefer.

Gonna keep thinkin' on it, but apart from its beautiful production design and cinematography, & Gawain's characterization as a solipsist fuccboi, I didn't find much of note here. That said: the movies LOOKS beautiful and grand. I wish the script met its mettle at the art-metal middle.

SPOILERS

Personally I find beauty and power in its thematic simplicity.

There is a feeling of aimlessness (even when there's a clear aim) that could read as emptiness, but for me it reflects Gawain's own lack of purpose. It's a story of prolonged adolescence. He's been so sheltered and coddled that everything is a new experience, and every decision he makes is bad. (Except one?)

So that's the movie – Gawain failing his way toward a goal, scared out of his mind, not even sure he wants it. Then he finally finds something in himself. How comedic that is depends on your interpretation of the final moment, but yeah. The big thematic punch is definitely reserved for that last sequence.

Yeah, and I honestly dug all that! Gawain's characterization holds the entire conceit together. But there are other films where the same sort of wandering 2nd act has a juxtaposition to each beat that enhances the whole.

The Green Knight's "design" as a feature film makes sense to me. Although I'm not sure it won me over, I can tell its aim iz true.

Interesting. I think this comes down to personal preference rather than diverging interpretations. Which is probably a good thing.

This movie does a great job of articulating Pagan iconography without it overtaking a more traditional construction of "Medieval" aesthetics.

^also working on Lowery's  Peter Pan & Wendy



commentary on the framing and formal decisions in lighting: