Review – Knight of Cups
Some people like Terrance Malick. I am not one of those people. I liked The Thin Red Line (1998), but that’s the only film of his I can tolerate. I think his films are pretty to look at, but are too complicated for no reason. I went into Knight of Cups with a little bit more faith than I usually have for a Malick film, mostly because of the cast.
Much to my surprise, this is same ol’ Malick, different film. Knight of Cups is a very pretty movie with very pretty actors and actresses, but is very dull and empty.
Knight of Cups is about Rick (Christian Bale), a Hollywood screenwriter who ponders about past relationships with women (including the likes of Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman) and his family all while partying it up in Hollywood and Vegas clubs with beautiful women.
As I was watching Knight of Cups, I kept thinking a better title would have been Sad Entourage. When Rick isn’t crying about how his family is dysfunctional or how a relationship with a woman he loved ended, he’s having sex with other beautiful women, getting acting roles, and partying and lavish mansions. He fills the void of love in his life with random girls he can love for one night. It’s literally like if Vinny Chase from Entourage was depressed. That’s the whole movie, except regular Entourage is a lot more entertaining than Sad Entourage.
If you saw this cast on paper, you’d be sold right away. Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Antonio Banderas, Frieda Pinto, Imogen Poots, Wes Bentley, and Brian Dennehy all have parts in this movie, which you think would be great. You’d be wrong. They’re all wasted. Blanchett is the only one that has a scene worth mentioning, but anything she does, she does well. Bale just walks around and stares at stuff. Natalie Portman cries in a scene and runs on a beach. Wes Bentley yells, and a lot of people jump on beds. I’m not exaggerating either.
The one thing I will say is that Knight of Cups is a very pretty movie to look at. Shot by now three-time Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki, every shot is gorgeous. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie that made Los Angeles look so beautiful. Some of the shots I would love to screenshot and use as backgrounds, but that would require watching the movie again, which I do not want to do.
The best way I can describe Knight of Cups is like this; It is like seeing an attractive person, male or female, at a bar and going to talk to them, but when they talk, they talk about absolute non-sense, and you can handle it for awhile because they look good. But at the end, you’re bored and annoyed. That, my friends, is Knight of Cups.
MY RATING – 1/4
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