Movie Thoughts: The Green Knight

I’m a big fan of David Lowery, and I’ve recently realized I don’t know exactly why. I still haven’t seen Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. I thought Pete’s Dragon was all right for what it was, though I’ve heard other people refer to it as “abysmal”. I appreciated what he tried to do with A Ghost Story but was bored while watching it (Rooney Mara eating a pie for 15 minutes = ‘filmmaking’). The Old Man and the Gun was a tight, practical little flick. I assume Peter Pan & Wendy will be a good Disney remake and possibly his breakout film where a lot of normies will memorize his name.

But for now, I don’t really know why I feel so loyal to his brand. I think I might be looking at him more for what I want him to be and what I can see in his potential — at his apex he’s got Spielberg’s wonder with Fincher’s grounded darkness. I love his palette. I like his range. I think he’s capable of doing some truly amazing filmmaking in the next twenty years.

Anyway.

The bottom line is, I wanted to like this movie. And I’m not sure I did.

Full disclosure, I am not a sophisticated man. I’m fully aware that seven hundred year old chivalric poetry doesn’t fit my modern tastes, which are used to focus-grouped, plot-point-hitting, economically-calculated cinematic products. But something doesn’t hit here. Often, this film feels like a bunch of scenes cut out from a better, more epic fantasy or tv series and then shown in order. It feels disjointed, like a student film where everything but the plot was done…