Knight of Cups (2015)

3.9/10 by 12 users

Once there was a young prince whose father, the king of the East, sent him down into Egypt to find a pearl. But when the prince arrived, the people poured him a cup. Drinking it, he forgot he was the son of a king, forgot about the pearl and fell into a deep sleep.

User Reviews

Terrence Malick is one of rare contemporary authors who could follow current trends in mainstream cinematography and create works of art. In the time where blockbusters opt for CGI to create scenes that defy gravity, anatomy and, in most of the cases, logic, Terrence Malick paints landscapes that make the audience sigh. He feeds the moviegoers' craving for visual excitement with extraordinary and, sometimes, impossible vistas. To put a long story short, he uses IMAX experience to its full potential.

However, when we start analyzing the story behind the visual experience, some issues emerge. I can only assume that The Tree of Life turned out to be too hermetical for the mainstream audience. Therefore the producers kindly asked the writer (Terrence Malick) to go for something more accessible. And since Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (2010) seems to be the current benchmark for a "good" art-house movie, he decided to built the story upon a similar experience.

Unlike the aforementioned movie by Ms Coppola, Knight of Cups does have a story, albeit vague, and explores some questions about meaning of life. It seemed to me that the writer couldn't decide whether he wants to paint the bleakness of rich people's daily routine or to tell a story of the battle of good an evil. This left us with a movie that looks like a superior video for a random party song which pretends to tackle some philosophical questions.

Release Date	:	Sep 10, 2015
Runtime	:	118 minutes
Genres	:	Drama
Production Company	:	Waypoint Entertainment, Dogwood Films
Production Countries	:	United States of America
Casts	:	Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Isabel Lucas, Natalie Portman,Imogen Poots, Jason Clarke, Wes Bentley, Teresa Palmer, Joe Manganiello, Joel Kinnaman, Nick Offerman
Plot Keywords	:	celebrity, money, temptation, wealthy man, excess