The Twinkling of Tinseltown
May 12, 2016
Knight of Cups (2016).
D/W: Terrence Malick. DP: Emmanuel Lubezki. Starring: Christian Bale/Cate Blanchett/Natalie Portman/Wes Bentley/Teresa Palmer/Freida Pinto/Brian Dennehy/Imogen Poots/Cherry Jones.
I imagine filmmaker Terrence Malick as that charming yet introverted kid in the playground. So immersed in his imaginative world he mostly plays on his own. Every now and then letting another kid break into his barriers and run to keep up with the rules of creation in his mind. Malick’s last two films 2012’s To The Wonder and 2011’s The Tree of Life were released somewhat close to one another. Having worked on Knight of Cups for a few years now as well as another upcoming project supposedly titled Weightless, the reclusive director finally brings his signature beauty to Los Angeles.
Knight of Cups meanders along with Rick (Christian Bale) as he contemplates his failed relationships, apathy, family and existence in the city of Los Angeles. Cut up into chapters the film is almost a group of novellas mostly revolving around the introduction of different women. Pixie punk darling Bella (Imogen Poots), Rick’s ex-wife Nancy (Cate Blanchett), new ‘friend’ Helen (Freida Pinto), Australian stripper Karen (Teresa Palmer), and new married lover Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) are this collection of characters that move in and out of Rick’s life. All do well, but this is not a film with acting turns. Knight of Cups is movement and space, actors as bodies within Malick’s frame.
You hardly remember Bale’s characters name as the film has voice-over from multiple characters, very little dialogue, but tremendous amounts of sound. Characters address each other through voice-over in a story like manner. This might seem dream like in description, but it is rather more like a hazy state of in-between. Bale’s Rick seems to stand in rooms and absorb–lost in trails of thought. Knight of Cups is thus not a film concerned with story or acting or conflict, but rather about being.
Here Malick works again with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant, Birdman, Gravity). There are plenty of gorgeous nature porn shots as well as souring landscapes of Los Angeles. The film is seduction in itself set in a city that circles many down the drain of money, sex, power and disastrous disengagement. Knight of Cups is more cohesive than say Tree of Life whose family melodrama felt out of sync with the scale of Malick’s concepts. Here the streamline is more focused. To say Malick is a visual storyteller is an understatement. He does not simply use images in service of a story, rather he builds the story out of images and sequences.
In other words, Knight of Cups is the visual equivalent to a Cormac McCarthy novel. Where McCarthy abandons quotation marks Malick rejects linear storytelling and standard narrative structure. The film forces you to enter into Rick’s state of mind. Like his previous work, you must bend, be patient and surrender. As a former Los Angeles resident Knight of Cups is a beautiful wander through the delusions of a high priced lifestyle sitting atop a gruesome underbelly. Most likely one will get out of the film what you bring to it. I certainty fell into Rick’s pangs, but as usual Malick is not for the non-believer.
Straight to the Vein
May 8, 2016
Green Room (2016).
D/W: Jeremy Saulnier. DP: Sean Porter. Starring: Patrick Stewart/Anton Yelchin/Imogen Poots/Alia Shawkat/Joe Cole/Callum Turner/Mark Webber/Eric Edelstein/Macon Blair.
Unlike The Witch‘s subtle historical horror, the new film Green Room plugs you into an amp and drags you along for a wild ride. After doing a festival circuit the film was bought by A24 prior to its Toronto and Sundance appearances. A good piece of horror fun, Green Room is perfect antidote to the big studio tent-poles who are slowly removing personal horror from violence.
Green Room centers on a heavy rock band that flies under the radar, shirking social media in the name of true music. Stealing gas and living literally hand to mouth they reluctantly take a gig to make some extra cash to finish up their tour. Off the group then goes and arrives at a Neo-Natzi esq type club. After their set they discover a stabbing victim in the green room and become embroiled in a cat/mouse trap with the owner as they attempt to wait for the police to arrive.
Cinematographer by trade, director/writer Jeremy Saulnier handles Green Room with confidence. His 2013 film, Blue Ruin, garnered festival buzz premiering at Cannes. Here the trick is clearly keeping his characters and his audience in the dark. The film keeps a good pace and the cat/mouse story line works because there is never an attempt to explain (other than basics) why the events must occur. The unexplained breeds the panic of the group. The few reasons given are not the most inventive, but the core of Green Room is certainly the wrong place/wrong time of the group and it works.
The club owner/head honcho Darcy is played by veteran Patrick Stewart. With his eerily calm delivery of most lines he seems like a cat ready to pounce whose temper every now and then betrays him. Stewart’s general good aura gives the cult/Neo-Natzi group a weight that helps the film. The band has good chemistry with each other with Anton Yelchin’s Pat inadvertently becoming the lead. His simpering boyishness is a good contrast to the bullies in the club yet echoes cult side kick Gabe (Macon Blair) ineptitude at the physical. Imogen Poots hair and non showering look seems to have finally found its place with her performance as Amber. Her exasperation translates well.
Ultimately Green Room gives the gratuitous violence of the horror genre some shape and form. There is some inventive use of duck tape that is quite nauseating. The film is full of turns so will keep your heartbeat going and has a great final countdown sequence that is not without humor. It does not have the style of The Witch or even the performances of 10 Cloverfield Lane, but it has a fresh energy that allows its characters to keep fighting. A solid horror flick probably best watched at night, take it from someone who saw it at 11 AM!