The A24ist of A24 movies and you know what your getting into if that makes any sense. The Green Knight is an enigmatic slow burn of a movie. A retelling of an Arthurian legend that you may or may not have read in high school or college. It’s not as ingrained in pop culture like the tales of Arthur and Excalibur and, watching the flick, you may not even realize its setting if you hadn’t read that original story. Names like Camelot, Arthur, and Excalibur are never once uttered. To say this is a strange movie would set the stage well.
On Christmas day, Arthur and his nephew Gawain (played by Dev Patel) are feasting when the Green Knight rides in most unexpectedly. The Knight proposes a Christmas Game that involves Gawain lopping off the Knight’s head. A quest then begins in one year where Gawain is tasked with finding the Green Knight and receiving the same blow himself.
Slow, inscrutable, gloomy, ethereal, and weird are a few adjectives that go here. This is a very odd, very surreal movie. I would suggest you not doze in and out of sleep while watching as you’ll not know what are your dreams and what actually happened on screen. The film is a bit of a trip… a head-scratching trip.
But I found myself engaged… that isn’t always the case with these types of films but this one worked. The flick takes place episodically with each sequence having varying levels of reality and meaning. And I’m not sure about all the meanings… I’m sure I’ve missed some of the messages, themes, or symbolism. It’s that kind of movie… something you have to ruminate over and watch a second time.
Probably could have used a less ambiguous ending but, at the same time, I wasn’t surprised by the cut to credits. That’s kind of par for this kind of film. Doesn’t mean I didn’t walk out slightly disappointed though… disappointed but resigned.
This is not a film that everyone will enjoy… and, in that sense, it’s very on-brand for A24 which is a studio that has have made a number of films not for everyone. If you are the kind of person who enjoyed slow burn freakouts like The Lighthouse, Midsommar, Hereditary, and It Comes at Night, you’ll probably like this one too. If you found those a slog, too artsy-fartsy, or found their head up their own asses, you’ll think the same here. Fair warning.
Score: 86