The Green Knight (2021) Dir: David Lowery
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David Lowery's A24 fantasy adventure was a film that intrigued me greatly. It looked like it would be a fascinating foray into the world of Arthurian legend and folktales. It was one of those films that had spent an eternity sitting on my watchlist, but finally I got around to it.
As expected, based on the aesthetics and premise of the film, it was very Folkloric and mystical. It felt very much like I was watching a tale from the land of King Arthur. I think that production did well, considering its modest $15 million budget - it successfully created a world which felt like one of myth and legend.
The visual effects looked a little dodgy occasionally, but I'd put that down to budget restrictions, in fairness. The majority of the effects and costumes were inkeeping enough, and there was only a slight hint of the aforementioned low budget. There were some slight issues with the sound mixing, specifically with the score, which was a bit distracting.
The narrative was very much fablelike in nature. It had a classic journey structure to it, but mixed in all sorts of fantastical and mysterious elements - some of which worked, some of which didn't. I think it didn't help that the pacing was so slow - it made the film drag, which was a shame. I liked the main elements of the story, but there was somehow too much and not enough happening.
Dev Patel gave a pretty good performance in this film's leading role. He had some very enjoyable scenes here and there, and while the rest of his acting wasn't bad, it was a lot less memorable than i had hoped. Still, I very much enjoyed those better moments - most of them when he was being more emotive.
The supporting cast comes in and out of this film at different intervals, with no one having a truly established position. I think the most noteworthy performances came from Alicia Vikander, Sean Harris, Ralph Ineson and Joel Edgerton, though. I'm not usually a big fan if Edgerton, but he gave a very enjoyable account of himself.
In regards to the other actors who I felt were worthy of note, those were Sarita Choudhury, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan and Erin Kellyman. None of them had particularly substantial roles, but out of the four of them, Keoghan, to few people's surprise, was the most memorable.
Overall, I liked aspects of this fantasy film, but it wasn't quite enough for me - I wanted more. Perhaps that's greedy, but I felt like this one could've gone even further with its fantastical and folkloric ideas. Moreover, it had some slight issues, which also held it back from being as good as it could've been. I think it's a good film, but it could've been a great film.
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