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The Green Knight

 A review by Brooks Rich

The nephew of King Arthur, Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), is looking to become a legend in his own right. On Christmas Day the mysterious Green Knight arrives at the castle and challenges Arthur to a friendly game. One of his knights must do battle with the Green Knight. If they land a single blow, then in a year's time they must journey to the Green Chapel and receive the same blow in return. Gawain accepts the challenge and yet the Green Knight does not fight back, instead bowing and offering his head. Gawain beheads him, only to have the Green Knight, rise, pick up his head, and say "one year." A year later Gawain must travel to Green Chapel, a six day's journey north, to face the Green Knight. 

They don't make movies like this anymore. This is no Hollywood film with non-stop action scenes and answers for every little question. This is a slow paced ambiguous fairy tale, a film about one man discovering what it's like to be honorable and face death. It's very much paced like a seventies film. If you only go to the movies for Marvel films or the Fast and the Furious franchise, you might want to skip this one. This film can move at a glacial pace sometimes but I do not mean that to be a negative. We need films like this today because most mainstream movies are garbage written by committee and edited by focus groups. 

Writer director David Lowery crafts a surreal story where fantasy and horror mixes with the real world. Part ghost story, part adventure, part fable, The Green Knight is serious fantasy. The MVP of this film is Dev Patel, who is in nearly every frame of this film. It is the best thing he has ever done and he's my pick for Best Actor right now. It'll be tough to beat him. 

I have no real negatives to say about this. It's beautifully shot, masterfully directed, impeccably crafted, and brilliantly acted. Just know this is a slow ambiguous film when you go into it. I mean it when I say this is no Hollywood movie. This is a fantasy for cinephiles. 

Rating: 5/5



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