David Lowery’s The Green Knight, opening theatrically in North American theaters beginning Thursday night courtesy of A24, is precisely the movie you think it is.
David Lowery’s The Green Knight, opening theatrically in North American theaters beginning Thursday night courtesy of A24, is precisely the movie you think it is. If you’ve seen any of Lowery’s prior naturalistic supernatural gems ( Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon, etc.), you know that this isn’t precisely Excalibur or King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The film runs 125 minutes, and from what I gather, it’s an intentionally more extended cut than what was intended to premiere at the 2020 SXSW. So the final product is even more of a tone poem, a lazy river of a movie allowing you to luxuriate in a world hopefully worth visiting. While not necessarily filled with action and conventional spectacle, the picture earns its honor via strong acting, gorgeous visuals and the extent to which it achieves a genuinely epic feel on an A24 budget. Loosely based on the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” our adventure concerns the young nephew of King Arthur himself (Sean Harris) who is in good standing with his royal kin but yearns to prove himself worthy of knighthood and the abstract notions of honor that go with it. An opportunity arises on Christmas Eve when Arthur and his knights are confronted by a tree-like creature who wishes to “play a game.” Is any man in the room brave enough to strike this creature? The catch is that whatever blow they land must be reciprocated next Christmas Eve.
