REVIEW: THE GREEN KNIGHT

4/5

A Knight's Tale.

130 Mins. Starring: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Barry Keoghan, Emily Kellyman, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris & Ralph Ineson. Director: David Lowery. 

Compellingly confounding, David Lowery is one of the most inspired and intriguing directors working today. Whether in swan song with 'The Old Man & The Gun', Robert Redford. Or reuniting 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints' Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck for the affecting 'A Ghost Story'. In a story that haunts you differently, like lost love, for the rest of your life. This fever waking dream was easily the best film of 2017, if not the greatest of a decade before 2020 that now feels all too lost. Now with 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Lion' Dev Patel (one of the best actors at work in our time), Lowery's legacy offers us another story that will have us questioning our every existence on this mortal plane. As all great works of art do. What more could you expect from the auteur director or the independent powerhouse production company of A24? 

A devastatingly good Dev Patel is more than worthy in 'The Green Knight' as he was 'The Personal History Of David Copperfield'. Pure and true magic, forget who it gives the Dickens. Many knights look like him, but in this tale based on the 14th century poem 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', more than heads will roll in this epic medieval fantasy as demonic voices harking back to 'Macbeth' set his head ablaze and this thing off. Heavy is the crown and such when it comes to this quest of courage. There are giants that could throw down with those that hurl stones in 'The Hobbit', a fleet of foxes, and even a Joker in the pack of this journey. And that's before young Gawain gets to bark at a knight that looks like he calls himself Groot. 

Expectations will be exceeded and proceeded by so much more for he who shall be king like Timothée Chalamet. So says a warm and wonderful Sean Harris (so good recently in "yes, Chef" Spencer) before him (no stranger to these dark regal experiences from 'Macbeth' to 'The King'). But even if you read the words of the legendary prose, you still won't know what quite to expect, as you take from it more than thought-provoking conversation for the next couple of days and visions in your mind's eye. Surely this has the Academy's consideration. A perfect Patel is powerful in this as our new generation's best. The gloriously gaudy crown is anything but hollow in this Dorian Gray like portrait that has more to beware of the ides of March. Pick the apple if you want, Adam. But every man should face his fate bravely. Especially when it comes from their own mistakes they make. Temptation and your bitter fruit be damned. 

Alicia Vikander needs to be the actress whose name is on everyone's lips again with her best performance in years. And that's no slight on her recent work ('The Glorias', 'Blue Bayou', 'Earthquake Bird'). Her mesmerizing monologue about the force of nature will bury you. It's like that kitchen conversation at 'Ghost Story' party that digs away at the soil of what life is all about. More toil and trouble comes from Irish scene setter Barry Keoghan on this path. Beyond biblical in another mysteriously shrouded story like this, 'The Killing Of A Sacred Deer' (the only thing that came close to David's 'Ghost' in '17). We can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve as the Clown Prince of Crime, like that deleted scene from 'The Batman'. 'The Hunger Games' and 'A Hologram For The King' star Sarita Choudhury is truly haunting. Just like the head of Emily Kellyman of 'The Falcon and The Winter Soldier'. And the 'Loving' kindness of one of today's best Joel Edgerton is hiding more than hurt. But it's an unrecognizable Ralph Ineson of 'Game of Thrones' in fir who truly unsettles in the bark and bite of his truncated tree trunk movements. For your round table, this is the roots of a knight's tale that will stay with you long after the final blow. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'A Ghost Story', 'The Tragedy Of Macbeth', 'The King'.