The Green Knight

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/the-green-knight-spoiler-free-review "The Green Knight is a slow-burn character study with some of the best visuals and sound work I've ever witnessed. David Lowery delivers a thematically heavy, superbly structured narrative focused on the self-discovering journey of the flawed protagonist Sir Gawain. Dev Patel leads with an extraordinarily subtle, powerful performance, accompanied by an equally impressive supporting cast. Andrew Droz Palermo's stunning cinematography, Daniel Hart's atmosphere-setting score, and especially Johnny Marshall's impactful sound design deeply elevate the tremendous epic scope that this movie holds. However, some fantastical elements feel irrelevant, the lack of any sort of action deeply affects the snail-like pacing, and the execution of the ending ultimately leaves me feeling slightly underwhelmed, though admittedly caught by surprise. In the end, it's still an epic character piece that I highly recommend to any fantasy fan but beware of unrealistically high, action-based expectations." Rating: B+

I found this movie to be mostly intriguing, and I have no qualm with the acting. I must confess that in a couple of places it dragged for me, once to the point where I nodded off for a few minutes. To be fair, I was also operating on not enough sleep lately. I thought it odd that Essel, Sir Gawain’s girlfriend, had such short hair. Was that a thing in the Middle Ages? There are a couple of plot twists that add a little zing to the story, which I will not reveal here. Rather I will say that the ending reminded me a little of the ending of The Last Temptation of Christ. Also, you should pay attention to it s it winds down, so that you know what is going on. So file this film with others that I probably won’t watch a second time, but which I don’t regret spending two hours on.