The Green Knight (2021) Review

Time: 130 Minutes
Cast:
Dev Patel as Sir Gawain
Alicia Vikander as Essel and the Lady
Joel Edgerton as the Lord
Sarita Choudhury as Morgan le Fay
Sean Harris as King Arthur
Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight
Barry Keoghan as the Scavenger
Erin Kellyman as Winifred
Kate Dickie as Queen Guinevere
Director: David Lowery

King Arthur’s headstrong nephew (Dev Patel) embarks on a daring quest to confront the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), a mysterious giant who appears at Camelot. Risking his head, he sets off on an epic adventure to prove himself before his family and court.

I was greatly anticipating The Green Knight. I was a fan of David Lowery, director of A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon, and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, and it had a good cast that included Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander. From the descriptions it was a medieval fantasy based off an Arthurian legend and I was interested to see how Lowery would do with that. The Green Knight isn’t for everyone by any means, but I found watching it to be a phenomenal experience.

Try to go into the movie blind, the less you know about the movie, the better. The Green Knight is based on a 14^th Century poem (called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) which I’m unfamiliar with. Essentially (and without spoiling anything) the movie is about the protagonist Sir Gawain going on an epic journey to seek honour and fulfil his destiny. It sounds simple and familiar, but its not a conventional (or easily accessible) movie by any means. It certainly wasn’t the type of movie I was expecting. This is definitely not like most fantasy films or tv like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. The story has such a grand scope, but its also blended with this deeply intimate emotional journey, a journey which I found thoroughly compelling. Much of the movie is Gawain wandering different lands and encountering other individuals on his spiritual journey. This movie very much subverts the familiar ‘hero’s journey’ trope, and deconstructs it, and thematically there is so much here to unpack. It is a very contemplative and meditative film, and as such is very much a slow burn. It takes its time to establish its themes, tone, and the development of the main character. However I was personally never bored, I was drawn into this dreamlike world especially with its surrealistic atmosphere. I was surprised at how effectively unsettling it was considering what the movie is based on, there is this constant sense of impending doom which kept me riveted all the way to the end. The last 20 minutes was truly spectacular, with the movie ending with one of the most visually stunning sequences I’ve seen.

There are a lot of great actors in this movie, and they are all really good in their parts. First of all, you have Dev Patel as the lead character of Gawain and this has to be the best performance I’ve seen from him. He’s perfectly cast in this role, the whole film follows him, and he does well carrying it. It’s a very subtle performance, you feel the weight and gravity of what’s happening and you see his state of mind just from his expressions alone. The supporting cast were all fantastic too. Alicia Vikander is really good and memorable in dual roles, definitely a standout in the cast. Sean Harris and Joel Edgerton are great. Barry Keoghan is only in one scene but makes a strong impression, and Ralph Ineson is great as the Green Knight in his few appearances.

David Lowery has directed some great movies, but The Green Knight is on a whole other level compared to what he’s done before, his work here is practically flawless. It is lower budget at around $15 million, but everything on a technical level from the sound design, camera work, visuals and set designs are stellar. I imagine that it would’ve been amazing to watch this on the big screen. The cinematography is truly phenomenal and dreamlike, it just felt so epic and magical. It really is one of the most visually mesmerising films I’ve seen in recent years. The film does use CGI, but it is minimal and subtle, and the fact that they shot on location goes a long way. The sets and costumes are very well detailed too. The score from Daniel Hart is great, a mix of epic and folk music, really helping to set the tone of the film.

The Green Knight lingers in the mind long after I watched it, and it is a movie I want to revisit in the future. It definitely isn’t for everyone, but I loved it. The performances are outstanding led by a career best Dev Patel, the story is compelling with a unique take on the hero’s journey, and the visuals and David Lowery’s direction was amazing to watch. One of my favourite movies of 2021 thus far.

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Jessica Jones Season 3 (2019) Review

Age Rating:
Cast:
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones
Rachael Taylor as Patricia “Trish” Walker
Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse
Benjamin Walker as Erik Gelden
Sarita Choudhury as Kith Lyonne
Jeremy Bobb as Gregory Salinger
Tiffany Mack as Zaya Okonjo
Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth
Creator: Melissa Rosenberg

When Jessica (Krysten Ritter) crosses paths with a highly intelligent psychopath, she and Trish (Rachael Taylor) must repair their fractured relationship and team up to take him down. But a devastating loss reveals their conflicting ideas of heroism, and sets them on a collision course that will forever change them both.

I’m aware I’m a little late to releasing my review of Season 3, I did start writing it soon after finishing this season, it just took me a while to get around to finish writing it, I liked the first Season of Jessica Jones, it’s among the best seasons of Marvel’s Netflix shows. On the other hand, Season 2 was unfortunately one of the weakest of the seasons. I liked it a little more than some people, but it was quite disappointing and it could’ve been way better. The show’s third and final season felt like a weird note to leave the whole Netflix Marvel series on, but I remained cautiously optimistic going into it. In comparison to many of the other Netflix Marvel series, it still remains one of the weaker seasons. With that said, it’s definitely better than the second season and is actually pretty decent, despite a few not so great aspects.

In the second season, one of the problems was that it felt like a bunch of unrelated plotlines thrown together, and most of those plotlines were a mixed bag. Although it did sort of have a main plotline, a lot of the others didn’t really fit in with it at all and it was a bit of a mess. Not all the plotlines of season 3 are connected together but they are at least much more relevant to each other this time. Carrie Anne Moss’s storyline was similar as the previous season, performance was good but the story itself was iffy. It’s really the only storyline somewhat disconnected from the other plotlines. The main plotlines are Jessica hunting down a serial killer, as well as Trish’s storyline with her becoming a superhero/vigilante. The storyline with the serial killer was fine enough, however the killer himself wasn’t compelling at all, which kind of a let down. Particularly after Kilgrave, for the most part it just felt like a typical case that Jessica would take on. If you read my Season 2 review, you could probably tell that the biggest worry I had about this season was Trish’s plotline. It was very difficult to like her in that storyline, and I really hoped that this season would at least not fully treat her as the hero that she’s in the comics, because it didn’t really fit what she was in the show. It didn’t necessarily start off great, after a cliffhanger of an ending with episode 1, the entirety of episode 2 is dedicated to Trish. While I appreciate giving her the time and focus, the pacing really grinds to a halt. After that episode however, it picked up, and without spoiling anything I think they handled that story mostly well. With this season also being 13 episodes long, it does have its moments where it feels drawn out, but it’s mostly okay. In a way, the season did sort of successfully end, however there are a few small things that aren’t fully resolved, which was honestly a bit confusing considering that they were filming fully aware that this was going to be the final season. With all that being said, it’s not like Luke Cage or Iron Fist situation where they ended on a cliffhanger clearly assuming that they’d get another season to continue the story.

Krysten Ritter is effortlessly great as Jessica Jones, she’s still one of the best parts of every season and always delivers. Something I noticed about reactions to this season is that some people didn’t like that Jessica was teaming up with other people, but I was fine with it. Jessica has been developing over time, so it makes sense that she would get help from others in some cases, especially compared to how she was in the first season. Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker gets a pretty big part with her having one of the main plotlines of this season. As I said earlier, she was handled better than I expected. Trish’s attempts at becoming a hero at least shows the issues that come with it. There was an acknowledgement that she obviously had some problems, but at points you can see why she would do the things she does, they aren’t necessarily out of character decisions. With that said, I’ll just say that if you’re a fan of Hellcat/Trish from the comics, you may not like the direction that they go in with her here, very different interpretation. Also the contrast between her and Jessica worked, especially when it came to the whole idea of ‘being a hero’, which is really what this season is about. The pairing and dynamic between the two of them over the course of the season was one of the highlights.

Eka Darville’s character of Malcolm Ducasse has clearly made a big change since the last season, with him now working for Hogarth, he’s had to do a bunch of morally questionable things and by the time of season 3 he’s almost a completely different person. He fit into the story well. Benjamin Walker plays a person who had superpowers, coming across Jessica early on the season and plays a frequent role in the season. With him, I liked the expansion of super powered people in this show, with the exception of Trish, the only time we saw a superpowered character in Jessica Jones was that one fast guy in the second season. At this point, I have a feeling that they kept giving Jeri Hogarth her own plotlines in the seasons because Carrie Anne Moss just acts really well, and while I’m pretty sure her storyline this season was one of the less interesting parts, she does make it watchable. Now the main villain of this season is Jeremy Bobb as a serial killer named Gregory Salinger. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he’s bad, but he’s really a typical serial killer that you might see in crime/thriller tv shows, in Jessica Jones for the most part he doesn’t leave that much of an impact. The first season had Kilgrave as almost a serial killer type character but he was charismatic, interesting and entertaining to watch. If you were to call Alisa Jones a villain in Season 2, she has some ties to Jessica that made you actually have a reason to at least pay attention to what’s happening with her character. Salinger is just a run of the mill killer, there’s not really anything special about him. At a point pretty early on, he becomes more of a nuisance more than anything. Towards his last episodes he improves slightly and even has some impactful moments, but it’s too little too late. Not to mention by the end he ends up more like a plot device than an actual character. Bobb definitely does the best he can, playing him creepy, but that’s really it.

The direction was generally good, directed in a very similar way that the previous seasons were. It again didn’t overdo it with the action, and the superpowers on display were handled quite well, with both Jessica and Trish.

Jessica Jones Season 3 was a relatively decent season, despite some issues that I had. The cast are generally good, I liked most of the plotlines, and it was an okay way to end the season, even though I do have a few questions leaving it. As an ending to the entire Netflix Marvel series, it didn’t seem to resolve everything, but I’m glad it was an decent end to its own series. It’s at least better than the second season. So if you liked Season 1 of the show at least, give it a watch, even if you disliked the second season.