• by Sara
• on November 29, 2021
• with 0 Comments
• filed under Knight of Cups News & Press

Collider did a piece on Terrence Malick’s films this week, ranking all nine of his projects from worst to best. His 2015 film featuring our Isabel – “Knight of Cups” – ranked 6 on their list, and you can read their thoughts on the film below. See the full list here.

Terrence Malick is a fascinating filmmaker, as he’s influenced multiple generations of filmmaking throughout the different stages of his career. Malick was part of the landmark “New Hollywood” filmmakers who emerged in the 1970s, yet took a twenty year absence until he reemerged in the ‘90s. Malick’s work entered a third stage in the last decade, in which he seemingly abandoned all constraints of narrative structure, and pursued experimental work.

Malick’s work is often beloved, and his reclusive public persona is consistent with the mystery that surrounds each of his films. It’s never entirely clear when Malick’s next project is coming, as he often extensively retools his stories in the editing room, leading to many famous situations where storylines or entire performances are diminished, reframed, and even deleted.

Malick is currently working on his latest feature The Way of the Wind, which officially added Mark Rylance, Douglas Booth, Matthias Schoenaerts, Géza Röhrig, Joseph Fiennes, Lorenzo Gioielli, and Aidan Turner to its cast. Little is known about his next film other than it is a retooling of different chapters of the Christian religious text, and will surely generate the controversy that is inherent to adapting Biblical material.

Malick continues to fascinate, infuriate, and inspire film fans, and nearly fifty years after his debut, he remains one of the essential working filmmakers. Here are all nine Terrence Malick films, ranked worst to best.

6. Knight of Cups
Perhaps the most underrated film within Malick’s entire filmography, Knight of Cups shouldn’t have worked on paper. It actually couldn’t have worked on paper, as while Malick had loose story outlines, none of the actors received any actual pages. Malick frequently relied on improvisation, placing actors in unknown scenarios and gauging their authentic reactions. The result is a string of loosely interconnected realizations on the nature of healing.

Knight of Cups is a celebration of excess, and given the subject material, it’s appropriately a hard film to follow. Following the exploits of grieving screenwriter Rick (Christian Bale), the film’s story unfolds in eight mini-chapters as Rick reenters the world and experiences indulgence, pain, temptation, and ultimately love. The final chapter, in which Rick finally begins to see a path forward through the guidance of the enchanting Isabel (Isabel Lucas), is a surprisingly sentimental conclusion to the madcap insanity that preceded it. (View full list)