6) Knight Of Cups
For years, Terrence Malick has been moving away from traditional storytelling and towards a kind of abstract, dialogue-light experimentation. It seemed like Malick had reached his limit in pushing this style with the ponderous To the Wonder, but this year’s Knight of Cups went even further. Anyone left perplexed by the film will be relieved to discover the cast, and indeed Malick himself seemingly, also had little idea of what the film was about.
There had been a script, but star Christian Bale never saw any pages, and it appeared as though Malick wasn’t drawing from it anyway. Bale, despite having worked with Malick before, was clueless as to what the film would turn out to be. As has become his wont, Malick effectively made the movie in the edit bay, spending two years molding the reams of footage he now collects like materials for a canvas.