The Green Knight - Review

What to say of the Green Knight? It feels both medieval and modern, real and hallucinatory, rendering it entirely unheimlich or uncanny. Dazzling to behold, it renders the chivalric tale in cinematic splendor while twisting it subtly, and usually to great effect. It takes full advantage of its medium to present the cramped castle before sending its hero out into a vast and mythic wilderness. Dev Patel is stunning as the often unwilling and put-upon Gawain, but retains a vulnerability and a hidden core of iron that is only revealed in small flashes. The film manages to evoke both the post-Roman Britain of the supposed “Age of Arthur” as well as the late medieval time when the chivalric Arthurian romances were popularized and recorded.

An entirely haunting film, which I am sure to revisit again and again. I have only one minor quibble, which I shall hide below as it could be a spoiler to those not familiar with the poem.

5/5 Beheadings

  

 

Thursday Tipple: The Sherman Cocktail

 

Having picked up a bottle of absinthe to add to my cocktail cart, I went in search of a cocktail to use it in and stumbled upon the Sherman, a variation on the Manhattan. Being a fan of Manhattans, I gave it a try.

Rich and alcoholic like a good Manhattan, the absinthe brings more woody notes and a bitterness that cuts the sharpness of the rye whiskey. The absinthe is more forward, hitting first as the strongest scent, with the whiskey and orange bitters lingering longest on the tongue.

4/5 Ealuscerwen

 

My wife's review was less positive... "It tastes like furniture polish or wood that you lick just after you put furniture polish on it."

Acid Blood...Black Goo...Milk Blood...Necromancer Eyes...

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A post shared by Zack Schwartz (@thatwordyguy)

 

I ran two Alien The Roleplaying Game One Shots for Extra Life back in November 2020 and the Destroyer of Worlds mini-campaign in November and December. Prepping for those plus the Blank Check Podcast covering the franchise on their Patreon Extras Feed meant I re-watched all the films from September through January. Naturally, I've immortalized the list on Letterboxd...

Come To Daddy! Far Beyond Frodo...

Elijah Wood has excellent taste, from helping to produce mind-bending films like Mandy and Colour Out of Space to voicing Wirt on Over the Garden Wall, post-Hobbitsing, Wood has gone in interesting directions.

Come to Daddy is an off-kilter, suspense thriller that takes full advantage of Elijah looking much younger than his age. Even with Norval’s mustache and bowl cut, he looks like a mid-20s hipster, especially when contrasted with an extremely grizzled looking Stephen McHattie, who radiates pure menace from the first moments of the film.

With a slow build and moments of dream-like violence that come interspersed in long uncanny sequences. The film builds an odd world that seems like a time out of place despite Norval’s name-dropping and the presence of smartphones. Everything works together to create a experience that feels unexpected and specific; showing off a juvenile machismo that haunts the men of the movie and using the unique location, dated set dressings and soundscapes of the house and its isolation in nature to create an ambiance of dread and barely contained brutality.

Even on a second watch, there were still delightful surprises to be found and it was satisfying to see how bits that I missed the first time through connected to and built up the movie's climax. If you can handle a bit of gore, I cannot recommend enough this movie, which at its center, chronicles the dangerously earnest attempts of Norval to connect with his daddy, even if it means he must push past his comfort and perhaps life itself...

5/5 Nightgoers

 

 

Come to Daddy is currently out on DVD/Bluetooth/Digital and available to stream on Amazon Prime Video (11/25/20)