Review: Dev Patel captivates in the legend of "The Green Knight"

by Matt St Clair

the severed head of "The Green Knight"

Normally, Arthurian legends are sword-and-sorcery fables. The latest Arthurian tale The Green Knight, which is primarily about Arthur’s nephew Gawain (Dev Patel) keeps the sorcery, yet there’s little swordplay. Unless you count a terrifying axe that keeps waiting to be swung. The Green Knight may be less action-oriented than other such tales but it's a visually stunning, cerebral dissection of the Messiah complex and its ties to monarchy. 

Despite Gawain not being religiously devout, he’s still eager to become a knight at his uncle’s Round Table...

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BIFA Nominations focus on a small handful of films

We claim no expertise on the British Independent Film Awards but this year's slate seems especially teeny-tiny. Not in the size of the films, mind you  -- some are quite supersized... at least with their length -- but in the small handful that received nominations. Most of the titles were nominated in five or six categories including the UK's Oscar submission Under the Shadow, though Ken Loach's Palme D'Or winner I Daniel Blake just barely leads with seven citations...

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FYC: Kate Dickie and the Raw Emotion of "The Witch"

Out this week on blu-ray/dvd is Robert Eggers's The Witch. Warmly received by critics, but divisive for general audiences, the film is a marvel of craft and inescapable dread. But the film is more than its horror elements and immaculate period detail - at the center is a potent family tragedy as well-developed as any drama you'll seen this year. And the bruised soul of that tragedy is actress Kate Dickie.

Dickie stars as the matriarch of a Puritan family banished from their New England settlement in the 17th century. Her Katherine begins the film essentially wordless during the excommunication, then is defined by her off-screen sobs after the film's first punishments. Once Katherine collects herself, she quickly reveals herself to be a devout believer firmly planted in her role as wife and mother. As things quickly turn from bad to worse, her agony surges with authentic depth until she becomes willingly deluded by her own suffering.

Dickie's portrayal is a prime example of The Witch offering more than its horror contemporaries...

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