David Lowery is a visual poet. Throughout his celebrated career, the Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon, and A Ghost Story director has leaned on visual language and unconventional film grammar to connect with audiences, championing the emotional resonance of imagery over traditional narrative structure. In many ways, his films are in the same vein as American auteur Terrence Malick: thoughtful and dense, visually resplendent, whispery tone poems designated strictly for the Film Buff crowd. In that capacity, Lowery suffers Malick’s shortcomings, particularly as it pertains to resting too much within the opaque interiority of his characters and letting plotting fall by the wayside.

A24’s The Green Knight, a post-Arthurian saga based on the anonymous 14th-century poem ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, sees Sir Gawain crumble inwards. Played by a rarely-better Dev Patel, Gawain is a manboy living in the shadow of legends. His life around the castle grounds is one of gaiety and flirtation, an easy streak interrupted when a hulking mythical entity known only as the Green Knight confronts the aged and frail King Arthur (Sean Harris) and his round table of knights. His challenge: let any man brave enough try to strike him a blow. In return, the Green Knight vows to return that same blow one year hence.

As written by Lowery, The Green Knight is a tale of human weakness and opportunity. When Gawain sees no legend rise to strike down the magical being, he chances to prove himself and earn his place. He strikes, willing into motion a confrontation that goes on to define his character and his particular failings. What begins with rich world-building and ravishing mythology then turns into a journey that lacks propulsion as Gawain leaves the castle to fulfill his quest and sets to wandering the countryside in search of destiny.

So begins a series of middle act sagas made entirely of side-quests that Gawain must navigate; offer kindness to a suspect orphan, retrieve the severed head of a slain maiden, resist the temptations and sexual advances of both Lord and Lady, befriend a (likely-enchanted) computer-animated fox, and beg mercy from giants. Though each encounter attempts to draw out and complicate the mysteries of Gawain’s faltering courage, the character doesn’t grow, doesn’t change. He is weak and that is the point. In many senses, he’s the same opportunistic and flitting boy we meet inside a brothel in the film’s first frame. He speaks of greatness and bravery as concept he aspires towards but lacks the discipline and drive. He is, in essence, going through the motions for reasons even he fails to understand or explain.

This framing is a challenging pivot away from the Arthurian legends we know and expect: brave men taking up arms against adversaries of infeasible might, heroes earning their place among the storybooks. Gawain finds wherever he goes, his song is sung, his name held in esteem, marionettes are carved in his honor performing renditions of his “heroic” feats. But he knows the truth of his own cowardice, the barely-quantifiable nature of his great deeds. Gawain swung the sword but greatness eludes him. Only consequence awaits.

Exquisite craftsman punctures nearly element of Lowery’s film. The dazzling costumes from Malgosia Turzanska are intricate works of art; Daniel Hart’s transfixing score, which suggests an epic battle between the personal heaven and hell wrestling within the human spirit, is an almighty sonic creation to behold; the naturalistic, suggestive, primary-color blasted cinematography of Andrew Croz Palermo takes on a life of its own; the sets and production design celebrate the skillful assembly of expert location scouting, immaculate practical set design, and thrilling digital creations.

Even the eerie creature design of the Green Knight lends itself to Lowery’s examination of man’s insignificance when pitted against nature; the disinterested horrors of time’s passage. The impending demise of all things, as expressed through Ralph Ineson‘s voicing of the character, is not malevolent so much as inevitable and indifferent. He’s a striking emotional adversary, the Green Knight, and an equally impressive physical creation.

That’s not to make mention of the loaded stable of thespian talent assembled here, with the likes of Alicia Vikander, Sarita Choudhury, Kate Dickie, Barry Keoghan, Joel Edgerton, and Erin Kellyman waiting in the margins of Gawain’s quest to confront, confuse, or conquer. Quite simply, it’s a wonder to behold. And yet, the film can bog down in its own artistry in moments, too content to luxuriate in the wonder and beauty, leaving narrative and character concerns in the rearview. One person in my audience started audibly snoring at one point, a result I found not particularly surprising. Despite the blanket of production highlights and heft of talent in front of the camera, characterization remains largely opaque, the internal desires of these characters remain largely unknowable, and the plot stiffens and staggers. For some, the journey may remain arresting nonetheless. Others, well, they may doze. For those seeking adventurous and unconventional – perhaps frustratingly so – narratives and sumptuous artistry, The Green Knight is a challenge worth facing.

CONCLUSION: An adult-oriented challenge to conventional fantasy thrills, David Lowery’s complex, puzzling, and visually triumphant ‘The Green Knight’ leans into onscreen natural horrors and sexual proclivities to tell the story of a knight of faltering courage.