Knight of Cups

Knight of Cups (2015) is Terrence Malick's meditative drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Rick, a Hollywood screenwriter, has the career and the money, yet feels hollow, drifting through Los Angeles as if through a dream.

Christian Bale barely speaks here — he inhabits the frame more than he acts in it. Emmanuel Lubezki's camera floats after him through mansion parties, along boulevards, across studio lots and out into the desert. Women arrive and slip away: a doctor ex-wife (Cate Blanchett), a married lover (Natalie Portman), a model, a stripper. Each chapter is named for a tarot card, and a parable about a prince who forgot why he came to earth runs underneath it all.

There's no conventional plot — just a stream of images, whispered voiceover and a wealth that curdles into nausea. Malick splits audiences cleanly: some find a hypnotic poem, others a gorgeous void. If you connected with late Malick after The Tree of Life, this is worth a look. Stream Knight of Cups (2015) online on iFILM.