Malick, Museums, And Mindset: How We Engage With Art

Written by Creator Josh Bradley

How do we engage with art?

A couple weeks ago, I did two seemingly-unrelated things over the course of four days. I went to art museum and I caught an advanced screening of Terrence Malick’s latest film, Knight of Cups (2016).

The movie has been described as an “experimental film”, but by Malick’s standards, it’s not experimental so much as…par for the course, as his last two movies were just as unorthodox. His 2011 film The Tree of Life found a relatively large audience (considering the alienating narrative style, or lack thereof), and even garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, but many were turned off by the movie’s pace, aloofness, and inscrutability.

Ditto for Malick’s follow up To the Wonder (2012). But one thing nearly everyone agrees on regarding those two movies and Knight of Cups: they’re beautiful to look at.