I put Tree of Life on my watchlist to see if I will like that one any better. I truly think it was the so called protagonist I disliked so much about this film. I generally do not automatically hate films that lean more toward art than film but they do have to have some kind of point or at the very least a main character that is worthy. With Knight of Cups I feel like Rick should have been smart enough to realize that plowing through life partying and womanizing wouldn’t help him answer the big questions in life.

I get what you’re saying but I still feel he’s a very undeserving protagonist that still learns nothing by the end of the film. I don’t see him wake up and say he’s going to stop objectifying women. He’s not seemed to have made any progress when the film ends. I have lots of guilty pleasures that do not hurt anyone but I know they are not helping me answer the big questions in life. Nothing for you to be sorry for. It’s me who hated the film where I’m sure others will absolutely love it. I just felt literally nothing happens and his character learns nothing. Not everyone is going to change the world in a huge way. The best most of us can try to do is leave the world a bit better than how we found it. One of my hobbies is helping the plight of the monarch butterfly migration by raising and protecting caterpillars. Am I changing the world in some huge way in my backyard? No, but I’m not leaving it worse, either. I find some meaning in doing this. Anyway, Rick isn’t a stupid guy and has to know his lifestyle isn’t going to help him answer the big questions in life.

No no no…
If you didn’t like this one – you won’t like any of Terrence Malick’s movies. Trust me. Sure, some are different. And have different points to them. At least for his more experimental/existential films To The Wonder, and Tree of Life anyway, which are very similar to The Knight of Cups. But I will say this – you leap a few times in your comment when you say, “just plowing through women and life looking for meaning where he as to know he won’t find any.” Well, no, he doesn’t know that. That’s the obvious point. “he just kept going from woman to woman seeking I don’t know what.” Exactly! That is the point. The thing you observe naturally, and easily, that there is no point in that is the point.

I can’t remember what I wrote about the film at this point. And I totally get why you don’t like it. This film 100% isn’t for everyone. But you have to at least realize what was happening here. That there is no meaning to be taken from this is the meaning. That he squandered his life looking for any sort of rational understanding to make sense of the world is the message. But so many do it. Just on different things. We spend large swaths of life avoiding this question, but have you sorted it out for yourself? Or is your love of Sudoku, or brewing artisanal beer, or civil war reenactments, or knitting, or helping police solve cold cases, or Ren-Fest juggling, WHATEVER… is it keeping you from asking the really important questions in life? Is your sudoku-obsession just like his ripping through women? Sure, he’s hurting women, and you aren’t by your movie watching… but are you both hunting for meaning where there is none? Are we all just filling time until the end??

The world avoids thinking about death. We are so good at it really. The stuff of perfectionist experts really. But, this movie spins the view around… shows us someone that is obviously searching – and says, but what is it that you are filling your void with? Is it any better, worse? Dunno. The cinematography, and the existential question really hammers me in the chest. But I get it that it’s not for everyone. Sorry about that!