‘The Green Knight’ with Green Tree Brewery’s Mintery Knight Stout
It’s tough to know what to think about a movie that leaves this much up to interpretation.
The Movie: Indie Dark Fantasy Adventure / 2021 / Bron Studios – A24
The Beer: Mint Chocolate Coffee Stout / 5.4% ABV / Green Tree Brewery – LeClaire, IA
*Mild Spoilers*
The Green Knight is one of those movies with a lot of ideas. But as is so often the case with those movies, it doesn’t quite manage to pull them all together.
Now, in these situations there are always some reviewers who lean into it and say, “Oh you didn’t get it? Well I did! It’s all up to interpretation, don’t you see?” And to that I call BS. While a degree of dependency on viewer interpretation works for some movies, for most it’s just lazy storytelling. If you’re going to introduce an element, it should be with purpose. Unless, of course, the entire purpose of the story is to be more artistic than narrative.
And that’s where the problem with The Green Knight is. This retelling of the Arthurian tale can’t seem to decide what its purpose is.
It all starts out strongly enough. The narrative is set up in an artistic fashion, but it’s a clear narrative nonetheless. But it’s not long after Gawain sets off on his quest that the artistic choices begin to overwhelm and lose direction. By the time our hero has an odd quasi-affair with the lady of a castle, I’m just not sure what to think about the movie. From there until the end, it’s one big disheveled sequence of artsy images and suggestions, none of which get the narrative back on track. It’s like a bigger budgeted art school film where half the class claims to find it deep and thought-provoking while the other half says, “I don’t think you knew where you were going with that.”
I know which side I’m on. I also know some people who insist I’m misinterpreting the whole thing.
Even so, there are a couple things I know I like here. Visually, for example, The Green Knight is one strikingly beautiful movie. Save for one painfully obvious CGI fox (though perhaps this indicates that the fox is in Gawain’s head?), there’s something that dazzles the eyes at every turn.
The acting is also excellent, and Dev Patel plays Gawain with an earnest honesty that keeps you connected with the character even when his deeds become less than reputable. Sarita Choudhury’s Morgan Le Fey likewise offers an interesting take on the character — eerie, yet seemingly unvillainous (unless, of course, that’s something else I’m interpreting wrong).
If you’re like me, you could sit all day thinking in circles about this one. Fortunately, the beer pairing provides some straightforward relief. The Iowa microbrewers at Green Tree describe Mintery Knight as a “Mint Chocolate Coffee Stout,” and it’s exactly that — a stout brewed with additions of mint, chocolate and coffee!
It’s a beer that knows what it is and doesn’t rely on letting its tasters form their own long-shot interpretations. The flavors here actually resemble bites of Thin Mints paired with a side of fresh coffee. It’s deliciously well-balanced, and the lower ABV leaves you plenty clear-headed. There’s nothing here that leaves you going “Huh? What the heck is that?”
And sometimes, things are just better that way.
