Review: ‘The Green Knight,’ with Dev Patel as an Arthurian adventurer, is a ravishing triumph

The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Remember: It is only a game.” Those words, more ominous than reassuring, are heard early in “The Green Knight,” David Lowery’s misty, melancholy dream of a medieval epic. Those who’ve read “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” a 14th century poem of unknown authorship and vast influence, will come to Lowery’s film with their own preconceptions. So will those who’ve seen their share of Arthurian screen epics, a mixed lineage that ranges from the lush Wagnerian grandeur of John Boorman’s “Excalibur” to the bold demystifications of Robert Bresson’s “Lancelot du Lac.” “The Green Knight” isn’t a radical departure from these forebears; by turns ravishing and austere, scholarly and accessible, earthy and exalted, it seems to have absorbed its many influences and alchemized them into something vital and singular. Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander in the movie “The Green Knight.” Evil, however, is not the name of this visitor’s game.