A two hour McConaughey Lincoln commercial

"...Knight of Cups is a troubling movie, troubling in the way that it plays with the confusion between the language of spiritual yearning and the language of advertising, both of which work on our sense of “missing piece” incompleteness and exist to stir want, a sense of lack. The film abounds in images of just-out-of-reach objects of desire: dancers dangling from the ceiling at a Vegas cabaret act, like fruit ripe for the plucking; underwater shots of dogs diving into a swimming pool after squeaky toys, their jaws only just failing to close around them."

"The movie raises a number of vexing questions: what is beautiful when beauty is a disposable, replaceable commodity? Where is the true image in a world that is a surfeit of screens? Is “Faith” more than a tattoo, “Fidelity” more than an investment management company? What separates Rick’s winding trips along the elegant Los Angeles highway system in his Lincoln from, say, Matthew McConaughey’s philosophical night drives for the 2016 Lincoln MKX? Even the whispered “Begin,” with which Dennehy’s voice urges Rick forward on his ambiguous quest, wouldn’t be out of place on a travel advert: Get the light in your eyes back! Visit the Caymans! "

From Nick Pinkerton's excellent review: http://reverseshot.org/reviews/entry/2185/knightofcups. So, seems you got the point.

There ya go

The Lincoln commercials (and if you haven't seen them already, there's a funny SNL parody of them w/ Jim Carrey) are meant to be random musings about disparate subjects. It's like 'Chicken Soup For The Soul' and daily life advice, courtesy of actor Matthew McCounaughey. They do not combine into a singular force or cogent message. You could watch them out of order, backwards or skip some altogether. It wouldn't matter.

But despite the long silent expanses found in Knight of Cups and the lack of dialogue, the film actually does have a driving point that threads throughout the film. It's a call to action for Bale's character -- to return to what he was meant to be. The legend of the cup, of slumber, of waste and sin, and the ultimate journey of life and redemption are clearly recognizable.

We can all have fun equating a film with something else. But to simply end discussion there, the viewer can potentially miss out on a lot of the richer, inherent qualities that can be reaped through more serious analysis and discussion.

The top RT critics could still write a lot about Knight of Cups' underlying themes and imagery, and how it relates to other familiar Malick themes. There's not much to be said, however, about the Lincoln commercials after we get the obvious out of the way (he's playing on his True Detective character). They're fun to watch, but not really the same as a Malick film.