Knives Out...

[shadowkat]

Eh, I'm not getting the appeal of Rian Johnson. Everyone loved "Last Jedi" and I thought, it's okay, slow in places, and kind of busy, and requires more character development, plot clarity, and a really good editor. Apparently mileage varies on that one.

Now, I've seen the highly touted and critically acclaimed Knives Out. I only know of one person, Chidi, who didn't like it. And well, I struggled to stay awake during it and focused on the story. There's really not a lot of character development, it's very "plotty", and the entire focus is on the jigsaw puzzle plot which I kind of began to figure out pretty early on. Mysteries don't really work for me unless they are character centric (actually nothing works for me unless it is character centric and I'm into the characters)-- because my analytical brain can figure them out fairly quickly. (Not helped by the fact that I binge read and watched mysteries from the age of roughly 8 to 40 years of age. It's kind of hard to come up with something that's new. Some people are into plot. One of my college friends wrote her thesis on the plotting in Edgar Allen Poes mystery novels. She was fascinated with plot and loves mysteries. Doesn't read much else. And told me once, after having taken a few courses with me: "You're definitely a character gal, Dude." Yep. I wrote my thesis comparing James Joyce's Molly Bloom to Faulkner's Caddy Thompson, and it was mainly a character analysis. Her writing was very plot centric, mine - character centric. Some people analyze theme, others plot, I analyze characters. If you've read any of my television meta - you know that. And "Knives Out" does not appear to be a film for people who are character centric.)

What worked and was quite funny at times was the blatant parody - of the parlor mystery novel. You know, the Murder She Wrote/Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poriot model where - an outside detective comes upon a murder mystery at an ancesteral home. The old man died, alleged suicide, and one of the heirs killed him. This trope has been done quite a bit -- I think the last film version of it might have been Robert Altman's Gosford Park (which I liked better, oddly enough). Daniel Craig appears to be a parody of the "full of himself" famous PI who is brighter than everyone else in the room and saves the day. And he has a ball chewing the scenery.

There are others who have fun chewing it as well -- Don Johnson and Jamie Lee Curtis as unhappily marrieds, Toni Collette during an rather sly impersonation/parody of Gwenyth Paltrow, and that's pretty much where it ends.

The focus here - is not on the characters, unfortunately, so as a result the actors don't have a lot to do. Except chew scenery whenever possible. Being satire or parody, a lot of things are exaggerated for a effect.

It is funny in places. But it didn't make me laugh that hard. And I actually thought other films this year were funnier. I'm guessing if you love mysteries and parody, this is the film for you. If not, or if parody doesn't quite work for you? Than you may have reacted as I did and struggled a little to stay awake.

I'm disappointed. I went in with high expectations due to the online reviews. And, sigh, found it kind of dull and disappointing. Sort of like this weekend has been.
It's not been a great birthday weekend. Not horrible. Just kind of there. Like this movie.

Comments

[mefisto]

I agree with you about both movies. I think I liked Knives Out a bit better than you did, but while I thought it was fun it's not a great movie.

[cjlasky7]

My distaste for Last Jedi (on any number of fronts) is on record. Looper was loopy. I still say he did his best work on Breaking Bad ("Fly" and "Ozymandias") when somebody else was writing.

That said, I still want to see this. I'm always up for a mystery parody with an all star cast; I loved "Murder By Death," and that was broader than the broadest side of a barn...

[rose_griffes]

I liked it more than you, but even so: it's a slight story that relies on people chewing the scenery to make it fun. In spite of Johnson's purported interest in characterization, I find that his work doesn't actually WORK for character-building in ways that speak to me.

Also, this story depended a lot on a slight twist to the traditional mystery narrative. If they do make a sequel, it will be hard to find something that can carry that weight. (Especially since the sequel is supposed to center around Daniel Craig's detective, and his Kentucky-fried-accent was just meh for me.)

[shadowkat]

There's a sequel in the works? Why?

It reminded me a lot of the movie "Clue" which I didn't like either. That also depended on scenery chewing. This one is better, but I had some of the same issues with it. I don't like scenery chewing apparently.

In spite of Johnson's purported interest in characterization, I find that his work doesn't actually WORK for character-building in ways that speak to me.

It doesn't work for me either. I actually did like Last Jedi better than Knives Out -- there's more character development in that one.

[avrelia]

I also watched it last weekend, and while I found reasonably entertaining, I didn't feel it was as amazing as all the reviews made me believe. Well made, well played, but kind of forgettable. Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Collette could do so much more.

[rose_griffes]

Sequel: well, it cost $40 million to make and earned $300 million worldwide. The announcement has already been made and Johnson says that Daniel Craig will be in it, but I don't know if there's anything more than that yet.

(Interestingly, this article mentions that the mid-range budget is more and more rare. Apparently Hollywood is in the "Go big" game right now.

Last Jedi and characterization: I had to read a lot of commentary to understand what kind of arc Johnson intended for various characters, rather than being able to understand it through the film itself. I know people who felt differently, and got a lot out of how various characters grew, but it just didn't work for me.