KNIVES OUT -- dir. Rian Johnson; Daniel Craig, Michael Shannon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, etc. etc.

lol gonna take some time tomorrow to read this thread, clearly ten different versions of this movie exist based on quick scan of (ninety percent blatantly incorrect) opinions

twist ending was obvious from the moment daniel craig said he was hired by an unknown person

twist ending obv from trailer, but the obvious twist ending wasnt used (harlan set it all up)

i mean, introducing the marta-versio. of events twenty mins in was actually imo a pretty novel approach

I did think Columbo at that point

I went to see it a second time during the week - something that only appeared the first time was an opening address from Rian Johnson asking us not to spoil the ending.

its not rly that big/good of a twistery tbh, the worth is more in getting there

tbh even after the reveal I half expected Harlan to appear from behind a corner

It's a film that seems to take a lot of pleasure from obvious twists as well - the held vomit at the end, the will leaving everything to Marta - the enjoyment there is that it's obvious to everyone except the Thrombey's (and I suppose Marta in the latter, though it reflects better on her).

100mg of Morphine seem to kill you in 10 minutes - unless someone sits you on a chair, then you're fine for a few hours.

relative age tbf, perhaps

Sure, or it might've been less than the full dose - I appreciate that it didn't need exposition, but it still niggled.

its not rly that big/good of a twistery tbh, the worth is more in getting there

― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Friday, December 20, 2019 3:23 AM bookmarkflaglink

Otm i meant to say

It's not that it kills you in ten minutes, it's more that there's no coming back from it after that.

Maybe.

i liked this

it really does make for a good companion piece to Ready Or Not. like obv this is better but it's not...an open and shut case B-)

loved this movie

twist ending obv from trailer, but the obvious twist ending wasnt used (harlan set it all up)

― Banáná hÉireann (darraghmac), Thursday, December 19, 2019 6:50 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

didn’t see the trailer; probably wouldn’t have watched the movie if i had

I saw the trailer and the movie. I don't see how thw twist ending was obvious from the trailer. I'm sufficiently confused by that that I'm not even sure what twist darraghmac is referring to.

the most distracting lapse in the movie is the scene in which the detectives are talking to Marta on the veranda and you can see their breath misting in the cold and Marta (always shown in separate shots) is not misting

was watching for this on my with-commentary viewing: most of Blanc's is cigar smoke, you do see Marta's breath misting in the shots which aren't separate (and thus have the same lighting and background as Blanc), and then Johnson talked about how extremely cold it was and Marta's costume for that scene had to be designed to have extra layers to protect Cuban de Armas from the Massachusetts winter.

I was briefly hoping that it was someone else with a bad accent and a cigar, pretending to be Blanc to find out what Marta knows.

I saw the trailer and the movie. I don't see how thw twist ending was obvious from the trailer. I'm sufficiently confused by that that I'm not even sure what twist darraghmac is referring to.

― JRN, Sunday, 22 December 2019 08:45 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

.....i said what that twist would've been...in that same post...

this was less a whodunnit and more a howdunnit which I liked

more a case of "howduzzitendup" rly

tr00

I keep forgetting that Toni Collette is Aussie. mostly cos I haven't seen her in a movie with her natural voice yet.

Don't worry, we all make mistakes.

sic otm

Finally saw this movie and loved it. The audience actually applauded that final shot of the coffee cup. What a beautiful setup and pay-off.

I was spoilered on "Sweet Virginia" by the Exile on Main Street thread, but it still made me happy.

A bit all too cosily wrapped up at the end (which was to be expected and par for the course!), but still thoroughly enjoyed it.

fair review imo

and even at that, the too-neat wrapping up is as likely as not a bit of a send-up of the genre, maybe

Saw it again today with the Johnson commentary, good fun. Interesting sign as well -- while it was in one of the smaller screens at my local, it was still sold out, not a bad sign over a month after release.

It broke $100 million, I saw.

Great to hear!

200 ww on a 40m budget

That's the beauty of whodunnits. All you need is to break into someone's mansion and start shooting

The film, not the inhabitants

well, I mean

"Friend who saw it already says it's his second fave film of the year, behind Ford V. Ferrari."

dvdscr of the latter has leaked as well. Was just childishly guffawing at this Stephanie Zacharek quote from a review of it:"some scenes leave unnecessary skidmark trails." It's a UK thing .. ignore me!

Sometimes this bad website is good pic.twitter.com/UxvfA8edvv

— Hubert Vigilla with Nutmeg (@HubertVigilla) December 30, 2019

Finally saw it New Year’s Day. Very fun. Wondered if Craig’s donut speech was Rian Johnson poking fun at David Lynch’s “keep your eye on the donut, not the hole” refrain.

Tremendous film! One of the best I've seen in a year.

Again, sold-out screening weeks after release.

Hilarious tweet just above!

Saw this yesterday. It was good! Though I don't get why Johnson is talked about like he's an auteur when he's just a guy who reliably turns out well-made, memorable mid-budget movies. Maybe because that is itself a dying art?

agree tbh

There’s certainly an art to making delightful, off-axis genre exercises. He’s not a Paul Thomas Anderson or whatever (to pick a contemporary) but why should he be?

i could just tell how much this movie enjoyed telling its story and it kept giving me opportunities to share in that joy. i sorta feel this energy running through most of rian johnson's movies

yeah hes a story guy, its a strength when so many lauded directors have other priorities cf nolan and whatever the fuck it is hes doing with "plot" nb i may be overstretching it with "lauded"

johnson is also a writer-director who, Star Wars aside, has only done original screenplays not tied to any existing material, so i can understand people developing a stronger sense of his voice, interests, themes, etc., than in some other people working at his level. also IIRC auteur theory was birthed from the study of people who reliably turned out well-made, memorable mid-budget movies, no?

That's true.

I didn't know he was talked about as anything much, but I think a tincture of auteurism can be usefully applied here as he started with an unusual detective story and has now produced a slightly less unusual detective story.

Yeah, I mean, I just think it's interesting that Johnson is a director people know by name, precisely because it's hard (for me) to pinpoint his "voice." He's no hack Ron Howard-type, to be sure, I'm just not sure what are the aesthetic hallmarks of a "Rian Johnson film." If there is a throughline to all of his work that I've noticed, it's a sense of playfulness and a commitment to telling a good story, but these are pretty general qualities.

This might be unnecessary, but I feel the need to clarify that this slipperiness is what I find interesting about Johnson, and is not meant as a dis on him or his work (which I've enjoyed all of, except for the Brothers Bloom, which gave me twee poisoning)

He's got clever style and writing. There's definitely a line through Brick, Looper, his Breaking Bad work, and Knives Out. I hated Brothers Bloom too (and I'm a Wes Anderson fan).
The Last Jedi was a departure from his usually small-mid budget films, but I appreciated the character work on the script; praying his own trilogy still happens.

He doesn't have a clear visual style (he seems to like shooting from unusual angles but not in a way that's particularly distinctive) but there's def a theme that runs through his writing - both a reverence for and a willingness to subvert genre tropes, whether it's noir or high school flicks, a whodunit, a time travel movie or a franchise blockbuster.