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

this was very enjoyable. though the marta storyline was just a little too close to my own personal nightmares for comfort.

i wanted to know more about the house, but apparently it's a private residence that the filmmakers aren't supposed to disclose much about.

my dad noted the use of the Stones song, "a deep cut from Exile, they were never better"

xp Whoa! yeah the house was incredible - I figured this is a shoe-in for a production/art design Oscar

https://ew.com/movies/2019/11/27/knives-out-production-designer-crazy-house/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/11/30/the-story-behind-massachusetts-mansion-knives-out/4LHnGPZKcw4JiNz4V0BuTN/story.html

they make it sound like the first floor and exterior were mostly used as-is, but the upper floors were sets and the library room is from a different old mansion.

Not much to say that hasn't been said, but this was SO MUCH FUN. I could watch a gif of Toni Collette dancing to Roxy Music forever, on an infinite loop. I saw it at the Capitol, an old, restored theater in Cleveland, and the audience just loved it. Tons of laughs throughout.

Def. provided one of the best gags at the end, when Blanc finishes his monologue and starts to say "Trooper Wagner ..." and Marta immediately goes "Trooper Wagner killed Harlan?!" and Blanc just turns to her incredulously and drawls out "no."

YES.

Also, Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" playing while Marta and Ransom were talking in the diner . . . . so great.

Loved this. Daniel Craig singing in the car, oblivious to the ambulances behind him, was great.

yeah loved all the goofy elements of Blanc's character, the odd haplessness underlying his Gentleman Sleuth persona

"I read a tweet about a New Yorker profile about you!"

it was a pleasure to watch a mystery-comedy in which the mystery actually drives the plot from start to finish and the comedy doesn't hinge on stupid parody or gags ... I suppose the casting gives it a little youth appeal, but this felt like a throwback to an era when Hollywood made and marketed comedies for grown people of all ages

even the meta elements and the topical satire, fresh as they are, are in classic Golden Age mystery style

this movie is very old-fashioned and I want to see it again

Yeah it was really refreshing to see them sidestep the winking that was probably tempting, and that it remained grounded, though over-the-top enough when it needed to be.

Outrageous accent duel between Craig and Branagh’s Poirot

Have you ever watched the John Malkovich Poirot? Ooof!

the ILX love for this unbelievably shitty director continues to baffle me

Hardly limited to ILX fwiw.

bruh you were just stanning the Lindsay Lohan sentient Volkswagen movie, go sit in the corner

Herbie: Fully Loaded >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Brick >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Looper

Are u postin about another movie u ain't seen?

I have seen all three movies

ok full disclosure, I couldn't finish Looper.

Speaking of Fully Loaded

(I have no skin in this game tbrr but wiseacres gonna wiseacre.)

ILX love for this unbelievably shitty director continues to baffle me

This conflates the movie with the director, which is usually a mistake, imo. Good material, good actors, and good editing can overshadow the effect of a poor director. You say you saw it, what was it, other than the identity of its director, that you thought was unbelievably shitty?

the ILX love for this unbelievably shitty director continues to baffle me

I didn't like Looper, thought the Brothers Bloom (saw it on a plane) was fine but a misfire, liked Brick at the time but don't remember anything beyond that, and The Last Jedi was what it was. But this was really good. Sometimes it happens!

Johnson has just one response for the haters

https://media.giphy.com/media/2jv2kK9eLalOB6CYsh/giphy.gif

Good material, good actors, and good editing can overshadow the effect of a poor director. You say you saw it, what was it, other than the identity of its director, that you thought was unbelievably shitty?

did not say I saw Knives out, I said I saw the three films I cited. Brick and Looper were both written and directed by him and contain ideas/execution that made me actively angry. I will grant that it's possible that this movie does not repeat the mistakes of his others, but it doesn't seem likely ("Agatha Christie update!" doesn't exactly sound like much of a shift in his approach tbh) and frankly I'm not going to waste my time finding out. Fool me once, etc.

Shakey you get angry about some silly things

Rian Johnson should be banned from making films, hate him so much.

too bad, cuz this cast looks very entertaining

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, July 2, 2019 8:58 AM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink

We should have a special thread dedicated to ILXors reviewing movies they haven't seen.

Last (x) Movies you are going to Avoid

Yeah, but we should also lock Shakey into it.

what did rian johnson do

murdered star wars iirc

the faux-whimsical sort-of-precious tone used in Brothers Bloom and Brick don't quite work in their execution for me but I think Knives Out works better because the more twee bits are jettisoned

Brothers Bloom felt like he was trying to do some sort of fairy tale junk, like a Just So Stories about criminal brothers

I was actually hoping after they said his name was Benoit that he was going to do a ridiculous, Poirot-esque accent, but the colonel sanders was entertaining enough on its own.

mh otm re 'brick' -- i remember it being really irritating, actually? didn't see brothers bloom

it's been a while since I've seen Brick but wasn't it sort of like a budget Donnie Darkoish crime film set in studentland.. It was okay but very much of its time even then. He's improved as a filmmaker and writer since then, obvs

We don't talk enough about how great the ending for Looper was

Brick was edited on a macbook (iirc) and made for a teensy budget and I'd take it over anything else he's done tbh

I was actually hoping after they said his name was Benoit that he was going to do a ridiculous, Poirot-esque accent, but the colonel sanders was entertaining enough on its own.

― Jordan Pickford LOLverdrive (Neanderthal), Tuesday, December 3, 2019 2:53 PM (forty minutes ago)

I thought making him genteel and Southern in the rich suburban Boston milieu was a clever England-to-America transposition of Poirot being a Belgian fusspot.

Brb going back in time to smash that macbook

Xps

I love Brick intensely

yo this was great! the only other two I’ve seen were his Star Wars and Looper, neither of which made much of an impression

So Drew Daniel noticed something. (And I'm annoyed I completely missed this, since Johnson had already talked about Deathtrap in the run up to release.)

two Chris-es
in white sweaters
in mysteries,
both alike in dignity . . . pic.twitter.com/TAJ1HmpgsD

— DREW DANIEL (@DDDrewDaniel) December 4, 2019

Would've paid good money to watch Thanksgiving family crowds watch Chris Evans make out with Daniel Craig.

Brick was edited on a macbook (iirc) and made for a teensy budget and I'd take it over anything else he's done tbh

― Simon H., Tuesday, December 3, 2019 3:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yes

I think they put Evans in that sweater to reduce some of the Captain American mass he was still carrying.

I have no particular investment in Rian Johnson as a director. I saw Brick and Looper, and they were fine. My interest in Knives Out was mostly because it looked fun, and it was!

xp

Didn't they already solve that in the first Captain America movie? Bring back skinny Steve Rogers!

I have no particular investment in Rian Johnson as a director. I saw Brick and Looper, and they were fine. My interest in Knives Out was mostly because it looked fun, and it was!

― jaymc, Wednesday, December 4, 2019 5:02 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

same - I saw Brick in 2006 and liked it and I guess missed everything else since, altho tbh I think I saw Brothers Bloom...didn't know he did that, totally forgettable.... anyway Knives Out is really good, and a great Thanksgiving movie to see with a big crowd. also appeals to almost everyone.

i don't understand how anyone can get mad about Looper or Brick.