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

A Boy And His Dog

Maybe the twist in Watchmen finale is he's a cool dude.

reaching back to: acting badly on purpose, what a bold and advanced move

It never much hurt Peter Sellers when he was playing Inspector Clouseau.

A Boy And His Dog

are you referring to the character that kills and feeds his g/f to his dog

Yeah, lol, seriously.

But to be fair, that dog was great. Man's best friend.

He kept the dog alive!

Yeah, exactly! He probably made the right choice, because the dog was his friend.

the girl he raped, murdered, and turned into dogfood, eh not so much

It's a dog eat dog world.

Dog eat girl, I guess.

What a shit movie that was.

It never much hurt Peter Sellers when he was playing Inspector Clouseau.

*NARRATOR VOICE ...*

very different sorts of movies Aimless

main diff is that peter sellers is funny

Hmmm.

The biggest hint that none of them actually really cared about Marta was how all of them had different ideas about which country her family was actually from.

The granddaughter seemed to care about her, at least to some extent. Yeah, she called to get her to renounce the inheritance, but it implied she was doing so under duress.

Even the family members who were most on her side were not really with her.

they were very kind to the nice girl from bolivia

Meg fuckin told the family that Marta's mother was undocumented! Then she tearfully apologizes and Marta's like it's OK.... it's not OK!!!!!

Surprised no Choose Your Own Adventure fans notice the homage.

Did someone descend into an ant hill?

Again, Meg sold her out, but there was more than a hint of implication that she was pressured to do so. At least she's portrayed as distraught and in tears when she calls her in front of everyone else's glares.

Lol i totally did. "Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?"

I would pay money to see a short of the family’s 4th of July mafia game

Also, loved the changing details every time we see a replay of the same scene.

Grandma asking Ransom if he’s leaving already -> grandma sitting quietly as Ransom leaves -> grandma sitting with a slice of cake as Ransom leaves

re whether the family really likes Marta or not, I think the question is a bit beside the point. If you're from a family like the Thrombeys and one of the household staff walks away with your ENTIRE family inheritance including the house you're not gonna just smile and say, "Welp, she sure deserves it!"

The will is not read until after the funeral.

But whether they love her or hate her or simply don't think of her at all, they would still react the same way to her getting all of their money. That's human nature. (Unless I'm missing your point?)

the point was whether they sincerely liked her so much that they would have invited her to the private family-only funeral or not, so what happens after the funeral can't rly nullify that

JiC - Meg tells them Marta’s mom is undocumented! She isn’t pressured to tell them. That’s the point of her character afaic, to make the point that class interests are always going to win out, no matter how liberal her views or how genuine her liking for the hired help.

She isn’t pressured to tell them

Curious where you're getting this from - I'm aware that Meg claiming the opposite shouldn't be taken as gospel truth, but it also feels like something the family would do.

How would that pressure work? 'Meg - is there anything we can blackmail her with? C'MON MEG' and then Meg.. offers up the undocumented mother?

Grudgingly of course

Ahhh you guys fancy Meg and are looking for reasons she's not an asshole - n/m

Ignoring that last post - yeah? "Marta is going to make most of your family penniless, I know you like her, but are you really going to choose her over us?" is pretty much how that would go - like Joe Stork isn't wrong that she puts class/race over friendship, but she can do that while also being pressured into it and feeling terrible afterwards.

Not that I'm saying this is definitely what happened - I'm pushing back against Joe's definite "she isn't pressured"

My favorite line reading: Chris Evans saying "Yep" (hard p).

Points in Meg's favor: we know she's close and friends with the housekeeper Fran, to the extent that she not only knows about Fran's stash, but actually recommended vaping to her over cigarettes. Even in MA (assuming the film is up with current law), stashing and smoking pot on the job would have been a fireable offense, so clearly she had Meg's confidence. Then at the family party, Meg blows it off, only coming back late. Later, when Meg calls Marta, she's in tears, clearly distraught, and when she hangs up (upset enough that she doesn't even say goodbye), the rest of the family is literally staring at her from a couple of feet away; of course they told her to call. (For that matter, Meg is one of the few calls Marta accepts, iirc.) Now, we know Meg's mom is an asshole and crook, but there is no hint Meg knows her mom was stealing, though we do see Meg's mom manipulate her about the loss of the tuition money (without taking the blame she deserves). And then of course, at the end of the movie Meg (as far as I remember), is the only person who gives Marta a hug goodbye, and even then she's tearful as she apologizes.

Of course the movie doesn't show her being pressured to give up Marta's family status, but that's probably intentional, to keep it more ambiguous, which despite the aforementioned it is. Though it's telling that none of the others have the benefit of ambiguity. For that matter, it's also telling the Marta confided in Meg in the first place. So who knows. Fake movie person doesn't need my real defense.

The movie was fun, but I'm not sure it's worth this jesuitical untangling of the plot. With mysteries I don't care about plot.

lol Alfred, dropping another "who cares?"

the fact is that nobody went to bat for marta apart from harlan. who should have known the hell he was plunging her into tbh.

Yeah, that's the most important thing.

*reads Alfred's comments*

Yep!

I just think Meg is designed to be a wealthy young liberal who is perfectly kind to Marta and seems genuine enough in her sympathies that she gains Marta’s trust, and then when Marta becomes a threat to her own financial interests Marta’s trust in her is useful ammunition against her. She’s the most dangerous non-murderer member of the family. She feels bad about what she’s doing, but if I was going to extrapolate a little from what we’re given in the movie I’d say that she wants to have her inheritance/free education and feel like a good and righteous person, the former wins out over the latter when push comes to shove, so she seeks out absolution from Marta immediately after betraying her in a way that no one else in the family could.

Great post, otm.

Most of that is fair enough (and is indeed what I said) but "She’s the most dangerous non-murderer member of the family" is just bananas.

“Most is that” is a patient, perceptive explanation of why it’s not bananas. The others don’t have her trust.

it's not bananas it's donuts

Michael Shannon literally shows up to her house to threaten her!

What other murderers are there besides Hugh?