LogFAQs > #970831488

Let's get me out of this rut, one thing at a time. Let's do something I KNOW I love! (Also, I'm cat sitting for my sister this weekend, so might as well use her Netflix access to watch Glass Onion while I have it, since I have none of my own.)

Knives Out (2019)
Written and Directed By: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Frank Oz (that's some list)
Previous status: Last seen 2021

"It's a weird case from the start. A case with a hole in the center. A donut."

What happens when you take an innocent bystander and a seasoned detective and drag them into a dysfunctional family of assholes (and Meg)? You'd think potentially high comedy, but it's not. Really, this movie is a fucking masterpiece that seamlessly blends the right amount of every genre there is - there's drama, there's comedy, there's action, there's mystery, and most of all there's thriller. It's basically what happens when you take a script written by Agatha Christie, have it directed by Quentin Tarantino, and cast it with a bunch of all-stars, headlined by James Bond and Captain America, all of whom seem to be enjoying themselves. Benoit Blanc is a completely different flavor than James Bond, so Daniel Craig most certainly enjoyed himself (and, hey, he and Ana de Armas immediately went to film No Time to Die after this - and it's incredible to see Ana de Armas nail two completely different roles [I want more Paloma. PLEASE????]). The rest of them are playing assholes - and villains have more fun, right?

And boy, the Thrombeys are assholes. Every one of them except for Meg, who's the only one to ever apologize for anything, the only one to show remorse toward Marta's situation, the one who wants to take the path that will cause the least family drama, and the only one who doesn't seem to be okay with threatening anyone. Yes, she's no angel since she calls her cousin "an alt-right dipshit" (when we're shown nothing to indicate this is accurate) and scoffs at Ransom saying she's only going to school to learn how to be SJW scum, but she's the only one of the Thrombeys who doesn't seem irredeemable. (She's probably also the only one who knows what country Marta's actually from, since at least four South American nations get mentioned - in one of the genius subtle bits of comedy)

Really gotta spoiler tag the shit out of this one, so sorry! Linda leads the charge when the will is read, one of many who throws out accusations. Her husband Richard is a slimeball who's fucking around and denying it. Joni was embezzling money through double dipping so she could get some for herself, in addition to Meg's tuition being paid. Walt went from saying he'd help take care of Marta to threatening to have her mother deported in order to get her to fall in line. The family goes from fighting each other to uniting against Marta, making the viewer root for her all the more to triumph over those assholes. Benny doesn't let them triumph once he realizes they've been had, and that's when the gears start turning and he realizes who did it: Ransom. The one person who'd gotten Marta to trust him. The one person who was using her to get what he wanted. And all the reveals are epic, done in a brilliant mystery-thriller fashion.

And then you get to the big Agatha Christie reveal, complete with her usual refinements: The big twist of him actually having committed suicide, because Marta recognized the potency of the morphine and the other drug, so she DIDN'T actually poison him (Christie LOVED her poisons). The morphine was then used by Ransom to murder Fran, and he confesses thinking it would just be attempted murder not realizing that Marta was holding down her regurgitated lie for as long as she could just so she could catch him off guard. Seeing that his confession had been recorded, Ransom tries to murder Marta - "in for a penny, in for a pound" as Benny had said twice earlier - but the prop knife has no effect. Ransom is subsequently arrested for one count of first degree homicide for Fran's murder, attempted murder charges for his grandfather and Marta, arson in blowing up the crime lab, obstruction of justice for messing with evidence, and probably other things. The guy was a crafty criminal and by far the biggest asshole in a family filled with them. And, in the end, Marta got the house, the inheritance, and the publishing company... and she got to do whatever she damn well pleased with it. My house, my rules, my coffee (a rewatch gets met to notice things like that same mug at the very start of the movie). The end.

Really, this is superbly-written, superbly-directed, superbly-acted, and a whole lot of fun in general. Daniel Craig nails the modern-day Poirot that is Benoit Blanc. Chris Evans does an asshole even better than he does Captain America. Ana de Armas is a breakout star, getting top billing (alongside Craig and Evans) for the first time in her career (which certainly has been exploding). Christopher Plummer's final film role (RIP - I'd forgotten that he'd passed, else I'd have mentioned it above in my Up write-up) is a central one, even though he's only shown in the flashbacks. Everybody else is believable in their parts - the family is all grieving in their own ways... but they're all spoiled brat assholes in their own ways too (again, except for Meg, who only wanted to talk Marta into rescinding the inheritance as a measure of conflict avoidance).

Rian Johnson does a fantastic job at storytelling - building things up as the movie goes on, and showing the necessary flashbacks as soon as they become necessary. The narrative is chronological despite being out of sequence, since flashbacks occur as characters share perspectives. It's quite the genius way to use the out-of-sequence buildup mastered by Tarantino. Rian Johnson uses a crap ton of influences while doing his own thing. After all... and I know some of you are gonna hate me for saying this... it's for this reason that The Last Jedi was the only truly good movie of the sequel trilogy, in large part because Johnson was willing to take risks while staying true to Star Wars. I found that to be the perfect compromise between moving away from what had become stale and keeping the course with what hadn't. Like such, this movie blends elements of everything while not oversaturating us with any one, all while being a cohesive package that never strays from its course. 5/5, gold.

Glass Onion tomorrow now that I'm refreshed on this one! And then I will get back to your nominations. Hopefully doing four a week!