Yesterday, I wrote at length about Brokeback Mountain and why it disappointed me. Today, I want to start by talking about a movie I really wanted to like, but just did not. I’ve talked about it several times before, but I want to get into why I don’t like it more than what about it I don’t like. It’s not a distinction withot a difference, by the way.
It’s Knives Out. The second-to-last new movie I’ve seen. And, yes, I watched it when it first came out. I watched the trailer and was immediately put off. It was hypercut in a way that was very unpleasing to my eyes. I hate flashing lights; it’s part of my sensory sensitivity.
I wanted to give it a chance beacuse I love Poirot books–and David Suchet as Poirot. I saw the big, ensemble cast and hoped that I would get something similar with a modern glow up, but alas, that was not what I got.
Another issue was that Rian Johnson, the director made this big to-do to the critics about not spoiling the ending (when the perp is revealed). I don’t have an issue with thim not wanting the ending to be spoiled, but why did he feel the need to mention it specifically? Anyone knows that you don’t say who the killer is for a murder mystery. There’s no need to specifically say it.
The vibe of his message was that he thought his ending was so ingenious, cricics would be foaming at the mouth to reveal it.
Spoiler alert: It wasn’t brilliant at all. The first time I saw the perp, I knew it was them. I hoped I was wrong, but I was not. The reason for it was so banal, too, I’ll get to that later. Maybe.
Here’s one of the problems. I don’t like movies that aren’t realistic. Unless they are musicals. That’s a whole different thing. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched the trailer, but I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Five minutes into the movie, I was already hating it. So much. The hypercuts kept going, and none of the characters seemed real. Which, ironically, was one of the only bright spots of the movie. I can say without reservation that the cast is brilliant. Jamie Lee Curtis stood out as my favorite, and her chewing up the scenery as she berated Don jJohnson (her hubby) for being a philanderer was my favorite scene in the movie. Hands down.
Here’s the thing. (Rian) Johnson could not decide what kind of movie he wanted this to be. It’s an ensemble movie! It’s madcap! It’s a murder mystery! It’s a dysfunctional family movie! It’s a detective movie! It could have worked if all the components blended together, but they didn’t.
One of the biggest porblems is that the main character, the maid/helper/aide was written in such a weird way. She’s an immigrant (which seems like an important plot point, but isn’t, so I ended up feeling like it was so poorly written at that point) who is too pure for words. She throws up when she lies. Literally throws up, I mean. Why? I don’t know, but it wsa very off-putting.
Then, there’s Daniel Craig as Benoit. He had a blast, by the way, and again, the cast was fantastic. Except the main role, but that wasn’t her fault. The character was such a nothing charaecter, she did the best she could with it. She was the only actor in the movie, by the way. Which I think was also a bad choice by the director.
The fact that Johnson included immigration in a very ham-fisted way, but then ultimately did nothing with it, is the movie writ large. he dropped all these red herrings (I’m not against that. That’s the genre), but he did it so clumsily.
Am I being too hard on him? Myabe. But I’ve read hundreds if not thousands of murder mysteries. I can guess the killer before halfway through the book about 80% of the time. I have never been completely caught by surprise as to who the perp was.
That is one of my biggest gripes about this movie. It’s not nearly as slick as Johnson thinks it is. I could see the wires behind the puppets every step of the way, and it annoyed the fuck out of me. I was tweeting as I watched it and after the first hour, I said that I couldn’t believe there was another hour of it to go. I felt like I had already watched five hours of movie, but I had not.
I also tweeted it was rich white people doing rich white people things–which is exactly how I felt about the movie. Rich white family putting all their dysfunctions on display. And they’re not even interesting dysfunctions! They were so stereotypical and boring.
Honestly, I should have just stopped watching, but I was morbidly curious to see if I was right about the killer (I was). Again, first time I saw the perp, I thought, “Please don’t let them be the killer beacuse that would be the so fucking trite.”
Alas. They were the killer, and it was, indeed, so fucking trite. I had so much disgust when I was done watching that movie.
I want to add: I know that most people loved it and raved about it. Ian really enjoyed it when he finally saw it. That’s fine! That’s great and good for them. I did not. I think it’s technically a well-made movie if you like that sort of thing (which I do not), but it’s not a good movie in content.
I find that cis white dudes (het, mostly, but also gay) get away with this a lot. Messy shit that people call genius that would not be viewed with the same eye if it were done by a queer woman of color.
I didn’t intend to write a whole post about this movie because I’ve written several already, but it just really irritates me that he’s given so many kudos for what I view as strictly a pedestrian movie. If I had to give it a number, I would say the cast is 9 out of 10. Plot? 3 out of 10. Maybe a 2 out of 10. Enjoyability 2 out of 10 (and, again, all my enjoyability came out of the excellent acting).
I’m done .Next post, I’ll tackle two writers who I just cannot get into. One I’m upset about not liking and the other I could not care less.