The Filmgoer's Diary 2018/19

KNIVES OUT I 2019 I Film Discussion

There's a lot to be said about a film that just enjoys being itself. While watching a movie trying to be something it isn't is like swallowing a bucket load of pill, watching a director unfolding his/ her vision freely and without restraint feels like indulging oneself on a bowl of candy. Watching Knives Out in the cinema is one of those experiences.

I can say this about one other film this year and that is Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. A film directed by a director who's just having fun because he's got nothing more to prove. The same cannot be said about Rian Johnson, who had just directed one of the most divisive films in decades. From the very beginning, I was always an apologist for The Last Jedi. I initially loved it but after a few more viewings find it very flawed. My experience with that film, and in fact the Star Wars saga itself became tainted with all the drama and debates surrounding The Last Jedi. I stayed away from most of the debates, knowing full well the intense emotion that can transpire. And also because I still don't think the move was that bad.

There is a kind of genuine sincerity with which Johnson took on The Last Jedi. A previously indie based director who took on one of the most important trilogy midpoint. That Johnson's risk taking was rebuffed and attacked might've led to the corporate revisionism that ended with the Rise of Skywalker is genuinely tragic. But then again I don't think Johnson was really working in a vacuum. At the end of the day, even though I think Johnson's work on Last Jedi was an overall positive, I can't say he succeeded in making a good Star Wars film. The fandom has a point when they say Johnson failed to integrate his work into the saga. His decision to neglect Abrams starting point and to deliberately fail in producing any form of strong pay-offs for questions like who was Rey's parents or who was Snoke illustrate that his failure as a team player. Divorced from the saga as a whole, Johnson's film stands as a unique piece of cinematic experience – whether good or bad – with its own identity. He failed to finish the other person's film...

Maybe that's why I enjoy Knives Out more than any other films this year. And I use the word "enjoy" to distinguish from the notion of loving a film. I think as far as a director goes, Johnson is still too lost in his own craft. He's an excellent one-time filmmaker. But rather than seeming like an intricate piece of art, the best of Johnson's films feel like sudden bursts of idiosyncratic creativity. Of course this idiosyncrasy benefits from being the kind I like. Johnson has chosen to make a really fun throw-back to a whodunit film. I love that genre. I grew up reading the Sherlock Holmes series, becoming such a fan of it that I always take a hardline stance against all subsequent adaptations. I am also a fan of the Case Closed series. With its outlandish plot, creative murder methods and campy storylines.

Knives Out is exactly like that. It's a campy romp. A fun whodunit adventure helmed by a filmmaker clearly having a lot of fun. The film follows an eccentric family whose patriarch has been murdered. Following this event, an equally eccentric detective with a REALLY campy name – Benoit Blanc – was hired to solve the case. I love all the characters inside and outside the family. The only complain I have with this movie is that there's not enough of them. The movie chooses instead to focus on another character, who's admittedly less interesting but still engaging enough to become a sort of audience surrogate. So yes, the movie shifts gear in the middle, turning itself from a claustrophobic whodunit into a thriller where specs of the truth are revealed like a Hitchcockian bomb. The characters are set against each other, rather than an inscrutable mystery. This part of the film will be jarring for many, but for me I like it fine. It's interesting enough to carry the tension set up at the start of the film.

But again, if you are someone who watches a lot of whodunit, you do get a sense that there must be another trick up the sleeve. A double mystery perhaps. And the fact of the matter is, as Benoit would say himself in the film, there is a pervading sense that something just isn't right. That this whole thing is off. As it turn out for me, it is the illogic of the story's red herring conclusion that tips me off to the fact that there must be another answer somewhere. We just don't see it. What we have feels like... well... a donut. And in this way, Johnson is kind of messing with us. Since he presents the story as a vessel for thesis A, we feel weird that the story seems to be barreling towards a conclusion that supports thesis B. This cognitive dissonance keeps us interested, and keeps us hoping that another layer remains to be discovered.

And for a second I want to talk about Craig in this film. I really love him in this. This is an actor in danger of being type-casted, being equated with his most famous role as 007. Here he plays a completely different kind of characters, and enjoying himself so much that you can't imagine him as the somber suave James Bond. I want to see more movie with Benoit Blanc. There is potential for a series here. But this is also kind of a fun little adventure on its own. In many ways it serve much better as an isolated work. I guess I don't know if I want to see more of Benoit Blanc. Maybe more of him in a film made by a different director. I'm scared to let Johnson near another trilogy to be completely honest with you.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this film. I'm not going to go around talking it up because I don't think it is perfect. In all of this films flaw, I feel like it's idiosyncratically designed for my liking. Well, so much for objectivity. This film is amazing.