Knives Out (second-pass)
Cert: 12A / 130 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer
Not a great deal more to add upon my first brief mutterings on this movie, other than to say that it will become a firm favourite in the years to come and I'm already hoping Benoit Blanc has more outings in the future.
Knowing the story and its outcome, a second-pass of Knives Out meant I could get fully immersed in the magnificent performances which Rian Johnson plucks from his cast - one of the very few exceptions where the players of a movie are clearly having an absolute ball and it still results in something which isn't self-indulgently awful. And although there are narrative 'tells' to pick up when re-watching, the identity of the murderer never seems too obvious, the motives of the non-murderers are just as potentially solid, and Blanc most definitely does not know whodunnit all along.
Come for the murder, stay for the fun.
Then come back again for both...
Agatha Christye type things.
It is.
It is.
It will be high up on a a lot of performers' CVs for quite a while, and with good reason.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Another pre-Christmas flick arriving with much anticipation*1 is Rian Johnson's Knives Out, a good old-fashioned, star-studded whodunnit murder mystery in the very best traditions of Agatha Christie but with a (12A-permissible) potty mouth. Heading up the cast list are Jamie-Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Ana de Armas, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, Chris Evans and Don Johnson, but it's Daniel Craig who really steals the show as sleuth Benoit Blanc (with his force of character being sequel-bait alone).
Now despite the many 'film of the year' plaudits I've seen so far, it's important to note that Rian Johnson is neither deconstructing nor reinventing the genre here; he's just having a load of intricate fun in the sandpit. Viewers versed in Christie's canon will feel instantly at home with something that's definitely an homage rather than a rip-off. The film never tries to be smarter than its audience, and that counts for a lot. You can spend your time trying to second-guess the outcome, or you can enjoy the two hours in the company of a cast and director who understand character-play through a viciously squabbling family full of potential murderers.
*1 Cineworld Unlimited advance-screening, and dear lord the casual cardholders were getting their money's worth with this one. The place was packed (which is a good thing), attracting as it did the type of patron who apparently pays for the card but doesn't use it very regularly so doesn't know how to behave in a cinema. The shuffling, the talking, the phones, the smell. Did I mention I don't like people? [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Well, I didn't think I'd be making comparative references against the third Avengers get-together until at least this time next year, but a conversation at the weekend raised the point that for the more, ahem, civilian viewer, there are two superhero movies out at the moment. Inevitably, some casual cinema-goers are going to be standing in the foyer deciding which one they want to watch*1.
Because for a lot of people, the choice will be between a pair of Marvel flicks starring a partially-CGI'd Josh Brolin as a bad-ass with a time-slider*2. But that's not really an accurate comparison, is it? Or is it? Infinity War and Deadpool 2 are very different products, albeit for partly the same audience*3. The merc-with-the=mouth has come armed with the fuckbombs, but it's Earth's Mightiest Heroes who carry the weightier story.
And yet in the weeks since my first two passes, I'd forgotten how funny Infinity War is, especially given its consistently escalating death-toll. Although obviously it's very different from that other movie, tonally. Avengers' humour is very much the Private Eye to Deadpool's Viz. Both are great institutions which can't replace each other, and don't try.
So, watching Infinity War again after a few weeks, I'm pretty much of the opinion that any deaths which occurred before the Infinity Gauntlet was fully operational (only four, remember) will be permanent. The amount of build-up, screen-time or dramatic weight allocated to each one seems fairly irreversible, and the film's legacy would be cheapened if these characters managed to find themselves magically resurrected by the end of Avengers 4.
Conversely, the casting-losses which occur once Thanos snaps his fingers (the other twelve*4) are, to put it mildly, suspiciously rapid given their narrative stature. The heroes that flutter out of existence leave behind an intriguingly-thinned (and deliberately 'classic') team for next May's concluding chapter, but the ultimate resolution lies in the knowledge that Spider-Man 2, Black Panther 2 and Guardians 3 have already been commissioned.
But hey, I've previously joined the chorus bemoaning Marvel's reluctance to apply a little consequence to their continuity, and it's still by no means certain who will survive into Phase 4. At a rate of three cinematic entries a year, the MCU is now dense enough to give classic heroes the rest they've earned, while still maintaining forward momentum. Maybe, as a man from another galaxy once said, "it's time to let old things die".
Because we all know this isn't the end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning...*5
Avengers films.
it is.
It is.
2019 will tell, I guess.
Not likely, since you'll love it as well. Right?.
There is, layered in when Ebony Maw goes for a space-walk.
*1 And of course that's perhaps not the way things should work. But let's not forget I sat in a Saturday night screening of A Ghost Story and watched people walk out mid-way, almost certain that they'd made their choice on a whim since Annabelle: Creation was playing two screens down and was likely the choice on the other side of their coin. Not all moviegoers are as disciplined or as informed as us, dear reader. And that's why I'm here; to help. Or maybe to lecture. Either/or. Okay, it's probably the second one. [ BACK ]
*2 Okay, Thanos-related plot question. When Thor is on the Milano, he tells the Guardians that Thanos "stole the stone and slaughtered half my people". So... where are the survivors, exactly? Because everyone on-screen looked pretty much floaty-in-space-dead to me, the Asgardian ship looked completely mullered, and the Guardians of The Galaxy (the only responders to the distress-call) didn't pick up anyone else from the wreckage.
It had previously struck me that there's not much of a big deal made of Thor being the last Asgardian now, especially as the whole point of Ragnarok was that the refugees fleeing the planet were the symbol of endurance and hope. But yeah, maybe half of that film's survivors are pootling off on the B-Ark somewhere, right? [ BACK ]
*3 For the record, there are currently Deadpool 2 cup-toppers on sale in the foyer. I expect that for the 12A certificate hero-flicks aimed at family audiences, but this is a hard 15. T-shirts absolutely, popcorn buckets at a push, but cup-toppers? Maybe it's meant to be ironic. Although I'm pretty sure the money that Fox are making from the products looks the same either way...
[ BACK ]
*4 Yes, of course I made a list. And no, I'm not going to reproduce it here. I know I marked the review 'spoilers' but I'm not a complete animal... [ BACK ]
*5 Yeah, I went there. I'll be wearing a plastic Union Jack bowler hat and writing angry letters to local newspapers, next. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Gifted Cert: 12A / 101 mins / Dir. Marc Webb / Trailer
My local cinema hosted an advance screening of Marc Webb's new movie last week. I was due to go, but plans shifted so that I delayed watching a heartwarming, uplifting tale of sacrifice, perseverance and belief in favour of seeing an old friend and getting blind drunk instead. This decision-making process should indicate that I'm not really the target audience for Gifted, and the rest of this review should be translated accordingly.
In the blue-collar coastal suburbs of Florida, Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is the adoptive uncle of orphaned mathematical prodigy Mary (Mckenna Grace), struggling with moving her from homeschooling to mainstream education in a bid to build her social skills and let her enjoy her childhood. But a regular school offers no intellectual challenges, only behavioural ones, and the child's grandmother has other plans for Mary's development...
What begins as an ochre-washed, ukulele driven twee-fest to rival the best of Nicholas Sparks*1, goes through the motions of sighs, tears, revelations, pacing of the courtroom floor, the swelling of the strings-section and hugs before bedtime. The film is efficiently executed, but lacks inspiration all round. Credit where it's due, the central performances by Mckenna Grace and Chris Evans are very strong. They're excellent individually, and the pair have a chemistry in their scenes together which defines the heart of the film. And Gifteddoes have a heart, it just expresses that through the medium of Hallmark Channel Autopilot™.
As Octavia Spencer's over-protective neighbour, Jenny Slate's wet-blanket of a teacher and Linsday Duncan's meddling grandmother-character dutifully tick off the boxes on their Plot Device Checklist, the problem soon arises that the more secondary/ancillary characters are introduced, the more irreversibly clichéd the while thing becomes. The film sags terribly at around the half-way mark and never manages to regain its composure. Even a shoehorned sequence of 'will Frank make the drive across town before they put the cat to sleep?'*2, is so phoned-in that by the time our hero breathlessly arrives in the vet's backroom murder-chamber, Ginger Fred's basically sitting filing his claws murmuring "Oh, you're here, then?". It's a safe play in a script that was never going to take any risks in the first place.
Also, this loses a point for Frank using 'Legos' as a collective term for pieces of the popular branded construction-set. And if the kid had been as bright as the screenplay makes out, she'd have thoroughly schooled him over that one. Legos. I ask you.
I understand why Evans wanted to do Gifted, of course, and as he's one of the two great things about the movie it's another string to his bow. But as not-inconsiderable as that bow is, the string itself is thoroughly unremarkable…
*1 Full disclosure, I'm generalising there. I've never watched any Nicholas Sparks output. Seen plenty of trailers, haven't had the strength to attempt the films themselves though. I seem to recall seeing the promo-reel for The Longest Ride and thinking 'but this looks exactly the same as every other story he's written?'. Then it occurred to me that the target demographic for these movies probably has that precise reaction while I'm two rows away squealing over the latest Marvel trailer, so fair play I suppose... [ BACK ]
*2 Spoiler: of course he does. Although I'd be interested to see one of these flicks where he doesn't. Where the wheels basically fall off everything at the end of Act III, and the final scene features the mentor character talking to their young charge, saying "Yeah, that's life I'm afraid. An unending torrent of inconvenience, loss and pain where everything drifts toward entropy until you're too tired to fight and too numb to care. But hey, there's always bourbon. Whiskey for me, biscuits for you; you're only eight.", then the beaten-car drives off into a sunset while the camera tracks over to a dude wearing a 'the end is nigh' sandwich board and the gun poorly concealed in the pocket of his dirty coat...
And that's why they keep returning my screenplays. [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Well, this isn't the first time I've seen a Marvel movie for the second time, but it's probably the first where I've left it for two weeks between initial viewings. That wasn't completely intentional, but I'd definitely made a point of not rushing back within 48 hours of the original midnight screening. As much as I'd loved Civil War (and after a second-pass, I still do), I have to admit that the spark of urgency to go straight back just wasn't there. Maybe I'd essentially 'got everything' the first time? Maybe I'd been (uncharacteristically) fatigued after an eight-hour cinema marathon? Or maybe I just know that the film will almost certainly be screened as part of future double/triple bills, and I've finally realised that this cinema-run won't be my only chance to see the movie*1. To a greater or lesser degree, it was all of these things which led to the delay; so what would I make of Cap's third solo-outing once the dust had settled..?
Well, first and foremost I stand by my previous assertion that Civil War is too damned long. more to the point, it's too long with not enough downtime in the pacing and is trying to cover too many in-universe story-threads, like some spandex-wielding soap-opera. As great as both characters are, Black Panther and Spider-Man don't need to be part of the 'Sokovia Accords' storyline, and their inclusion creates detours which offer no breathing space from the main narrative. I'm very much looking forward to their respective standalone movies, but I think making these before their induction into the Avengers would have benefitted Civil War greatly.
One thing which tickled me was that Steve Rogers writes Tony Stark a letter toward the end of the film; an actual handwritten letter. Not only is this a subtle callback to Roosevelt's pen from earlier, it also shows that after everything which has happened since he awoke in the present-day, either a) Rogers still doesn't quite get digital communication, so doesn't trust it, or b) Rogers understands digital communication only too well, so doesn't trust it. It's a lovely bit of character building that takes less than a minute and says more than any amount of explosions and broken glass.
It also occurred to me that Scarlet Witch and Vision seem to be getting short shrift in terms of screen-time. The seeds of the relationship which were planted towards the end of Age of Ultron are barely even watered here, never mind nurtured. Let me get this straight, Marvel, you've got an emotionally conflicted young woman who can use magic (actual magic, mind), forming an emotional and spiritual bond with a naive, space-gem-powered robot… and you made a two and a half hour movie about a contract dispute? Hey, I love admin more than the average cinema-goer, but even I want to see more of Wanda and Vision's development, thanks.
But all this says more about me than the film, I think. I seem to have reached the point where, much like Star Wars, I can love each MCU installment almost unconditionally, while still picking holes in the overall thing. And 'overall' probably describes my approach to enjoying Civil War. The film adds progression and detail to the ongoing saga, but the largely unresolved tensions within the Avengers and amount of storyline plate-spinning mean that I enjoy this as a background piece, rather than a standout feature (and that's never been the MCU's style, so far).
I wouldn't class Captain America: Civil War as 'filler' by any means, but it's certainly a sort of continuity-admin. And like I said, I love admin…
The MCU, to be fair. This film is not a starting point for the new inductee.
If you can, do.
It sets out to do slightly too much, but largely achieves what it can, yes.
Jury's still out on that one.
Probably not..
Fairly sure I heard half a Wilhelm buried in there, but that could be projection on my part.
Level 2: Well, pretty much all of the Avengers here who've been in previous movies in the timeline did so alongside Sam 'Windu' Jackson, but let's go for Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman who appears in the upcoming Gods of Egypt, as does Bruce 'Tion Medon' Spence.
And while I'm on the subject, I studied the poster for Gods of Egypt for about a minute whilst standing in a cinema foyer yesterday, and I think I've already written the review of the film in my head…
*1 Although don't bother trying to remind me of that when Rogue One lands this December and I'm putting in more hours at my local cinema than some of the staff...
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
