Knives Out

A popular mystery writer named Harlan Thrombey is found dead with his throat slit after his 85th birthday. A private detective named Benoit Blanc is called to the Thrombey home anonymously to figure out if his death is in fact, a suicide or something far, far worse.

Unfortunately, yet another disappointment before the end of the decade that I hoped would not be, but ended up being unfortunately. Not a bad film by any means, just extremely flawed and not as “genius” as people make it out to be.

The cast genuinely did a good job, but I feel like outside of Armas, Craig, and Evans nobody really did anything of interest. The rest of the cast was just kinda there to bait people into seeing the movie, which is what I feared it would be, even though I hoped otherwise. While the rest of the cast did have some humorous lines here and there, they didn’t really do anything of interest. While you did have some genuinely great talent with Plummer, Curtis, Collette, and Shannon, great up and comings like Stanfield, Langford, and Martell, and hell even a has-been like Don Johnson, they aren’t there to really do anything so I’m still wondering why they’re there in the first place (well for Johnson, it might be to collect a paycheck). They could’ve easily been played by character actors or unknowns. Despite this though, Craig did steal the show with his laughably bad old school Southern accent and being the Poirot of this caper. He was a joy to see, and I’m glad he actually had something to do. Armas does do a rather good job as well, and Evans is extremely entertaining.

I think the pacing was decent in the first and third acts, but it went like a snail’s pace in the second act and just felt like a chore to sit through. I kept looking at my watch to see how much more I had to sit through, but as I said, it luckily picked up a bit towards the end. The cinematography was very good (especially with coming out of something like

Richard Jewell) and it felt like a lot of things popped in certain areas and was very… pleasurable I guess? I don’t know, I can’t really describe it, but it was certainly a lot more interesting to look at. I mean, it’s not Deakins levels, but it was very good. The humor was never gut busting, but I felt like the humor went along with the pace of the film, which I appreciated. Like the movie didn’t grind to a halt to tell a joke and then move on. The humor in it of itself was not amazing by any means, but I appreciated the execution.

The story is just… fine. It’s definitely not as intelligently constructed as people think it is. I think what Johnson was trying to do was create a deconstruction of murder mysteries but ended up failing miserably. The fact that everything was revealed in terms of Marta’s story at the end of the first act just felt like Johnson unironically using his “expectation subversion” technique without doing anything really interesting with it. Which is probably the reason I immediately checked out of the film when it was revealed. At that point, Johnson just took the mystery out of the “murder mystery” and he just didn’t execute the story properly if he was trying to do something unique with it. It didn’t feel like a twist with extra layers, it just felt like we got fed the entire movie and then later on Johnson remembered “oh shit yea, I have to put a twist in there”. It also REALLY didn’t help that the person behind everything was the most glaringly obvious person, that I initially thought it was a joke at first. It’s not Opera levels of stupidity (even though the rest of that film was so brilliantly executed by Dario Argento that the glaringly obvious twist wasn’t that bad in hindsight) but it still made me want to smack my head in frustration. When the person responsible said one specific line, I immediately knew that it was going to be him/her, but I initially didn’t take it seriously due to the obvious nature of it. Another thing that I didn’t really like was the political talk in the film. The use of “SJW snowflake” and “alt-right troll” just, IMMEDIATELY dated the movie and I was just rolling my eyes with the use of such words. They’re not even used cleverly or with an ongoing theme or anything, they’re just there because of jokes, possibly? Or fool idiots into thinking it’s smart commentary when it isn’t? I guess Johnson was trying to use it as a theme that no matter what side of the spectrum you’re on, you’re a dickbag either way since the entire Thrombey family are a bunch of assholes. But it’s not a theme that is consistent or comes off as clever, it just comes off as dated, annoying, and pointless. Additionally, I just felt like this was just a weaker and not as interesting version of Brick which in actuality, was an exceptional Rian Johnson neo-noir mystery. It goes in a completely different direction than this film does, and Johnson does that very well. Here, it just felt kind of empty, like Johnson wanted to homage yet deconstruct this sub-genre and it felt like a failure on both fronts. It honestly just felt like a weaker version of Clue which I am beginning to appreciate more and more. Clue manages to celebrate but poke fun at the sub-genre it’s presenting (as well as the board game it’s taking its namesake from), however, it does it in an entertaining yet well constructed way. While I did state that the third act is paced well, I felt that the exposition dump by Blanc was done in a rather lazy way (which again Clue manages to do more cleverly) and feels like even more of Johnson’s bullshit “expectation subverting”. Lastly, I wanted to also talk about how outside of Armas, Craig, and Plummer, literally the entire Thrombey family felt like the same character, which is why I couldn’t really comment on the performances that much before. They feel like the same character with maybe a different tweak added to make them appear different when they really aren’t. I felt like I was watching Mad Men all over again, where everyone is just an asshole and it’s so poorly executed that you end up not caring about almost everyone. I feel like Seinfeld was the only thing to get entertaining assholes done right.

With all of that, I you probably think I hate this movie, I don’t. It was a surface level entertaining movie. Somehow, Rian Johnson managed to make a turn your brain off murder mystery. An oxymoron that shouldn’t exist yet somehow does. It’s entertaining, but you end up not caring about the ingredients that should make it a good story.

Overall, it was an entertaining film. While it does have great performances from Armas and Craig, good cinematography, decent humor, and entertaining moments from the supporting cast, it becomes burdened with mediocre pacing, a piss poor mystery, a supporting cast that does nothing of interest to the story, political and social commentary that is a laughable afterthought, and Johnson’s bad attempts at expectation subverting and deconstructing a sub-genre.

5.5/10

Richard Jewell

After saving many lives at the 1996 bombing at Centennial Park, a security guard named Richard Jewell goes from hero to accused terrorist after a reporter publishes a flimsy story of circumstantial evidence that Jewell planted the bomb to be propagated as a hero.

What a disappointment. At least with a bad movie, it’s just bad and I can point out the awful things about it. There is evidence within it in addition to the disappointment. This is just wasted opportunity that should’ve been so much better than it was.

The acting was probably the strongest thing about the film, even though as a whole it isn’t that great, Sam Rockwell was easily the best part of the movie and was definitely a highlight. He put his all into it and you can really tell. It’s one of his better performances as a whole as well. Paul Walter Hauser had moments of greatness, mainly in the third act, but I feel like he mostly fell flat in some areas. Not a bad performance, but not amazing. I thought Kathy Bates was good but she’s been better (it certainly didn’t help that earlier today, I was watching parts of Misery). I think she had some high points, but mostly nothing special. Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm were fine, but again, both have been better. With the former being almost a caricature at points. The rest of the supporting cast was not very memorable.

The cinematography was very boring to look at. It was not very special and had a very beige look to it. It looks very similar to a lot of other modern Clint Eastwood films and that’s not a good thing. The pacing was what killed it for me personally. It was a slog to get through. Not as bad as Ad Astra but it was still unbearably slow. The overall tone just felt dry and stale. The editing in the first half also felt weirdly off and really choppy. It got better as time went on but it was still noticeably bad in the first act and still overall not very good. So with that, it’ll probably win an Oscar for Best Editing.

The story just felt kind of weak. It just, to me, felt like it didn’t need to be over 2 hours long. A lot of stuff could’ve been cut out. At the same time, it felt like necessary scenes and story beats were missing. That could be just due to the choppy editing, but it felt like stuff was missing while also leaving in unnecessary scenes, or just scenes that could’ve been done differently/shorter. It also got somewhat repetitive after a while. It just kinda felt like, okay we get Richard is being dragged through the mud just get on with it. However, despite this, the actual story regarding Richard Jewell is fascinating with how he went from hero to suspected terrorist. So that did keep me going throughout the film. The actual intrigue of that story regarding him. It could’ve been done WAY better, but it was still intriguing at certain points.

Overall, this was a very disappointing film. It felt very dry and stale, the editing was bad, the cinematography was bland, and the pacing was a slog. However, it was saved by above average acting, various highlights regarding the story and certain actors, and the intrigue of what happened with Richard Jewell.

6.5/10

The Irishman

Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran is a man with a lot on his mind. The former labor union high official and hitman, learned to kill serving in Italy during the Second World War. He now looks back on his life and the hits that defined his mob career, maintaining connections with the Bufalino crime family. In particular, the part he claims to have played in the disappearance of his life-long friend, Jimmy Hoffa, the former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who mysteriously vanished in late July 1975 at the age of 62.

The acting was absolutely fucking superb. No no no, not superb. Absolutely excellent and near perfection in almost every sense of the word. Robert De Niro was excellent. While the CGI was a bit uncanny valley at times, he still gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from him. Joe Pesci was absolutely amazing. Arguably the best performance from him not only in years, but possibly his entire career. Al Pacino is actually giving a shit! Only Marty Scorsese can bring him back from the depths of Hell that is Pacino’s modern career and have him give such a great performance as Jimmy Hoffa. Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Stephen Graham, Jesse Plemons, and Anna Paquin were also all genuinely great. I honestly wanted to see more of them, they were that good. But the trifecta of De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino was nothing short of brilliant.

The cinematography was also really excellent. Nothing incredibly elaborate or complicated but it looked great. Looked a bit dry at points, but overall, very excellent. The pacing was tremendous. I know everyone is gonna say that this is over 3 hours long so it’s boring and blah blah blah, but I thought it was paced exceptionally well. First half was a bit better than the second half, and by the end with Sheeran as an old man dragged a bit, but outside of that, it was great. It felt better paced than movies half the running time of this one was (Ad fucking Astra, I’m looking at you).

The story was extremely well done. While a bit choppy at points, I was still endlessly intrigued with how this was gonna play out. Sheeran’s story is nothing short of extraordinarily interesting and wonderfully directed by Scorsese. From his days as a meat packer, to slowly weaseling his way into the mob as pretty much an outsider, to becoming one of the most feared in the organization was genuinely great. It was surprisingly a rather simple movie with just being about Sheeran’s life. There surprisingly isn’t a lot to it. There are gonna be endless comparisons to Goodfellas, and I can see that. They’re about similar things and similar people so it’s gonna come up. But while I think the plot is kinda similar, the themes and direction make them so very different. Some things Goodfellas did better and some things The Irishman did better. But I can tell you this, I am so fucking glad that this decade pretty much ended on a movie like this, because it really needed it. Like, tremendously needed it. While there are going to be plenty of great movies next month (not a lot but some) the 2010s ended with The Irishman. If anything can be represented from this year, and this decade, I would want it to be this. Mr. Scorsese, you magnificent bastard, please never stop. Keep making movies until you’re 105, we need you. This movie clearly shows you are still a tremendous filmmaker and there is nothing you can’t do. While this might not be my favorite movie from him, but it’s certainly one of his best, hands down.

If I have any negatives, there are a couple, but very VERY minor. The editing at time was weirdly choppy, the stuff with Sheeran as an old man kinda dragged, and Keitel, Cannavale, and Paquin were not used to their greatest potential. However, outside of that, I legitimately, have no qualms with it. This is as close to perfection as the year of 2019 in film can possibly get.

Overall, this was an incredible and tremendous film. The acting was absolutely excellent, the cinematography was beautiful, the pacing was shockingly well done, as well as the de-aging technology, the story was endlessly intriguing, and extremely great. However, the minor qualms of editing at points, the ending, and lack of appearances of some great talent are noted as well.

10/10