MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > OT: Knives Out (NO SPOILERS)

OT: Knives Out (NO SPOILERS)

posted 5 years ago by ecarle (14979)
4 replies | jump to latest

Definitely no spoilers for "Knives Out" -- because its a whodunit -- and I don't want to drop a hint about whodunit. Or when or how or why.

I think I'll take a run at a topic that always interests me "at the movies": the vagaries of stardom. "Knives Out" has an "all star cast" of suspects(and its detective) and yet...how all star are these stars? How do they measure on whatever scale of stardom we have these days.

Two of the stars SHOULD be considered big ones: Daniel Craig(aka Our Current James Bond) and Chris Evans(aka Captain America...a Marvel hero of the highest level.)

But are they? Craig has a distinctively "border-line ugly" look that has been linked to both Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen(or a mix thereof) of "type," and yet, like Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan and most certainly Timothy Dalton, Craig hasn't really managed to get stardom "away from Bond." (Connery most certainly DID.) Still, I think Craig has managed to avoid Roger Moore's "too cute" lack of star quality, and he's done better than Timothy Dalton. Craig is about equal to Brosnan in "hanging on" for a star career that MIGHT lead to greater bankability. NOTE: This is the second time in several years that Craig has elected to go for a character with a Southern accent - the other time was as a crook in Logan Lucky, here he is the "Louisiana Hercule Poirot" and...as with many British actors ...Southern accents suit him.

Chris Evans has a Bond-like problem: what kind of bankable star is he when he is NOT Captain America? He's got another quandary: there are SEVERAL "Chris" stars out there these days -- Chris Pratt may be the biggest(he's got Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Spileberg's Jurassic World series as franchises), but there's also Chris Pine. He's also got the cautionary tale of the long forgotten Chris O'Donnell(Robin with Batman.)

In his favor, Evans in "Knives Out" gets to play a weird-looking fellow -- his handsomeness is congealed in rich-kid insolence and a sort of non-handsome creepiness -- you can see the "character man" lurking within this cutie pie and, I dunno...maybe some sort of star career awaits.

Evans is cast as the son of Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Johnson -- who are throwbacks to decades past , of course. (And Jamie Lee -- ON TOPIC - is Janet Leigh's daughter and aged entirely more mannish than mom. Tony Curtis's looks rather took over, I guess.)

In this film(all films?) Jamie Lee has decided to let her age show -- I think she's 60ish now. White hair, short haircut, unflattering glasses...she's playing a no-nonsense business woman here, a tough gal. And Handsome Don Johnson is her dissolute husband -- the pretty boy who married rugged wealth.

Don Johnson. He goes on my list of "movie stars who didn't happen." Michael Madsen is there. Kurt Russell is ALMOST there -- though Kurt's stayed bankable as an Old Man Character Star.

Don Johnson was incredibly pretty when he ruled on "Miami Vice" in the 80's. Johnson lost shots to play the Kevin Costner role in The Untouchables and the Mel Gibson role in Lethal Weapon and had to watch them become superstars while his TV career fizzled -- and then re-grouped(as Nash Bridges.) Interestingly, today both Costner and Gibson have faded -- superstars no more -- but Don Johnson's career has RISEN -- he looks great in HIS 60's and QT used him to great effect a few years back as a suave but menacing slave owner in Django Unchained(for my money, he was more commanding than Leo DiCaprio in that movie in a similar part.)

Don Johnson's shot at superstardom is past him -- but he may be able to join Jeff Bridges and Kurt Russell as a "bankable old guy character star." He looks great, he doesn't look so pretty, and he's FUNNY. (Note in passing: those old "Miami Vice" episodes had pretty lousy, over-serious, over-wrought, over-posing scripts, even with the notable Michael Mann at the helm. Looking back, that series did Johnson no favors.)

Toni Collette -- an interesting character actress with a very interesting face. It looks like a bit of a "mock turtle" face, somewhat sad and overlong and reptilian. Its a sympathetic face, too -- remember her as Hitchcock's assistant Peggy Robertson in "Hitchcock" a few years back?(Boom -- ON TOPIC yet again.) Here the Austrialian actress affects a snobbish-airhead-hippie type accent and gets great comic mileage out of it.

Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette -- they are all playing family members(by birth or by marriage) of 85-year old Old Man Christopher Plummer, whose death(suicide or murder?) brings them all together for a reading of the will and some serious back-biting.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Oh, wait, I forgot one -- Michael Shannon. Whereas Don Johnson's looks have always been "pretty" (but are now mellowed and mature with age) Shannon joins Collette and Curtis in having an "interesting" face. Good looks are there, but so are severe, slighting menacing looks, too. Shannon's mainly been an "indie fave" in recent years, racking up the nominations and awards without really making an impression in mainstream film. He also portrayed a bizarrely unattractive and too-tall Elvis Presley opposite Kevin Spacey's Nixon a few years back -- though he was vocally funny in the part.

Too-tall...that helps Shannon here. He rather towers over the cast...even playing a man who walks with a cane. Its good to see Shannon "playing with the other kids" here. He's accessible(even if playing a murder suspect), this was a good role to introduce him to a larger audience.

That's mainly it for the "all star"(or at least "sort of star") suspects, but one other key role is played by the lovely Ana de Armas --who I do believe is love interest to Craig's James Bond in the new Bond being made right now(a teaser trailer is out; looks like all the other recent Bonds.) Along with Craig's private detective, de Armas is the protagonist here(as Craig calls her , the Watson to his Sherlock) and also the sympathetic potential "wrong woman" who may get pinned with murder charges.

Indeed, writer-director Rian Johnson(who evidently outraged the world with his blockbuster The Last Jedi) in an interview took note of how Hitchcock didn't like whodunnits because of their lack of emotion and "puzzle" qualities -- says Johnson, "the dramatic jeopardy in which de Armas is placed will hopefully give the whodunit some emotion."

Yes, sure possibly --but because this is a "NO SPOILERS" piece, I can neither confirm nor deny just how innocent Ana de Armas is in this film. Mainly lovely, is all (and the movie goes for some political edge by pitting her Hispanic/Latino nurse against a houseful of rich white folk.)

I've read that "Knives Out" just may be hit enough to generate a whole new franchise for Daniel Craig when Bond's done...elegant Southern detective in a series of whodunnits. I suppose I would attend all of them. (Meanwhile, Kennth Branaugh is following his remake of Murder on the Orient Express with a remake of the one they made after THAT one: Death on the Nile; Gal "Wonder Woman" Gadot and Armie Hammer are the star names there; Bette Davis and Maggie Smith are sorely missed)

In the meantime, we have "Knives Out" with its witty dialogue, its clever plot and its INDEED interesting group of "semi stars" as fine fall/winter entertainment.

Recommended. If you like whodunnits...

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

In the meantime, we have "Knives Out" with its witty dialogue, its clever plot and its INDEED interesting group of "semi stars" as fine fall/winter entertainment.
Recommended. If you like whodunnits...

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Sounds good... Between this & Little Women and Jojo Rabbit & Parasite there are a bunch of well-made, entertaining but thoughtful, non-spectacle-based films out there right now that multiple generations can watch together. This is *not* so the rest of the year!

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Its been ever thus, eh? For decades -- wait til the end of the year. But there's a few surprises sometimes, up front in the winter and spring(Silence of the Lambs, and for me, Grosse Pointe Blank).

Although OAITH was a summer movie (and I find myself liking it more as it comes into view with clips on the net.)

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And there's The Irishman, Marriage Story, & Atlantics at home on Netflix.

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But what's the deal WITH Netflix? There is still something lacking to the Netflix movie which suggests maybe not getting full studio backing to show to audiences "in theaters for as long as they want" -- ends up with "also ran" movies being financed by Netflix(Marty couldn't get backing for his "old men movie" at the price it would cost.) I'm not sure yet.

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BTW, Jamie Lee Curtis did a very charming 'career overview' vid. for Vanity Fair recently. Recommended:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxbWww_WrFc

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I'll take a look. She had an interesting career, with the Halloween launch(thus forever linking her to her mommy and HER psycho movie) but a certain "sexy tomboyish" quality that lasted a long time. I think her commercial peak was "True Lies" oppose Arnold when he was peaking(and about to decline fast). Together, they made an interesting couple -- dull suburbanites sometimes, sexy superspies at other times.

I haven't looked at Jamie Lee's movie canon. I expect I'm forgetting "something big."

[–] swanstep (2715) 5 years ago

I haven't looked at Jamie Lee's movie canon. I expect I'm forgetting "something big."

Two big ones for different generations: A Fish Called Wanda & the 2000s remake of Freaky Friday where she gets to play both her own, 'Mother of Lindsay Lohan' character and Lindsay Lohan trapped in her Mom's body. She's brilliant in both & it's the latter role that's anchored her middle-aged star-power with millennials & after. Jamie Lee with her wit & sass & also her relaxed attitude about showing her age has really become a beloved figure across generations (I hadn't quite realized).