Knives Out

Knives Out (2019)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Stars: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jaime Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith Stanfield, Noah Segan, Katherine Langford, Riki Lindhome, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer

Being familiar with Rian Johnson's filmography, I was hesitant in looking at this. I was spoiled a bit about who done it, but the clues were there if you picked it up. Now, that the atrociously named sequel in coming out soonish on Netflix. This whodunit was good, but long in the tooth.

On the day of his 85th birthday, Harlan Thrombey (Plummer) is found dead in his study. Private Investigator Benoit Blanc (Craig) along with Lt. Elliott (Stanfield) and Trooper Wagner (Segan) question all of the members of the Thrombey family where something sinister is waiting to bubble up.

Can we get this out of the way? Daniel Craig's accent. What is that? I deduced that it was either Louisiana, because of the French name or it was South Carolina with that thick drawl. My assumption in the latter. It was something. Could have had a generic American accent, but when the exaggerated accent are there, you have to take pause.

Johnson did a similar style film with Brick that I didn't care for that much. This felt like a better attempt at the whodunit. I felt like there were some pacing issues. There is a scene where you see what happened and you have to sit through another hour of movie. The last twenty minutes of the movie were good with the reveal, but then you go back and find holes in plot. It kinda ruins the expierence.

I enjoyed the movie. Some characters could have been cut or combined into one character. Some characters were very one-dimensional.

Rating: 8/10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Directed by David Fincher

Written by Steven Zaillian

Based on the novel "Män som hatar kvinnor" by Stieg Larsson

Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright,Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson, Geraldine James, Goran Visnjic, Donald Sumpter and Ulf Friberg

This movie was my most anticipated ones that I wanted to see last year, but I had lockout on watching movies last year. I was listening to a podcast and I was compelled with the movie. I did watch the original Swedish movie and reviewed it. The biggest problem I had with that movie was that I thought the pacing in the first half of the movie made it almost unwatchable. This has the opposite reaction.

The film is split between parallel narratives. There is one with Mikael Blomkvist (Craig), a journalist was convicted on libel for publishing a false story about Hans-Erik Wennerström (Friberg). He has to take a leave of absence from his post at Millennium Magazine leaving his sometimes lover, Erika Berger (Wright) in charge. He is summoned by Henrik Vanger (Plummer) to find out who killed his beloved niece, Harriet forty years earlier.

Little does Mikael know, that he was investigated himself by world class hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Mara) who was summoned by Henrik's lawyer, Dirch Frode (Berkoff). Lisbeth is a ward of the state since she was twelve because of a incident that happened when she was twelve. Eventually, the story lines intersect as the two delve into the Vanger mystery.

I have read the English translation of the book and I know that screenwriter Steven Zailian had to cut subplots that were not integral to the main story. I found that like the pacing of this movie better than the original. I was engaged in the mystery even though I knew what was going to happen. A big part of that was the fitting score of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The cinematography was truly extraordinary by Jeff Cronenweth. I'm glad that Fincher did not shy away from the brutality that happened in the book.

The film was nominated for five Oscars including Rooney Mara for Best Actress. I thought that Lisbeth was a meaty part of any woman. There is so much for Mara to do here. I was rooting for her when Lisbeth's case worker, Nils Bjurman (van Wageningen) gets his comeuppance. The only thing I did like was the ending shot of the movie. If you have seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. I mean, really?

I was not bored with the movie. The movie is almost two and half hours long. I was not checking my watch. I was engaged with the narrative.

My Rating

Beginners

Beginners (2011)

Directed and written by Mike Mills

Stars: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic and Mary Page Keller

Hello, my tens of readers out there in cyberspace. It has been awhile, hasn't it? I recently has a stint of working for eight days straight and I needed time to recover. I saw that Mike Mills' movie Beginners was On Demand. I saw the acclaim it got for Plummer who won Best Supporting Actor eariler this year. The movie is... well, there.

The movie follows the relationship between Oliver (McGregor) and his father, Hal (Plummer) as he is dying of lung cancer. That is basically what happens in the movie. The presentation of the film is a series of flashbacks when Hal came out as a gay man and started living the "gay lifestyle", before he was diagnosed.

Some of the story deals with Oliver meeting Anna (Laurent) at a costume party where they are immediately attracted to each other. They are both damaged people from broken homes. Geez, I don't how to properly review this movie without giving away spoilers.

My opinion on the movie was that it was trying hard to be a Woody Allen movie. It has a whimsical feel to it. I thought the chemistry between McGregor and Laurent was very good. Okay, let's be honest. I was goo-goo gaga over McGregor in this movie. He was mopey and downtrodden which made him exponentially hot.

I thought I would rave about this movie when I get to write it, but I felt that the movie was not memorable to me. Did Christopher Plummer deserve the Oscar for his portrayal? Personally, no. I think it was a career Oscar like some many actors are getting these days. They would get an Oscar for a blah performance because they were screwed over in previous year. I think that the award show hype machine is getting outta hand. They award people that have the most buzz instead of having the best performance of year. This is one person's opinion.

My Rating: