December 20, 2019 • 52 mins
This week Chuck sits down with Anney, Lauren and Casey to discuss one of this year's best films, Rian Johnson's Knives Out.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio. Okay,
(00:29):
hey everyone, welcome to Movie Crush. Uh. This is the
Knives Out Round Table. Addition to my left is Annie.
Hello to my Heddi's Casey and a cross from me
is a brand new human and my brand new I've
been here for a couple of years. How long have
you worked? You more than a couple of years? I
was about everyone. That is Lauren Fogelbaum. Uh, you're German, right,
(00:54):
half of my family is Germanic Ish. That's German focal
Bellman a German name. It means bird tree. Really yeah,
look at you, hey, little bird tree. I know. So
Lauren is making her first Movie Crush appearance here, but
she is well known for the Saber podcast where she
and Annie we've talked about this get to travel the
(01:15):
world and eat and drink and talk about it, which
is pretty amazing. It's a pretty good gig. I've got
to say, Yeah, that was a that was a nice
little switcheroo when they rebranded that thing and gave you
a budget. Yeah, I would say nice at your SWITCHERU
is a good covering of it, because what those food
stuff before it was? Yeah, and We certainly didn't get
(01:35):
flown to Hawaii to eat stuff there um under jelly.
It's we kind of found out that no one technically
approved that trip, so well, that's the way I'm doing
We asked, it's not like we were doing it on
the d l or executive producer said it was fine, yeah,
(01:56):
and that you know, Connell's great. You can kind of
just go to him and catch him as he's speeding
through the hallway to hey, I got the school opportunity Hawaii,
and he like, sounds great, go for it, all right.
I don't think he knows what he just approved. He
approved it. It's good having a very busy boss. It is.
So we are here to talk about Knives Out. We're
going to do a few of these roundtables for what
(02:18):
I'm calling likely Oscar contenders leading up to the Oscar Awards,
and I think Knives Out is going to get a
lot of nominations for sure, and we'll talk about what categories. Absolutely,
But if you haven't seen it yet, don't listen because
we're gonna be spoiling it. Uh. This is the new
movie from Ryan Johnson of Brick Fame and Star Wars Fame,
(02:39):
which one. Did he do the last Jedi? Don't you say?
Okay Syren at that point? Get right off the back?
Actually I think it was strikes back. He was eleven. Uh.
And you know, Ryan Johnson has a similar feeling on
(02:59):
the kind of genre as me, which is, I love
it and there aren't nearly enough movies in the one
of us is the killer and one of us isn't
in this room has done it. Genre parlor dramas, Yeah,
I love it. Yeah, good type murder drama. Yeah. And
maybe there shouldn't be a ton of these because you
probably couldn't handle like three or four of these a year.
(03:21):
But it's just a genre I adore, and I this
is a movie that I was looking forward to, perhaps
more than any other this year, because I love that
kind of movie so much, and I knew that the
buzz about it was so great, and I think Ryan
Johnson is just such a sharp writer, and I knew
it was going to have the goods and it did
absolutely right. And didn't like this, No, I honestly did
(03:44):
not know going in how I was going to feel
about it, and I was very very pleasantly surprised. I
liked a lot. Yeah, alright, Well, we'll save the official
thumbs review for the end, but uh, let's talk about
the cast first. I think I know, right, Yeah, definitely
who basically the only thing uh Anna Armist steals the
(04:05):
show in a lot of ways in a cast full
of like super stud actors, these crazy heavy hitters who
have been around for decades at the top of their game.
And yeah, and her is just like little engine kind
of character. Just really I had never heard of her anyone,
I think, I mean just her IMDb is not that long.
I believe this is probably the biggest Uh she was
(04:31):
in Blade Runner, That's where I've seen her face. Yeah,
because I knew i'd recognized her at least I like
war dogs, um a bunch of stuff in Spanish. Okay,
well that makes sense, Yeah, sure, but boy is she
good in this movie. Yeah, she's fantastic and like you said,
against the heavy hitters that she's surrounded by and just
handled it like a champ. Yeah, she in a lot
(04:55):
of ways, she's the heart of the movie. And she's
just so believable in that like you feel for her.
I love how it switches from like I need to
know who did it? Oh, I know who did it,
and I don't want anyone else. It's such it was
such a unique take on that. I don't think it
would have worked as well if she hadn't done such
a great job at being so kind and believable it's
(05:15):
being so kind. Yeah, uh, and a lot of that
has played for comedy through the film. It's so funny.
I mean some of the like Don Johnson has comic
love Don Johnson, who knew, Yeah, he's so fucking funny.
He really is, as you know, the sort of sort
of hard, very much right wing blow hard. And then
(05:38):
you know, there's so many great little jokes like he's
the guy who still makes the Hamilton's reference kind of wink,
and then the ongoing joke about no one knows what
country she's from. It's like very kind of old school
Hollywood comedy writing, right, Yeah, a little a little bit screwball, Yeah,
quite tips over into full screwball, but it has very
much that vibe. Yeah, I think it walked that line,
(05:59):
like just right, yeah, because a little screwballd A movie
like this is perfect. Like I don't know if you
guys are clue fans, oh jeez, best you probably haven't
seen it. It's great. I mean, you know, it's it's
sort of one of the leading films in this genre
for sure. Yeah, and they made a couple of really
good references to it. I mean they say it, like
right at the top of the movie, they're like, I
(06:20):
mean we were in this clue house. Yeah, like the
murder she wrote is on TV at one point. There's
like a few little nods you know, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, Um,
And I guess when you're Ryan Johnson you can assemble
a cast like this. Um. Who knew Daniel Craig was
so funny. Yeah, I mean he steals the movie Less
Beyond and that accent, like I so so the three
(06:41):
of us actually when saw this film last night? Oh
together together? Or did you just sit on separate roads?
Look at me? Yeah? My bodyguards? Really that was fun.
Did you have a good time? Yeah? I think I did. Yeah,
I learned bought a bunch of popcorns kid, Oh no, no,
(07:04):
totally illegal popcorn aboard, although my purse I do buy
very large purpose purpose of yeah, my mom, Yeah that's me.
We stuck to that popcorn and when I was a kid.
But they were school teachers, so we couldn't afford popcorn.
But but yeah, his his accent, I was saying, was
just like revolution. I was like, how did you get
(07:25):
a good Southern accent out of a British actor I've
never heard of, Yeah, or at least a fun Southern
ax that fa Yeah, it was. They let him go
for the full you know. Yeah. I feel like a
lot of characters were on the verge of being characatures, yeah,
which I actually really enjoyed because they were almost over
the top but not quite, which is sort of the
(07:47):
point they like the Clue characters. Yeah, and it was
really fun to see because actor like Daniel Craig. We
were saying, we usually see him as James Bond during
these brooding roles and to see him have what I'm
assuming is that of his life but this othern accent
was such a joy. Yeah. I've read interviews with him
where he snuck this in before the Bond movie, had
(08:08):
a little window and very much had a good time,
and like was good for his soul, I think, to
get in there because he's kind of I think everyone
knows he's tired to Bond at this well, and yeah,
I had that feeling of like, man, let this guy
out like let him do some movies, you know, like yeah, yeah,
don't just do the the kind of like restrained Bond
character Daniel Craig t shirt. Yeah, I think that. I
(08:28):
think this next one's gonna be the last. That's when
I hear the trailer just dropped right before we sat down,
by the way, so I'm just like, all right, I'm
not going to watch it while we're doing this. Yeah.
That opening bit though, when he's they're conducting all the interviews,
which is one a great efficient way to sort of
level set everything, but when he just will tap on
the piano key everything, it's never really explained and so funny.
(08:50):
It's Yeah, I loved I love that you see him
kind of out of focus over their shoulders for the
longest time before before you ever get like a close
proper introduction where someone's like, hold on, who is that guy? Yeah? Yeah,
and the other characters call him out like it's like,
I'm sorry, who's that? Like. Keith Stanfield is great in
(09:12):
that role. Yeah, and it was cool seeing him in
a part like this. Absolutely, uh, let me see who
else here? Chris Evans giving a full throated fuck you
to Captain America. Yeah, talk about shaking off of persona. Yeah,
we were wondering if this casting was intentional because he
is known as Cap and Cap is this totally fulsive,
amazing character and uh and also is part of the
(09:34):
like the like meta commentary of the film too. I
think so. Yeah, absolutely, which was a tiny bit heavy handed,
but I still enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean he cast
a lot sort of against type. Um. I had never
seen Tony Colette play like I mean, she's just one
of my favorites and playing this vapid sort of yea,
like mommy bloggers negative, right, I forgot about the player.
(10:00):
Oh how did you bring well? I saw it a
couple of weeks ago. I almost went and saw it
again just to prep for this. Uh. Michael Shannon as
Walt always Rombie, always great. We were saying afterwards that,
you know, Michael Shannon gives more of a restrained performance
than than he has in a long time. He never
has that moment where he really blows up. He's still
fully menacing, you know, but it's it's much more like
(10:23):
restrained because he has that Kane, and you know, the
Cane is kind of the main motivator, Like not scene
where he's kind of cornering her in the man Yeah. Great. Yeah.
When they were doing the close ups and Cane yea
in the foot Jamie Lee Curtis got to give her
amazing just amazing, I mean screen legend up there. We
(10:43):
already talked about Don Johnson and then like throwing Christopher
Plummer because why not? Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, we didn't
realize he reads the will. Oh my god, I totally
didn't recognize him. I didn't into the credits, and then
I was like, that was Frank's interesting because he he
(11:04):
had one of the funniest lines when he was reading
the will YadA YadA yadas, like the YadA yadaa will
read M Wall shows up. I was I love to
see you, I say, the exact same thing. Felt terrible
because afterwards, Uh, I asked Lauren's like, have you seen blood? Simple? Yeah,
It's like, you know that's the guy that's like the
(11:24):
private investigator. Um yeah, I mean legendary character actor. Amazing. Yeah,
and it's so cool that Ryan Johnson was just I
mean he's able to do that. Yeah, Like I love
MMT Wall, So I'm going to put him in my movie. Yeah,
why not? For like two and a half seconds, He's
just right there, just passing by. Wasn't Joseph Gordon loved
in there somewhere. He wasn't even I didn't even see
that until i'm dB. I'm like, he was in that.
(11:46):
He was one of the detectives that I just didn't notice,
like the guy opening the doors. Okay, really just a
little easter egg basically, yeah, that's kind of fun. And
then throwing in people like a like a la Keith
Stanfield who has been so amazing, uh first and get
Out although it was a very small role, but also
Sorry to Bother You. Yeah, yeah, Sorry to bother You.
(12:07):
And it is a gorgeous, amazing film. And then a
guy that uh noah, yes, yeah, who Who's he's in
all the Ryan Johnson movies? Is he? Yeah? He's like, uh,
I think they're buddies. I don't really know the full
back story there, but he was the other detectively so
(12:27):
and I think they worked him into Star Wars just
a little bit. And yeah, I'm pretty sure he's He's
like been on screen and most, if not all, of
Ryan Johnson's Moses Oh boy, he was funny in this
and he made the most well, and it was funny
to make him to write him as a fan of
the writer. It like it really added a lot to
the story. I think, like immedically. I love at the
(12:49):
end when he shies keep going. I love it. I
can't wait to see this movie again. I said, this
is my second time, and I was saying it's really
on the second time because it feels really obvious. But
it's not. But you're like, oh yeah, there is, oh
yeah there because it is a little twisty. I mean
in the end, uh, you get that great Scooby Doo
(13:11):
ending where Daniel Craig is explained and how it all
went now, which is just sort of a classic trope
of that genre. And even even the way that scene plays.
I usually find that kind of thing a little bit
tedious at the end when they had to kind of
take you step by step through the whole plot. But
he was done so well here and there were so
many like little jokes thrown in to kind of keep
it going that it never felt like it slowed the
(13:33):
movie down or or got tedious at all. To me.
I was just really really annoying it. I just want
to see Ryan Johnson make comedies now. I know, I know,
he has such a knack for comic timing and writing.
It's like it was insane. Yeah. And also I love
with a lot of the cast. I feel like they
were cast kind of against type and that was really
really fun. So I would Yeah, I would love to
(13:54):
see more of that. I mean, how many last did
he get out of out of the Grandma? Just like
the camera camera, Yeah, she was just always there, and
especially in the window stuff. Every time it cuts to
her in the window. It's Yeah, this is a fun
(14:20):
movie to see in the theater too, because I had
to see a matinee, so they're only like fifteen or
twenty people in there. But I would love to see
this in like a packed movie theater. We had, Yeah,
we had more of an audience last night, and that
absolutely I think added to the experience of just hearing
other people really laugh hard and having that shared communal
feeling was like a big boost. Yeah. Man, that's the best.
And then Ricky Lenhoum had a very small part, but
(14:42):
she gets a lot of laughs and just the few
scenes that she's in, and I wonder if some of
that was cut out, some of her role was cut out,
or if that was just the deal. Which character she
was one of the sisters? Yeah, she was the wife
of who was she the wife of? Their last name is? What?
(15:04):
Was she Michael Shannon's wife? Okay, okay, she's my rock.
And then there were so many great little old school
comic moments like that. I was like, I'm not above
a slapsticky kind of laugh that way. And then Eadie
Patterson is very underrated as an actor. I think she
played fran Um. She's very funny, she's she was in
(15:27):
I just finished the Two Ferns movie. Have you guts
seen that? You know? It's better? I think I can't
remember which reviewers said it, but I totally agree it's
better than it has any right to be. It's very funny,
and she has a very funny little cameo in that movie.
But I think that's everyone. Oh no, w uh. Katherine
Langford is Meg is great. And then the young Nazi,
(15:49):
the literal Nazi's perfect. You know. Central casting kind of
has that like look you know, yeah, I think And
I haven't found this online anywhere. I'd love to talk
to Ryan Johnson about it and anything. Um, but I
think they cast him because he looks to me, just
like that poster boyl right, the Richard Spencer from Virginia.
(16:10):
I remember that shot of the guy yelling with the torch. Yeah,
just like this guy. And I think it was a
little sneaky bit of casting to kind of throtead on
that would be my guess. Well, you know, even even
having that as like a presence in the movie felt
in a way. I think, I mean a lot of
people speculated this. This is in a way Ryan Johnson
(16:32):
kind of responding to some of the internet backlash against
episode eight. The people that were kind of like, why
are there's so many women in this movie? And you know,
why is it kind of whatever? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, And
just you know that that that's sort of like aggressive
online fanboy culture that that often can kind of bleed
(16:53):
over crossover with the kind of the alright stuff. Um yeah,
it was just it was it was I thought that
was very interesting how he brought the movie. He brought
something that feels like a very old genre, something that
that we think of more associated with kind of the past,
that sort of like parlor game and you know, old
money and all this kind of stuff. Um, feels like
(17:14):
something slightly before our time. But the way they brought
kind of contemporary politics and the Internet and all that
into it is just like a really cool like spin
on the genre. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean Don Johnson his
whole character the Nazi and then Meg being that like
the super performative. Yeah exactly. Yeah, the way the way
(17:35):
they captured that that dynamic of just like when a
family gets together and and the cover you know, in Evil,
it leads to politics and then the arguments start, and
it just it It did that so well without ever
feeling like over the top or preachy or anything like that.
It just felt like a very very um realistic depiction
of of how that stuff goes down. Yeah, there's one
(17:56):
moment we we're talking about last night, where is it
Michael Shannon's character who is in the middle of being
like he's going like no, like you're you're an immigrant,
Like you would agree with me, right, and then just
off handedly hands the woman a place in the middle
keeper not a housekeeper yeeah, Like they view her as
(18:17):
a housekeeper because he's part of the family. Yeah, until
like the tables turn right. Yeah, immediately they're like, okay,
you give that back to us, We'll take care of you, right,
Oh man, there's so much of that, like great stuff
in the end once the will. I mean this this
movie is a bit of a revelation in how it's
(18:37):
plotted out, because you have this great seeming murder mystery
that gets solved halfway through, and that was a big
Like I thought the whole movie was going to lead
up to who killed Thromby and then all of a
sudden you find out that he kills himself. I'm like, well,
where's he gonna go from here? And that was the
genius of it. I think is in a total spin
(18:59):
on this genre. We were we're talking afterwards. I had
this whole kind of I thought I saw the twist
coming in it. The twist was different than what I
had imagined. But there's a line when uh, when Christopher
Plumber uh is about to die and he puts the
kind of puts the knife into the table and he
has a line about you know, a stage nine versus
(19:21):
a real knife. And I kind of assumed maybe somebody
did a switchery that he was supposed to have a
fake knife, but they switched it for a real one
and that's why I cut his throat or something. Um,
But that did ultimately pay off at the end the
fake knife. But it was different than I had imagined
because I assumed Christopher Plumber was the one paying for
the investigation and that he had like faked his death
(19:41):
or so okay, yeah, that was my assumption as well.
Do you have a theory? Do you formulate theories during
I do generally. I'm trying to remember if I really did.
I think I was sort of along for the ride
so much. I did not on this one. Um, my
brain might have been poking around a little bit, but uh,
it was a dense movie as far as the twist
and turns go, so I had to be like on point,
(20:02):
I can get lost in the film. Yeah, my mind wanders,
But boy, want to pay off with that fake knife?
That sound effect? Yes, that that ring of ring of knives. Yeah,
and he even does it a second time kind of
moving it. Oh gosh. But yeah, no, I mean some
of the some of the props and visuals in this
film were such amazing at the top, like just it
(20:25):
was just so beautiful and it was so amazing. Yeah,
my god, it'll get a nomination for production to exactly.
That was one of the ones I was thinking of. Yeah,
where's that knife wheel? I know someone's got that, Like,
if that's not and Ryan Johnson's if that's not his
headboard yet, Yeah, he's doing it wrong. I love go ahead, Sorry, well,
(20:47):
I love how you know at the end when the
when the big reveals are happening, Daniel Craig is sitting
in the chair and composition he's had his dead center
pointing at him. Yeah. I really enjoyed how they played
with that. That's what I was going to say, because
he keeps talking about the doughnut. Yeah, and was the
because him being hired was like the thing, so I
(21:08):
thought it was really visually, I forgot about the don
he keeps going on and so fun. Oh my god,
I bet this is I don't know if you guys
have ever written like screenplay stuff before, but one of
the best when you know you're really cruising is when
you're laughing and writing at the same time and like
(21:31):
having a good time. And I imagine that Eive's Out
was like a lot of fun to like put fingers
on keyboards. I believe that the screenplay has been kind
of in the works for a long time, um, like
six or seven years, I think, so it's it's one
of those things that I mean, it does feel like
it's been polished and polished and polished, not in a
way that flattens it out or makes it kind of
(21:52):
you know, average, but in just a way that sharpened
it every time they didn't know the pen punched it up. Yeah,
it's a hard thing to write, Like I have brainstormed
Scotty and I both because he loves this genre and
we used to write together and we've always wanted to write.
Uh you know, one of us did it movie. And
it's really hard, um, because you have to it's got
(22:15):
to be genuinely clever, and it's got to have really
great twist and turns, and you can't have people figuring
it out too early. Uh so my hat is off,
Like what a what I mean he'll get a screenplay
nod for sure. I think so well deserved. I think absolutely.
I write one of be so bad. It's so hard.
I read somewhere somebody was a review somewhere said if
(22:38):
it had moved three percent slower, people would have figured
it out fast. Important part of it he didn't allow
anyone to catch up. Yeah, And I was telling after
we saw last night, I was saying I love how
pretty much. Immediately it establishes everybody has yeah right, yeah,
(22:58):
that's right. Yeah, like, oh it's him, Oh wait, maybe
it's her. Every every new interview that pops up, you're like, no, no,
that's the one. No, no, no, this is the guy.
Like you know, because they all start off in the interviews,
you know, everyone's great, right, and everyone loves each other
so much, and then those cracks start showing. Quickly starts out.
There's there's a great cut where one person is saying like, well,
(23:19):
I'm not going to start slamming my family in here,
and then it cuts directly to some the next guy
just talking Yeah, Don Johnsons, I won't talk any family business.
You're smarting me by asking me this question. I'm not
going to get smarted by you. Then we'll don't do ship.
And then Daniel is like, you know, he's just playing
(23:41):
them so great. I think I kept waiting for him
to not be this brilliant detective. Right yeah, but I
saw I was like, is he just a bad detect or?
Is he really really good? Because I was first you
couldn't figure well, I guess I couldn't figure it out
(24:02):
because I was like Marta is just barely one step
ahead of you, how you're seeing Yeah yeah, and to
turn it into a movie about someone who a really
sweet relationship. Like the whole time I was like, oh, please,
don't be creepy Christopher Plumber, like when they're when he
called her to his room, I don't go there, and
(24:23):
they didn't. It was a great, really sweet relationship. And
she deserved all that fucking money. Yeah, yeah, she was
only good one in the movie. Yes, you know, yeah,
I guess him. Yeah, well I guess the Meg wasn't terrible.
Yeah yeah, fran Yeah, fran Yeah, I mean she stole.
(24:45):
She was double different, she had stash. Yeah, she's double
edition on those dipping on those tuition fran Is the
friend the housekeeper Patterson. Yeah yeah, boy, they killed her good. Yeah,
I love that was so good. I love wordplay. And
(25:05):
I was like, oh, yes, you did it. I still
didn't quite get that. What was to deal with Hugh
was that his that's his name, and he made people
who worked on the staff call him Hugh. So but
his name was Ransom. Yeah, but he went by Hugh
to the staff. They mentioned that at one point, they're like,
he makes the help call him you because he's an
asshole or something. And I missed that line very key. Yeah,
(25:29):
with the whole he things like, I don't get the hue.
What are they coming him? Yeah, well that makes this
a very ingenious device, Hugh, you confusion there. It's really good. Great,
it's well, when you're writing a movie like this, it's
got to be fun because there's almost nothing you can't do, Like,
you can't be too silly, or maybe you could, but
I felt like this get a lot of creative license
(25:49):
to have fun, to do fun word play and stilly
stuff like that. That was my concern going into it
was that it was going to tip over too far
into silliness, that I was just going to kind of be,
you know, a little too whimsical. I don't really do
well with like excessive whimsy in movies. I like some
I like it to be somewhat anchored, you know, with
with a few exceptions. But like and he was saying earlier,
(26:10):
like the performances felt like they were of the way
until like over the top, but never quite got there,
so they stayed grounded in a real character reality, Like
you felt like everybody was behaving the way they would
behave you know, there was it never quite got into that,
like just Zaney completely over the top feeling there was
total screwball. Yeah. Um yeah. So if that's not your thing,
(26:33):
you may not like it. I'm still going to check
it out. But yeah, I'm just reading a thing here
because I pulled up the cast so I got everyone
in there, and it said there's a bunch of articles
today about Chris evans sweater. So the internet is going
crazy about his cozy sweater comfy because Chris Evans is
stuffed in it, right, that probably something to do with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(26:55):
it's like hello, perfect human, but on this big and
they're like eating chili in a log cabin restaurant. I
know that was interesting. I was killing what is she eating?
Is that freaking chili? Well? I love that. That's another
great device of like she can't lie or she vomits thing,
and like all the all the ways that they find
(27:17):
to use that over and over and in a way
that's very interesting because you would think in a way
it would that would just in the movie immediately if
you had somebody that you could ask and definitively know
if they're lying or not. Lying, but they find a
way to kind of keep bringing that back and use
it in all these different ways, and her getting out
of it in clever ways, and uh yeah, I forgot
about that. That was one of the best parts of
(27:37):
the movie. Just genius. And then especially the twist at
the end where you know, she she makes them believe
that she's, you know, gonna be okay, then she throws
up in the guy's face and then it's revealed that actually,
number one, I just peeked in your face, and number two,
you just confessed to murder, and that beautiful, perfect human
that it's Chris Evans with just like it was so
(28:00):
over the top with whatever they put in there. Yeah,
it's like corn. Yeah yeah. And I was also kind
of like, is this the second movie? Because I saw
The Lighthouse too, and I'm like, how many movies am
I going to watch this year? Right? Vomitous dripping, I'll
(28:21):
bring it back? Yeah that was I thought that was
really smart to do that, because essentially you've got a
character that has been injected with truth serum. Yeah yeah,
except it's way funnier, right and then and as soon
as uh fog Horn Leghorn, here's this like you saw him.
He was like, I can work with this. Yeah, it's
so good. And the game a little buddy, like you're
(28:41):
gonna walk the house with me? I love that. I
love that sequence where they're they're kind of walking through
the steps of the house and the yard around it
and everything. There's the part with the mud, the footprints
of mud. Yeah, and she kind of plays dumb and
like walks through the mud like what, sorry, what are
you saying that? Yeah? I mean like didn't hear sorry?
(29:01):
Like the dog bringing the piece of wood from again. Yeah,
I just I really enjoyed the way that she's she's
so close to the to the case, to the investigator,
and she's kind of the one that they least suspect,
but she's also able to kind of, you know, manipulate
things and and and kind of stay one step ahead
of them figuring it all out. Yeah, and erasing the
(29:22):
tape while yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the car
chase where they just assume that has been the singer
make you drive? What do you said? That was the
dumbest car chase, but they just like catch up easily.
(29:46):
Oh man, I mean there's so many great moments in
this movie. It just brings like such joy I cannot
wait to see it again. Uh what else, guys? I
love that whole bit where she's she's leaving the night
of and in in v oh, it's Christopher Plumber saying
turned before the line, turned after the line, and he's like,
turn after before he gets kind of jumbled up even
(30:09):
as he says that, he says it kind of jumpled up. Way.
I thought that was really really funny. And then of
course when she sees what angle the security cameras using,
she realizes, oh, no, I was supposed to turn after um.
And that's when we all see that as an audience member. First, Yeah,
like we see like the it's probably it's the same
angle if you put them side by side, Like what
(30:29):
the what the film cameras capturing as she actually flees,
and then when it goes back to the security camera,
it's kind of the same perspective and everything, which is cool. Yeah. Absolutely,
Um the Slayer rule too, Yeah, it was something that
I had never heard of before. I thought that was
really interesting commentary on how they were, you know, telling
(30:51):
Marta or Don Johnson was you know, you did it legally,
you came to legally and a lot, and when it
works for them, they're all for it. And so when
oh my gosh, we're gonna lose our money, we're gonna
lose our house, and they're immediately are like, what are
these ways we can manipulate even if we have to?
Because I'm sure none of them, except for Chris Evans,
(31:11):
thought it was Marta there, like, how can we prove
it was her? Right? And they all kind of take
their or not all of them, but they take turns
after it's revealed that she's getting the money. You know,
first Meg has that call, Yeah, and you know, I
mean it's sort of a reveal, but you know they're
all fucking standing there, right, yeah, and then um again
we already talked about it. But when Michael Shannon pays her,
(31:33):
the threatened the hallway, Yeah, because they all have this
implicit assumption that surely you don't think you deserve this money,
so you have to understand, because you're a reasonable person,
then you you should give it. You should give it
back to us, and then we'll take care of you.
Just the paternalism of that, the condescension, and and the
(31:56):
way that they just all naturally assume that they are
the rightful owners basically in like almost like a white
supremacist kind of way, like they assumed that they are
the top of the chain back like you're just the help. Yeah,
so obviously, yeah, let's take care of this. And it's
clearly not have found mind right, right, Yeah, it's it's
(32:16):
it's just it's very interesting, and even even the ones
that professed to be these kind of liberal do good
or woke types, like when it comes down to its
sort of in the get out since like there there's
there's still that kind of implicit intrinsically Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's really interesting. Do you think that they would have
taken care of her because I felt like they were
(32:38):
earnest in that. Yeah, I think they would have taken
care of her. I don't know how well would have
been like per se, I think you know, they probably
would have just and there may have been an expiration
date on that exactly or something right or something which
isn't going to get you that far in reality. Yeah,
like we got you these earrings. I mean, they constantly
(33:00):
are holding the threat of her mother a yeah, long
as that's there, then I feel like even if they
took care of her, they have this thing on her,
the leverage where they can say like, here's what you're
gonna get and be happy with that and don't ask
for more because we might make a phone call. Right.
That was such a great moment though, and she was like, well,
that's right, I can't afford those. Yeah, she turns it
(33:23):
on them because it's yeah, the advice basically. Yeah, that
was so like just empowering. Yea, just a badass moment.
There's that great you know, the kind of the final
shot or close to it anyway, where she's the final
shots downstairs, you know, it kind of makes it all
very visually explicit. Yeah, I mean, let's talk about the
final shot. One of the best final shots I've ever
(33:44):
seen is that zoom in on that coffee cup. Yes,
I love how that pays off like one of the
first details you see in the movie, and and he
brings it back right at the end. It's very satisfying
because you think, Wow, this whole thing was so thoughtfully instructed,
and everything is there for a reason, you know, all
the all the puzzle pieces fit together in some way. Yeah,
(34:05):
it's really really cool allow of that tight camera work
and a lot of those really great little sight gags
are are so beautiful. What's the when there's a reaction
shot on the dog in the middle of one of
the serious moments, like like they're they're all sitting there
family and I think it's like during the will reading
or something like that, and like the first person that
they cut too, and it's like it all goes to
Martha is the dog? Dog is like yeah? And that well,
(34:31):
the composition of when they were all perfectly staged. It's
like a portrait of the rich family. Yes, I mean,
just so much fun. Ryan Johnson had to have. You know,
he's married to uh Green along Worth, Queen Alongworth, who
does the you Must Remember This podcast And I guarantee
this is a movie where he just ran into the
room every fifteen minutes and get this. Now they're going
(34:51):
to do this. This is going to play out the
earlier thing right right. It's like such an exciting genre
to write because you you have to play detective yourself
and you've got to figure this stuff all out, um
as if you were investigating a case. Yeah, and do
it in a really smart way. It's so hard. Any
I can't you can, well, especially not after this you
(35:15):
destroyed it and just just just knowing being able to
put yourself in the place of the audience member viewing
it and think, if I were watching this, could I
figure it out? Have I made it too obvious? Or conversely,
have I made it too obscure and like too difficult
where it's not fun for anybody trustworthy to like say,
now you're telegraphing too much, or you have to be
(35:36):
you have to be kind of you have to you
have to earn the viewers trust that you're not just gonna, like,
you know, pull like a datosex Macina kind of thing,
like it's all gonna do that, it's all gonna pay
off in some way that's satisfying that it kind of
feels like, oh, you you got there honestly, you know,
not by just like you know, fudging the facts or
or moving something around conveniently so that it works out,
(35:58):
But then it feels like it all belongs. I saw
the first time I saw this, I saw it with
my mom, and I really wish it had been a
theater where they do the reaction, you know, they had
just been to my mom because she was every minute
or so at the end, and she was like leaning
forward and then it ends and she sees the first
(36:19):
name comes up. She's like, that was Daniel Craig, the
guys she watched for two Yes, that's one of my
favorite scenes is when Marta is trying to get to France.
She Fran but for the black mouth thing, and then
there's this moment of like, is she gonna let Fran die? Uh?
(36:42):
And you're just like, I can't, please, don't do that,
and then she saves her and then it cuts to
Daniel Craig like singing remember and comes up behind him
so good, and then the payoff. There's so many great
(37:02):
payoffs to pay off with the Invisible Ink Out, of course,
because you wanted to see Don Johnson go down in
particular because you know he's a dog, yes, and he's
being disloyal to you know, a beloved person for everyone
in the world. Um. But yeah, what I wanted to
say a second ago is why I will never write
one of these again, and why I don't think anyone
(37:23):
should it is because you never want to hear well
it was no Knives Out and that's like, this is
set such a high bar for this like well established
genre so many years in it's really quite an accomplishment. Yeah,
it's just it's so reflexive and so self aware and
and able to make all of these references without making
it feel trite. Yeah, it wasn't Scream, although it no Vince,
(37:48):
I love Scream, but it hasn't had that same degree
of like meta awareness. There's a little bit of it there,
but it doesn't go fully into like that was a
big part of Scream. It should have been, but this
just had sort of little homages. Yeah. And I was
reading before we came in here. I hadn't even considered this,
but they were saying, you know, when you played Clue,
the help is sort of not part of it. They're
(38:10):
just kind of side characters and they don't play a
big role. But in this it was kind of like
right away when Marta pulls in and the detectives call
her like the help. Yeah, yeah, just to see that
those elements of the genre get played better. Yeah, and
that really, I mean, I think that's a part of
He kind of turned the whole genre on its head
in a lot of ways. And you get that great
(38:31):
moment early on, which is not much but a little
quick scene with her and her sister and her mom
when her sister is watching the show and her mom
like shuts it down. You cut off the finger frinds
and so funny and then you know the sister was
(38:53):
another little kind of sharp nod was when she was like, oh,
I already figured it out anyway, I'm not too upset.
And there's there's also like a side where the reason
she's watching it in the kitchen where the other two
don't want to hear it. She's like, yeah, the WiFi
is bad out there, I have to watch any Here's
a little nod towards like, you know, streaming and laptops
and just the way people consume content. Now, that was
just like a little fun again contemporary detail that he
(39:14):
brought in. Yeah, I mean it felt very uh to
take an old genre like this and blow the dust
off of it in the way that he did. It
was just genius. I mean, it's gotta gotta get a
Screenplay and Production Design award or nomination. At least he
may get a director nomination because Hollywood loves this kind
of thing. I think I was gonna say cinematography too.
(39:36):
It's a really beautifully shot movie. I think who shot it?
Steve Yellen, who's the DP on I believe all of
Ryan Johnson's features. Steve Yellen has a very interesting website
for anybody listening who's like a cinematography nerd um, I
would recommend checking out his website. He has these really
interesting comparisons between film and digital and his own kind
(39:57):
of proprietary method he's developed to transform digital image into
a more filming image that emulates a lot of the
kind of quote unquote faults of film and just brings
those back into the digital image the way like light
wraps around a subject, the way kind of uh, there's
like a halo effect that can happen there when it's
like a really bright source behind a backlit subject, and
(40:20):
so on, like the little things that if you're if
you're sensitive to that stuff you notice are kind of
missing from digital. Sometimes he's been able to effectively bring
a lot of that back in. I wish he would
make it like a commercial product or something, but he's
kind of kept the secret sauce to himself for the
moment anyway, But he puts up all these tests where
you can see film and digital side by side, and
(40:40):
he doesn't tell you which is which until afterwards, and
it's really really really hard to pick the differences. Yeah,
he's kind of made this argument that people tend to
like essentialize about what is the film image versus what
is the digital image, And he's kind of saying, hey,
digital is this new thing. We haven't really mastered it yet,
and a lot of the things that we think are
(41:01):
like um, inherent to film can also be in digital.
So we need to think more creatively about what can
be done with the digital image. He's a really cool,
cool guy. So you think maybe cinematography, I just I mean,
I thought it looked, it looked great, and uh, it
looked it looked it just had like a more classical
kind of feeling to it. Um, it reminded me maybe
(41:21):
of like Phantom Thread or something, just that kind of
like really solid, like yes, cinematic film image. Um, the
kind of the color palette is very like restrained in
a way, muted but also very vibrant at the same time.
Just so hard to do, especially on digital, which just
kind of tends to make the colors a little more
(41:42):
i don't know, saturated and like cartoonish. So yeah, I
really really, you know, it's it's not like a flashy
movie in that way, but it's just it supports the
tone of the whole thing really really well. So I
liked design wasn't flash either. I mean that house felt
like a Oh. I thought that was one of great
lines to where they they were talking. I can't remember
(42:02):
what he called it about their family lineage and their
estate or whatever. This house are birth riders. That's like,
that's such a great commentary too, because it's kind of
like they get their backs up and they're and they're
kind of like, you know, this has been in our
house for our family for generations, you know, and it's like, no, man,
(42:24):
it's not like it's you're you're completely like inventing this
idealized like past it didn't really happen, you know. Yeah.
I'm also a big fan of um the convention that
they use here where they replay scene multiple times, like
you know what was it was the one where Chris
Evans was arguing in the other room and you know,
different perspectives and what's the reality thing? Yeah, exactly. I
(42:48):
love how they're you know, you're thinking, Okay, here's one argument.
Oh no, there's another argument, and there's another argument, Like
there all these things that happened at this party it
just keeps building. What else happened here? Yeah? And also
like the fragments of the argument that they hear and
that they talk about and that have multiple interpretations or
explanations where they're trying to get those dots could mean whatever,
(43:10):
and it's again coming up with what that line is
going to be. That it can work for like three
or four different purposes. You know, you can lead you
in these different directions. Really really well done. Boy, I
need to get Ryan Johnson in here. Yeah, that would
be That would be something else you had to ask
him for tips, tips for your stream, like yeah to
(43:31):
the classic, Hey, I've got a little face treatment. Close
your laptop because I just perfected it. So why follow
in my footsteps? I don't know about. I mean, there's
so much great acting. It may be hard to get
nominations because it was such an ensemble things. And this
is when I wish there was either a Betther ensemble
(43:54):
or like when is casting going to finally be recognized?
Certainly in our academy. I mean a lot of amakers
will say, like casting is of what makes any movie work.
Like if you've cast the right people, then your job
as director is you know, well, well along the way,
and no amount of great directing can outdo bad casting. Yeah,
I would love to know about the I can't wait
(44:15):
for the DVD extras on this one, uh when it
eventually comes out in February. Yeah, because I'd love to
know about I mean, hopefully they talk a little bit
about the casting process. Um. I'm looking up now to
see if I can, because I always talk about acknowledging
casting and I never shout out casting directors. So talk
(44:36):
amongst yourselves that I'm going to do that. Yeah. Does
Brian do good commentary? Have you listened to commentary on
last I have not listened to Come I actually had.
Does anyone listen to the commentary on the Matrix? Maybe? Maybe,
like when it first came out on DVD, I might
have been a long time. Whoever was on a commentary
there's a special effects guy and someone else. They got
(44:57):
a fight in the middle of it. I've been a
little commentary commentary are very like and then they're finally like,
that's a cool effect. Yeah, it's really rueful. You like
weren't even in the room and you're traumatized. Yeah, yeah,
I love it. I love it when there's conflict on
(45:17):
a commentary track, and there's like unspoken tension in the
room and so on to talk about. There's also there's
a really funny one on that movie The Rules of
Attraction to Roger Avery movie Breddy Snelli's adaptation. Not a
very good movie. Oh I like that movie, yeah, but
but uh there, you know Braddy Snell's was supposed to
(45:38):
do a commentary for it. He was in like a
heavy kind of drug period when this was happening, and
so he like slept through when he was supposed to
get to the recording studio, got a phone call from
his agent, like hustled over there. It was just like
completely useless, could barely say two words, and you know,
did this whole track and got to the end of
it and they're like that's not usable, and so he's like, well,
I don't know, you know, do what you want to do.
(46:00):
And so they didn't use that. Instead, they got Carrot
Top to come in having having not even seen the
movie before, and and do the comment to ultimate and
there's just a great moment where somebody's making a phone
call and Carrot Top goes dial down the middle and
I just loved that he did to call back to whatever.
You know. You remember this like eight call collect things
(46:22):
that were around in the nineties' dialing pattern, Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
It was like a you can call collect with this
number and you dial like all the numbers are in
the middle casey. I never expected you to give us
a carrot top deep and then it's out. It's a
really fun commentary track though, Um yeah, I would recommend
it because it's just literally a guy reacting to a
(46:44):
movie he doesn't know anything about jokes. Yeah, so I
have some reading to do because I went to look
at the casting director and you know, our icles will
pop up. One of them is the one Knives Out
actor Jamie Lee Curtis never thought she'd be able to
(47:05):
work with. I don't know who that is yet. And
then one from Vogue on the perfect casting of Knives Out.
So that's gonna be a good read. But it was
Mary Verno v R and I EU and casting director
is a job most always uh done by a woman,
(47:26):
which I think is very interesting. I don't think I've
ever in all my years working on commercials and little
movies and stuff in music videos I did. I shot
a lot of casting sessions. Was always a woman, and
I think there's something to be said there for uh,
an intuition and a the gut feeling of a woman
and maybe listen, I don't want to knock dudes, I do,
(47:51):
but but a woman coming into a room with maybe
fewer hang ups in a more open heart. Not to stereotype,
but does a job women do well, yeah, yeah, give
me or even an award? I think. Well, I mean,
if you think about the history of the industry, like
the the division of labor, let's say, like the each
(48:11):
department in each role has historically been like pretty heavily gendered.
You know, the directors tended to skew mail early on
editors like skewed more female because it was viewed as
almost like a more of a Craftlet's well, it was.
It was basically it was not seen as an art,
you know. It was seen as just like you cut
the pictures and yeah, yeah, you put the scenes in
(48:33):
order and so on, and that's why, yeah, yeah, why
the way that programmers were originally women, right, they were like,
this is just busy work, and so it's just interesting.
I'm sure there's some similar explanation maybe for why casting
directors tend to skew in that direction too. H all right,
we'll explore that. We'll pick that apart later. Anything else
(48:56):
on NICs out, guys, it's great, we gotta get are
you're new to the rating system. We give a total
number of thumbs between one and five no thumbs upper down. Um.
I will go ahead and start out and give knives
out five big, big thumbs, not normal sized thumbs, like
like over extracized, like like, what's the what's the movie
(49:20):
about the Uma Thurman the Hitchhiker? You know that movie,
the classic book. All of us are just drawing a
complete blank. Ramsey would totally no, it was the it
was Tom Robbins book Cow Girls Get the Blues. Actually
never seen that Tom Robbins. Yea the writer. She's a
(49:43):
hitchhiker who was born with an abnormally large thumb. That's
sort of one of the jokes of the movie. She's
just naturally gifted at hitchhiking. So five, five of those thumbs,
five of annie, how many thumbs? Five thumbs also thumbs.
And we should mention this is you're not comparing it
to other films. You know these are independent. You can't say,
how can I give it five thumbs when it's not
(50:04):
ratcham on. I was thinking exactly that thing. Yeah, No,
it's it's it's on its own merits. How many thumbs
I'm I'm with five? Your five, Lauren? Five? All right, Casey,
come on with your three and a half. No, no, no,
I I four is what I gave it on on
letterbox too, out of five. But I could you know
in terms of like on its own terms, Yeah, it's
(50:26):
closer to a five. It's to all the wonderful films
you've ever seen in your life. I mean it's it's
it's that kind of thing, like it didn't reinvent cinema.
So I can't give it the five out of five.
But you know, if you're if you're just taking it on,
did it succeed on its own terms? Yeah, you're knocked
it out of the park. So okay, all right, guys,
Casey can't even be cynical about this. No. I had
a great time. Like I said, I going in, I
(50:48):
was like, I don't know if I'm going to be
into this or not. And I was completely um like
taken by surprise and really really enjoyed it great. Yeah,
and I had seen it already and we were going
to do a double feature, and I was like, you
know what, I'll go to knives Out a kid. I
want your life so great, laughing with your mom double feature. Uh,
(51:12):
I don't ever have kids anyone. So that's it for
Knives Out. Big thumbs all the way around. We almost
had a perfect score if not for Casey's slightening, which
is fine out of five thumbs. Is great and I
highly recommend everyone sees this movie with friends in a theater.
It's the best way to do it. Yeah, this is
what I'm gonna be purchasing, I think. Yeah. Although, if
(51:33):
you've gotten to this part and you haven't seen it yet,
apology a second time. Take some friends with you. Ye.
Absolutely all right, Thanks for being here, you guys. Thank
you for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the
(52:00):
I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Movie Crush, a production of I Heart Radio. Okay,
(00:29):
hey everyone, welcome to Movie Crush. Uh. This is the
Knives Out Round Table. Addition to my left is Annie.
Hello to my Heddi's Casey and a cross from me
is a brand new human and my brand new I've
been here for a couple of years. How long have
you worked? You more than a couple of years? I
was about everyone. That is Lauren Fogelbaum. Uh, you're German, right,
(00:54):
half of my family is Germanic Ish. That's German focal
Bellman a German name. It means bird tree. Really yeah,
look at you, hey, little bird tree. I know. So
Lauren is making her first Movie Crush appearance here, but
she is well known for the Saber podcast where she
and Annie we've talked about this get to travel the
(01:15):
world and eat and drink and talk about it, which
is pretty amazing. It's a pretty good gig. I've got
to say, Yeah, that was a that was a nice
little switcheroo when they rebranded that thing and gave you
a budget. Yeah, I would say nice at your SWITCHERU
is a good covering of it, because what those food
stuff before it was? Yeah, and We certainly didn't get
(01:35):
flown to Hawaii to eat stuff there um under jelly.
It's we kind of found out that no one technically
approved that trip, so well, that's the way I'm doing
We asked, it's not like we were doing it on
the d l or executive producer said it was fine, yeah,
(01:56):
and that you know, Connell's great. You can kind of
just go to him and catch him as he's speeding
through the hallway to hey, I got the school opportunity Hawaii,
and he like, sounds great, go for it, all right.
I don't think he knows what he just approved. He
approved it. It's good having a very busy boss. It is.
So we are here to talk about Knives Out. We're
going to do a few of these roundtables for what
(02:18):
I'm calling likely Oscar contenders leading up to the Oscar Awards,
and I think Knives Out is going to get a
lot of nominations for sure, and we'll talk about what categories. Absolutely,
But if you haven't seen it yet, don't listen because
we're gonna be spoiling it. Uh. This is the new
movie from Ryan Johnson of Brick Fame and Star Wars Fame,
(02:39):
which one. Did he do the last Jedi? Don't you say?
Okay Syren at that point? Get right off the back?
Actually I think it was strikes back. He was eleven. Uh.
And you know, Ryan Johnson has a similar feeling on
(02:59):
the kind of genre as me, which is, I love
it and there aren't nearly enough movies in the one
of us is the killer and one of us isn't
in this room has done it. Genre parlor dramas, Yeah,
I love it. Yeah, good type murder drama. Yeah. And
maybe there shouldn't be a ton of these because you
probably couldn't handle like three or four of these a year.
(03:21):
But it's just a genre I adore, and I this
is a movie that I was looking forward to, perhaps
more than any other this year, because I love that
kind of movie so much, and I knew that the
buzz about it was so great, and I think Ryan
Johnson is just such a sharp writer, and I knew
it was going to have the goods and it did
absolutely right. And didn't like this, No, I honestly did
(03:44):
not know going in how I was going to feel
about it, and I was very very pleasantly surprised. I
liked a lot. Yeah, alright, Well, we'll save the official
thumbs review for the end, but uh, let's talk about
the cast first. I think I know, right, Yeah, definitely
who basically the only thing uh Anna Armist steals the
(04:05):
show in a lot of ways in a cast full
of like super stud actors, these crazy heavy hitters who
have been around for decades at the top of their game.
And yeah, and her is just like little engine kind
of character. Just really I had never heard of her anyone,
I think, I mean just her IMDb is not that long.
I believe this is probably the biggest Uh she was
(04:31):
in Blade Runner, That's where I've seen her face. Yeah,
because I knew i'd recognized her at least I like
war dogs, um a bunch of stuff in Spanish. Okay,
well that makes sense, Yeah, sure, but boy is she
good in this movie. Yeah, she's fantastic and like you said,
against the heavy hitters that she's surrounded by and just
handled it like a champ. Yeah, she in a lot
(04:55):
of ways, she's the heart of the movie. And she's
just so believable in that like you feel for her.
I love how it switches from like I need to
know who did it? Oh, I know who did it,
and I don't want anyone else. It's such it was
such a unique take on that. I don't think it
would have worked as well if she hadn't done such
a great job at being so kind and believable it's
(05:15):
being so kind. Yeah, uh, and a lot of that
has played for comedy through the film. It's so funny.
I mean some of the like Don Johnson has comic
love Don Johnson, who knew, Yeah, he's so fucking funny.
He really is, as you know, the sort of sort
of hard, very much right wing blow hard. And then
(05:38):
you know, there's so many great little jokes like he's
the guy who still makes the Hamilton's reference kind of wink,
and then the ongoing joke about no one knows what
country she's from. It's like very kind of old school
Hollywood comedy writing, right, Yeah, a little a little bit screwball, Yeah,
quite tips over into full screwball, but it has very
much that vibe. Yeah, I think it walked that line,
(05:59):
like just right, yeah, because a little screwballd A movie
like this is perfect. Like I don't know if you
guys are clue fans, oh jeez, best you probably haven't
seen it. It's great. I mean, you know, it's it's
sort of one of the leading films in this genre
for sure. Yeah, and they made a couple of really
good references to it. I mean they say it, like
right at the top of the movie, they're like, I
(06:20):
mean we were in this clue house. Yeah, like the
murder she wrote is on TV at one point. There's
like a few little nods you know, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, Um,
And I guess when you're Ryan Johnson you can assemble
a cast like this. Um. Who knew Daniel Craig was
so funny. Yeah, I mean he steals the movie Less
Beyond and that accent, like I so so the three
(06:41):
of us actually when saw this film last night? Oh
together together? Or did you just sit on separate roads?
Look at me? Yeah? My bodyguards? Really that was fun.
Did you have a good time? Yeah? I think I did. Yeah,
I learned bought a bunch of popcorns kid, Oh no, no,
(07:04):
totally illegal popcorn aboard, although my purse I do buy
very large purpose purpose of yeah, my mom, Yeah that's me.
We stuck to that popcorn and when I was a kid.
But they were school teachers, so we couldn't afford popcorn.
But but yeah, his his accent, I was saying, was
just like revolution. I was like, how did you get
(07:25):
a good Southern accent out of a British actor I've
never heard of, Yeah, or at least a fun Southern
ax that fa Yeah, it was. They let him go
for the full you know. Yeah. I feel like a
lot of characters were on the verge of being characatures, yeah,
which I actually really enjoyed because they were almost over
the top but not quite, which is sort of the
(07:47):
point they like the Clue characters. Yeah, and it was
really fun to see because actor like Daniel Craig. We
were saying, we usually see him as James Bond during
these brooding roles and to see him have what I'm
assuming is that of his life but this othern accent
was such a joy. Yeah. I've read interviews with him
where he snuck this in before the Bond movie, had
(08:08):
a little window and very much had a good time,
and like was good for his soul, I think, to
get in there because he's kind of I think everyone
knows he's tired to Bond at this well, and yeah,
I had that feeling of like, man, let this guy
out like let him do some movies, you know, like yeah, yeah,
don't just do the the kind of like restrained Bond
character Daniel Craig t shirt. Yeah, I think that. I
(08:28):
think this next one's gonna be the last. That's when
I hear the trailer just dropped right before we sat down,
by the way, so I'm just like, all right, I'm
not going to watch it while we're doing this. Yeah.
That opening bit though, when he's they're conducting all the interviews,
which is one a great efficient way to sort of
level set everything, but when he just will tap on
the piano key everything, it's never really explained and so funny.
(08:50):
It's Yeah, I loved I love that you see him
kind of out of focus over their shoulders for the
longest time before before you ever get like a close
proper introduction where someone's like, hold on, who is that guy? Yeah? Yeah,
and the other characters call him out like it's like,
I'm sorry, who's that? Like. Keith Stanfield is great in
(09:12):
that role. Yeah, and it was cool seeing him in
a part like this. Absolutely, uh, let me see who
else here? Chris Evans giving a full throated fuck you
to Captain America. Yeah, talk about shaking off of persona. Yeah,
we were wondering if this casting was intentional because he
is known as Cap and Cap is this totally fulsive,
amazing character and uh and also is part of the
(09:34):
like the like meta commentary of the film too. I
think so. Yeah, absolutely, which was a tiny bit heavy handed,
but I still enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean he cast
a lot sort of against type. Um. I had never
seen Tony Colette play like I mean, she's just one
of my favorites and playing this vapid sort of yea,
like mommy bloggers negative, right, I forgot about the player.
(10:00):
Oh how did you bring well? I saw it a
couple of weeks ago. I almost went and saw it
again just to prep for this. Uh. Michael Shannon as
Walt always Rombie, always great. We were saying afterwards that,
you know, Michael Shannon gives more of a restrained performance
than than he has in a long time. He never
has that moment where he really blows up. He's still
fully menacing, you know, but it's it's much more like
(10:23):
restrained because he has that Kane, and you know, the
Cane is kind of the main motivator, Like not scene
where he's kind of cornering her in the man Yeah. Great. Yeah.
When they were doing the close ups and Cane yea
in the foot Jamie Lee Curtis got to give her
amazing just amazing, I mean screen legend up there. We
(10:43):
already talked about Don Johnson and then like throwing Christopher
Plummer because why not? Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, we didn't
realize he reads the will. Oh my god, I totally
didn't recognize him. I didn't into the credits, and then
I was like, that was Frank's interesting because he he
(11:04):
had one of the funniest lines when he was reading
the will YadA YadA yadas, like the YadA yadaa will
read M Wall shows up. I was I love to
see you, I say, the exact same thing. Felt terrible
because afterwards, Uh, I asked Lauren's like, have you seen blood? Simple? Yeah,
It's like, you know that's the guy that's like the
(11:24):
private investigator. Um yeah, I mean legendary character actor. Amazing. Yeah,
and it's so cool that Ryan Johnson was just I
mean he's able to do that. Yeah, Like I love
MMT Wall, So I'm going to put him in my movie. Yeah,
why not? For like two and a half seconds, He's
just right there, just passing by. Wasn't Joseph Gordon loved
in there somewhere. He wasn't even I didn't even see
that until i'm dB. I'm like, he was in that.
(11:46):
He was one of the detectives that I just didn't notice,
like the guy opening the doors. Okay, really just a
little easter egg basically, yeah, that's kind of fun. And
then throwing in people like a like a la Keith
Stanfield who has been so amazing, uh first and get
Out although it was a very small role, but also
Sorry to Bother You. Yeah, yeah, Sorry to bother You.
(12:07):
And it is a gorgeous, amazing film. And then a
guy that uh noah, yes, yeah, who Who's he's in
all the Ryan Johnson movies? Is he? Yeah? He's like, uh,
I think they're buddies. I don't really know the full
back story there, but he was the other detectively so
(12:27):
and I think they worked him into Star Wars just
a little bit. And yeah, I'm pretty sure he's He's
like been on screen and most, if not all, of
Ryan Johnson's Moses Oh boy, he was funny in this
and he made the most well, and it was funny
to make him to write him as a fan of
the writer. It like it really added a lot to
the story. I think, like immedically. I love at the
(12:49):
end when he shies keep going. I love it. I
can't wait to see this movie again. I said, this
is my second time, and I was saying it's really
on the second time because it feels really obvious. But
it's not. But you're like, oh yeah, there is, oh
yeah there because it is a little twisty. I mean
in the end, uh, you get that great Scooby Doo
(13:11):
ending where Daniel Craig is explained and how it all
went now, which is just sort of a classic trope
of that genre. And even even the way that scene plays.
I usually find that kind of thing a little bit
tedious at the end when they had to kind of
take you step by step through the whole plot. But
he was done so well here and there were so
many like little jokes thrown in to kind of keep
it going that it never felt like it slowed the
(13:33):
movie down or or got tedious at all. To me.
I was just really really annoying it. I just want
to see Ryan Johnson make comedies now. I know, I know,
he has such a knack for comic timing and writing.
It's like it was insane. Yeah. And also I love
with a lot of the cast. I feel like they
were cast kind of against type and that was really
really fun. So I would Yeah, I would love to
(13:54):
see more of that. I mean, how many last did
he get out of out of the Grandma? Just like
the camera camera, Yeah, she was just always there, and
especially in the window stuff. Every time it cuts to
her in the window. It's Yeah, this is a fun
(14:20):
movie to see in the theater too, because I had
to see a matinee, so they're only like fifteen or
twenty people in there. But I would love to see
this in like a packed movie theater. We had, Yeah,
we had more of an audience last night, and that
absolutely I think added to the experience of just hearing
other people really laugh hard and having that shared communal
feeling was like a big boost. Yeah. Man, that's the best.
And then Ricky Lenhoum had a very small part, but
(14:42):
she gets a lot of laughs and just the few
scenes that she's in, and I wonder if some of
that was cut out, some of her role was cut out,
or if that was just the deal. Which character she
was one of the sisters? Yeah, she was the wife
of who was she the wife of? Their last name is? What?
(15:04):
Was she Michael Shannon's wife? Okay, okay, she's my rock.
And then there were so many great little old school
comic moments like that. I was like, I'm not above
a slapsticky kind of laugh that way. And then Eadie
Patterson is very underrated as an actor. I think she
played fran Um. She's very funny, she's she was in
(15:27):
I just finished the Two Ferns movie. Have you guts
seen that? You know? It's better? I think I can't
remember which reviewers said it, but I totally agree it's
better than it has any right to be. It's very funny,
and she has a very funny little cameo in that movie.
But I think that's everyone. Oh no, w uh. Katherine
Langford is Meg is great. And then the young Nazi,
(15:49):
the literal Nazi's perfect. You know. Central casting kind of
has that like look you know, yeah, I think And
I haven't found this online anywhere. I'd love to talk
to Ryan Johnson about it and anything. Um, but I
think they cast him because he looks to me, just
like that poster boyl right, the Richard Spencer from Virginia.
(16:10):
I remember that shot of the guy yelling with the torch. Yeah,
just like this guy. And I think it was a
little sneaky bit of casting to kind of throtead on
that would be my guess. Well, you know, even even
having that as like a presence in the movie felt
in a way. I think, I mean a lot of
people speculated this. This is in a way Ryan Johnson
(16:32):
kind of responding to some of the internet backlash against
episode eight. The people that were kind of like, why
are there's so many women in this movie? And you know,
why is it kind of whatever? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, And
just you know that that that's sort of like aggressive
online fanboy culture that that often can kind of bleed
(16:53):
over crossover with the kind of the alright stuff. Um yeah,
it was just it was it was I thought that
was very interesting how he brought the movie. He brought
something that feels like a very old genre, something that
that we think of more associated with kind of the past,
that sort of like parlor game and you know, old
money and all this kind of stuff. Um, feels like
(17:14):
something slightly before our time. But the way they brought
kind of contemporary politics and the Internet and all that
into it is just like a really cool like spin
on the genre. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean Don Johnson his
whole character the Nazi and then Meg being that like
the super performative. Yeah exactly. Yeah, the way the way
(17:35):
they captured that that dynamic of just like when a
family gets together and and the cover you know, in Evil,
it leads to politics and then the arguments start, and
it just it It did that so well without ever
feeling like over the top or preachy or anything like that.
It just felt like a very very um realistic depiction
of of how that stuff goes down. Yeah, there's one
(17:56):
moment we we're talking about last night, where is it
Michael Shannon's character who is in the middle of being
like he's going like no, like you're you're an immigrant,
Like you would agree with me, right, and then just
off handedly hands the woman a place in the middle
keeper not a housekeeper yeeah, Like they view her as
(18:17):
a housekeeper because he's part of the family. Yeah, until
like the tables turn right. Yeah, immediately they're like, okay,
you give that back to us, We'll take care of you, right,
Oh man, there's so much of that, like great stuff
in the end once the will. I mean this this
movie is a bit of a revelation in how it's
(18:37):
plotted out, because you have this great seeming murder mystery
that gets solved halfway through, and that was a big
Like I thought the whole movie was going to lead
up to who killed Thromby and then all of a
sudden you find out that he kills himself. I'm like, well,
where's he gonna go from here? And that was the
genius of it. I think is in a total spin
(18:59):
on this genre. We were we're talking afterwards. I had
this whole kind of I thought I saw the twist
coming in it. The twist was different than what I
had imagined. But there's a line when uh, when Christopher
Plumber uh is about to die and he puts the
kind of puts the knife into the table and he
has a line about you know, a stage nine versus
(19:21):
a real knife. And I kind of assumed maybe somebody
did a switchery that he was supposed to have a
fake knife, but they switched it for a real one
and that's why I cut his throat or something. Um,
But that did ultimately pay off at the end the
fake knife. But it was different than I had imagined
because I assumed Christopher Plumber was the one paying for
the investigation and that he had like faked his death
(19:41):
or so okay, yeah, that was my assumption as well.
Do you have a theory? Do you formulate theories during
I do generally. I'm trying to remember if I really did.
I think I was sort of along for the ride
so much. I did not on this one. Um, my
brain might have been poking around a little bit, but uh,
it was a dense movie as far as the twist
and turns go, so I had to be like on point,
(20:02):
I can get lost in the film. Yeah, my mind wanders,
But boy, want to pay off with that fake knife?
That sound effect? Yes, that that ring of ring of knives. Yeah,
and he even does it a second time kind of
moving it. Oh gosh. But yeah, no, I mean some
of the some of the props and visuals in this
film were such amazing at the top, like just it
(20:25):
was just so beautiful and it was so amazing. Yeah,
my god, it'll get a nomination for production to exactly.
That was one of the ones I was thinking of. Yeah,
where's that knife wheel? I know someone's got that, Like,
if that's not and Ryan Johnson's if that's not his
headboard yet, Yeah, he's doing it wrong. I love go ahead, Sorry, well,
(20:47):
I love how you know at the end when the
when the big reveals are happening, Daniel Craig is sitting
in the chair and composition he's had his dead center
pointing at him. Yeah. I really enjoyed how they played
with that. That's what I was going to say, because
he keeps talking about the doughnut. Yeah, and was the
because him being hired was like the thing, so I
(21:08):
thought it was really visually, I forgot about the don
he keeps going on and so fun. Oh my god,
I bet this is I don't know if you guys
have ever written like screenplay stuff before, but one of
the best when you know you're really cruising is when
you're laughing and writing at the same time and like
(21:31):
having a good time. And I imagine that Eive's Out
was like a lot of fun to like put fingers
on keyboards. I believe that the screenplay has been kind
of in the works for a long time, um, like
six or seven years, I think, so it's it's one
of those things that I mean, it does feel like
it's been polished and polished and polished, not in a
way that flattens it out or makes it kind of
(21:52):
you know, average, but in just a way that sharpened
it every time they didn't know the pen punched it up. Yeah,
it's a hard thing to write, Like I have brainstormed
Scotty and I both because he loves this genre and
we used to write together and we've always wanted to write.
Uh you know, one of us did it movie. And
it's really hard, um, because you have to it's got
(22:15):
to be genuinely clever, and it's got to have really
great twist and turns, and you can't have people figuring
it out too early. Uh so my hat is off,
Like what a what I mean he'll get a screenplay
nod for sure. I think so well deserved. I think absolutely.
I write one of be so bad. It's so hard.
I read somewhere somebody was a review somewhere said if
(22:38):
it had moved three percent slower, people would have figured
it out fast. Important part of it he didn't allow
anyone to catch up. Yeah, And I was telling after
we saw last night, I was saying I love how
pretty much. Immediately it establishes everybody has yeah right, yeah,
(22:58):
that's right. Yeah, like, oh it's him, Oh wait, maybe
it's her. Every every new interview that pops up, you're like, no, no,
that's the one. No, no, no, this is the guy.
Like you know, because they all start off in the interviews,
you know, everyone's great, right, and everyone loves each other
so much, and then those cracks start showing. Quickly starts out.
There's there's a great cut where one person is saying like, well,
(23:19):
I'm not going to start slamming my family in here,
and then it cuts directly to some the next guy
just talking Yeah, Don Johnsons, I won't talk any family business.
You're smarting me by asking me this question. I'm not
going to get smarted by you. Then we'll don't do ship.
And then Daniel is like, you know, he's just playing
(23:41):
them so great. I think I kept waiting for him
to not be this brilliant detective. Right yeah, but I
saw I was like, is he just a bad detect or?
Is he really really good? Because I was first you
couldn't figure well, I guess I couldn't figure it out
(24:02):
because I was like Marta is just barely one step
ahead of you, how you're seeing Yeah yeah, and to
turn it into a movie about someone who a really
sweet relationship. Like the whole time I was like, oh, please,
don't be creepy Christopher Plumber, like when they're when he
called her to his room, I don't go there, and
(24:23):
they didn't. It was a great, really sweet relationship. And
she deserved all that fucking money. Yeah, yeah, she was
only good one in the movie. Yes, you know, yeah,
I guess him. Yeah, well I guess the Meg wasn't terrible.
Yeah yeah, fran Yeah, fran Yeah, I mean she stole.
(24:45):
She was double different, she had stash. Yeah, she's double
edition on those dipping on those tuition fran Is the
friend the housekeeper Patterson. Yeah yeah, boy, they killed her good. Yeah,
I love that was so good. I love wordplay. And
(25:05):
I was like, oh, yes, you did it. I still
didn't quite get that. What was to deal with Hugh
was that his that's his name, and he made people
who worked on the staff call him Hugh. So but
his name was Ransom. Yeah, but he went by Hugh
to the staff. They mentioned that at one point, they're like,
he makes the help call him you because he's an
asshole or something. And I missed that line very key. Yeah,
(25:29):
with the whole he things like, I don't get the hue.
What are they coming him? Yeah, well that makes this
a very ingenious device, Hugh, you confusion there. It's really good. Great,
it's well, when you're writing a movie like this, it's
got to be fun because there's almost nothing you can't do, Like,
you can't be too silly, or maybe you could, but
I felt like this get a lot of creative license
(25:49):
to have fun, to do fun word play and stilly
stuff like that. That was my concern going into it
was that it was going to tip over too far
into silliness, that I was just going to kind of be,
you know, a little too whimsical. I don't really do
well with like excessive whimsy in movies. I like some
I like it to be somewhat anchored, you know, with
with a few exceptions. But like and he was saying earlier,
(26:10):
like the performances felt like they were of the way
until like over the top, but never quite got there,
so they stayed grounded in a real character reality, Like
you felt like everybody was behaving the way they would
behave you know, there was it never quite got into that,
like just Zaney completely over the top feeling there was
total screwball. Yeah. Um yeah. So if that's not your thing,
(26:33):
you may not like it. I'm still going to check
it out. But yeah, I'm just reading a thing here
because I pulled up the cast so I got everyone
in there, and it said there's a bunch of articles
today about Chris evans sweater. So the internet is going
crazy about his cozy sweater comfy because Chris Evans is
stuffed in it, right, that probably something to do with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(26:55):
it's like hello, perfect human, but on this big and
they're like eating chili in a log cabin restaurant. I
know that was interesting. I was killing what is she eating?
Is that freaking chili? Well? I love that. That's another
great device of like she can't lie or she vomits thing,
and like all the all the ways that they find
(27:17):
to use that over and over and in a way
that's very interesting because you would think in a way
it would that would just in the movie immediately if
you had somebody that you could ask and definitively know
if they're lying or not. Lying, but they find a
way to kind of keep bringing that back and use
it in all these different ways, and her getting out
of it in clever ways, and uh yeah, I forgot
about that. That was one of the best parts of
(27:37):
the movie. Just genius. And then especially the twist at
the end where you know, she she makes them believe
that she's, you know, gonna be okay, then she throws
up in the guy's face and then it's revealed that actually,
number one, I just peeked in your face, and number two,
you just confessed to murder, and that beautiful, perfect human
that it's Chris Evans with just like it was so
(28:00):
over the top with whatever they put in there. Yeah,
it's like corn. Yeah yeah. And I was also kind
of like, is this the second movie? Because I saw
The Lighthouse too, and I'm like, how many movies am
I going to watch this year? Right? Vomitous dripping, I'll
(28:21):
bring it back? Yeah that was I thought that was
really smart to do that, because essentially you've got a
character that has been injected with truth serum. Yeah yeah,
except it's way funnier, right and then and as soon
as uh fog Horn Leghorn, here's this like you saw him.
He was like, I can work with this. Yeah, it's
so good. And the game a little buddy, like you're
(28:41):
gonna walk the house with me? I love that. I
love that sequence where they're they're kind of walking through
the steps of the house and the yard around it
and everything. There's the part with the mud, the footprints
of mud. Yeah, and she kind of plays dumb and
like walks through the mud like what, sorry, what are
you saying that? Yeah? I mean like didn't hear sorry?
(29:01):
Like the dog bringing the piece of wood from again. Yeah,
I just I really enjoyed the way that she's she's
so close to the to the case, to the investigator,
and she's kind of the one that they least suspect,
but she's also able to kind of, you know, manipulate
things and and and kind of stay one step ahead
of them figuring it all out. Yeah, and erasing the
(29:22):
tape while yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the car
chase where they just assume that has been the singer
make you drive? What do you said? That was the
dumbest car chase, but they just like catch up easily.
(29:46):
Oh man, I mean there's so many great moments in
this movie. It just brings like such joy I cannot
wait to see it again. Uh what else, guys? I
love that whole bit where she's she's leaving the night
of and in in v oh, it's Christopher Plumber saying
turned before the line, turned after the line, and he's like,
turn after before he gets kind of jumbled up even
(30:09):
as he says that, he says it kind of jumpled up. Way.
I thought that was really really funny. And then of
course when she sees what angle the security cameras using,
she realizes, oh, no, I was supposed to turn after um.
And that's when we all see that as an audience member. First, Yeah,
like we see like the it's probably it's the same
angle if you put them side by side, Like what
(30:29):
the what the film cameras capturing as she actually flees,
and then when it goes back to the security camera,
it's kind of the same perspective and everything, which is cool. Yeah. Absolutely,
Um the Slayer rule too, Yeah, it was something that
I had never heard of before. I thought that was
really interesting commentary on how they were, you know, telling
(30:51):
Marta or Don Johnson was you know, you did it legally,
you came to legally and a lot, and when it
works for them, they're all for it. And so when
oh my gosh, we're gonna lose our money, we're gonna
lose our house, and they're immediately are like, what are
these ways we can manipulate even if we have to?
Because I'm sure none of them, except for Chris Evans,
(31:11):
thought it was Marta there, like, how can we prove
it was her? Right? And they all kind of take
their or not all of them, but they take turns
after it's revealed that she's getting the money. You know,
first Meg has that call, Yeah, and you know, I
mean it's sort of a reveal, but you know they're
all fucking standing there, right, yeah, and then um again
we already talked about it. But when Michael Shannon pays her,
(31:33):
the threatened the hallway, Yeah, because they all have this
implicit assumption that surely you don't think you deserve this money,
so you have to understand, because you're a reasonable person,
then you you should give it. You should give it
back to us, and then we'll take care of you.
Just the paternalism of that, the condescension, and and the
(31:56):
way that they just all naturally assume that they are
the rightful owners basically in like almost like a white
supremacist kind of way, like they assumed that they are
the top of the chain back like you're just the help. Yeah,
so obviously, yeah, let's take care of this. And it's
clearly not have found mind right, right, Yeah, it's it's
(32:16):
it's just it's very interesting, and even even the ones
that professed to be these kind of liberal do good
or woke types, like when it comes down to its
sort of in the get out since like there there's
there's still that kind of implicit intrinsically Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's really interesting. Do you think that they would have
taken care of her because I felt like they were
(32:38):
earnest in that. Yeah, I think they would have taken
care of her. I don't know how well would have
been like per se, I think you know, they probably
would have just and there may have been an expiration
date on that exactly or something right or something which
isn't going to get you that far in reality. Yeah,
like we got you these earrings. I mean, they constantly
(33:00):
are holding the threat of her mother a yeah, long
as that's there, then I feel like even if they
took care of her, they have this thing on her,
the leverage where they can say like, here's what you're
gonna get and be happy with that and don't ask
for more because we might make a phone call. Right.
That was such a great moment though, and she was like, well,
that's right, I can't afford those. Yeah, she turns it
(33:23):
on them because it's yeah, the advice basically. Yeah, that
was so like just empowering. Yea, just a badass moment.
There's that great you know, the kind of the final
shot or close to it anyway, where she's the final
shots downstairs, you know, it kind of makes it all
very visually explicit. Yeah, I mean, let's talk about the
final shot. One of the best final shots I've ever
(33:44):
seen is that zoom in on that coffee cup. Yes,
I love how that pays off like one of the
first details you see in the movie, and and he
brings it back right at the end. It's very satisfying
because you think, Wow, this whole thing was so thoughtfully instructed,
and everything is there for a reason, you know, all
the all the puzzle pieces fit together in some way. Yeah,
(34:05):
it's really really cool allow of that tight camera work
and a lot of those really great little sight gags
are are so beautiful. What's the when there's a reaction
shot on the dog in the middle of one of
the serious moments, like like they're they're all sitting there
family and I think it's like during the will reading
or something like that, and like the first person that
they cut too, and it's like it all goes to
Martha is the dog? Dog is like yeah? And that well,
(34:31):
the composition of when they were all perfectly staged. It's
like a portrait of the rich family. Yes, I mean,
just so much fun. Ryan Johnson had to have. You know,
he's married to uh Green along Worth, Queen Alongworth, who
does the you Must Remember This podcast And I guarantee
this is a movie where he just ran into the
room every fifteen minutes and get this. Now they're going
(34:51):
to do this. This is going to play out the
earlier thing right right. It's like such an exciting genre
to write because you you have to play detective yourself
and you've got to figure this stuff all out, um
as if you were investigating a case. Yeah, and do
it in a really smart way. It's so hard. Any
I can't you can, well, especially not after this you
(35:15):
destroyed it and just just just knowing being able to
put yourself in the place of the audience member viewing
it and think, if I were watching this, could I
figure it out? Have I made it too obvious? Or conversely,
have I made it too obscure and like too difficult
where it's not fun for anybody trustworthy to like say,
now you're telegraphing too much, or you have to be
(35:36):
you have to be kind of you have to you
have to earn the viewers trust that you're not just gonna, like,
you know, pull like a datosex Macina kind of thing,
like it's all gonna do that, it's all gonna pay
off in some way that's satisfying that it kind of
feels like, oh, you you got there honestly, you know,
not by just like you know, fudging the facts or
or moving something around conveniently so that it works out,
(35:58):
But then it feels like it all belongs. I saw
the first time I saw this, I saw it with
my mom, and I really wish it had been a
theater where they do the reaction, you know, they had
just been to my mom because she was every minute
or so at the end, and she was like leaning
forward and then it ends and she sees the first
(36:19):
name comes up. She's like, that was Daniel Craig, the
guys she watched for two Yes, that's one of my
favorite scenes is when Marta is trying to get to France.
She Fran but for the black mouth thing, and then
there's this moment of like, is she gonna let Fran die? Uh?
(36:42):
And you're just like, I can't, please, don't do that,
and then she saves her and then it cuts to
Daniel Craig like singing remember and comes up behind him
so good, and then the payoff. There's so many great
(37:02):
payoffs to pay off with the Invisible Ink Out, of course,
because you wanted to see Don Johnson go down in
particular because you know he's a dog, yes, and he's
being disloyal to you know, a beloved person for everyone
in the world. Um. But yeah, what I wanted to
say a second ago is why I will never write
one of these again, and why I don't think anyone
(37:23):
should it is because you never want to hear well
it was no Knives Out and that's like, this is
set such a high bar for this like well established
genre so many years in it's really quite an accomplishment. Yeah,
it's just it's so reflexive and so self aware and
and able to make all of these references without making
it feel trite. Yeah, it wasn't Scream, although it no Vince,
(37:48):
I love Scream, but it hasn't had that same degree
of like meta awareness. There's a little bit of it there,
but it doesn't go fully into like that was a
big part of Scream. It should have been, but this
just had sort of little homages. Yeah. And I was
reading before we came in here. I hadn't even considered this,
but they were saying, you know, when you played Clue,
the help is sort of not part of it. They're
(38:10):
just kind of side characters and they don't play a
big role. But in this it was kind of like
right away when Marta pulls in and the detectives call
her like the help. Yeah, yeah, just to see that
those elements of the genre get played better. Yeah, and
that really, I mean, I think that's a part of
He kind of turned the whole genre on its head
in a lot of ways. And you get that great
(38:31):
moment early on, which is not much but a little
quick scene with her and her sister and her mom
when her sister is watching the show and her mom
like shuts it down. You cut off the finger frinds
and so funny and then you know the sister was
(38:53):
another little kind of sharp nod was when she was like, oh,
I already figured it out anyway, I'm not too upset.
And there's there's also like a side where the reason
she's watching it in the kitchen where the other two
don't want to hear it. She's like, yeah, the WiFi
is bad out there, I have to watch any Here's
a little nod towards like, you know, streaming and laptops
and just the way people consume content. Now, that was
just like a little fun again contemporary detail that he
(39:14):
brought in. Yeah, I mean it felt very uh to
take an old genre like this and blow the dust
off of it in the way that he did. It
was just genius. I mean, it's gotta gotta get a
Screenplay and Production Design award or nomination. At least he
may get a director nomination because Hollywood loves this kind
of thing. I think I was gonna say cinematography too.
(39:36):
It's a really beautifully shot movie. I think who shot it?
Steve Yellen, who's the DP on I believe all of
Ryan Johnson's features. Steve Yellen has a very interesting website
for anybody listening who's like a cinematography nerd um, I
would recommend checking out his website. He has these really
interesting comparisons between film and digital and his own kind
(39:57):
of proprietary method he's developed to transform digital image into
a more filming image that emulates a lot of the
kind of quote unquote faults of film and just brings
those back into the digital image the way like light
wraps around a subject, the way kind of uh, there's
like a halo effect that can happen there when it's
like a really bright source behind a backlit subject, and
(40:20):
so on, like the little things that if you're if
you're sensitive to that stuff you notice are kind of
missing from digital. Sometimes he's been able to effectively bring
a lot of that back in. I wish he would
make it like a commercial product or something, but he's
kind of kept the secret sauce to himself for the
moment anyway, But he puts up all these tests where
you can see film and digital side by side, and
(40:40):
he doesn't tell you which is which until afterwards, and
it's really really really hard to pick the differences. Yeah,
he's kind of made this argument that people tend to
like essentialize about what is the film image versus what
is the digital image, And he's kind of saying, hey,
digital is this new thing. We haven't really mastered it yet,
and a lot of the things that we think are
(41:01):
like um, inherent to film can also be in digital.
So we need to think more creatively about what can
be done with the digital image. He's a really cool,
cool guy. So you think maybe cinematography, I just I mean,
I thought it looked, it looked great, and uh, it
looked it looked it just had like a more classical
kind of feeling to it. Um, it reminded me maybe
(41:21):
of like Phantom Thread or something, just that kind of
like really solid, like yes, cinematic film image. Um, the
kind of the color palette is very like restrained in
a way, muted but also very vibrant at the same time.
Just so hard to do, especially on digital, which just
kind of tends to make the colors a little more
(41:42):
i don't know, saturated and like cartoonish. So yeah, I
really really, you know, it's it's not like a flashy
movie in that way, but it's just it supports the
tone of the whole thing really really well. So I
liked design wasn't flash either. I mean that house felt
like a Oh. I thought that was one of great
lines to where they they were talking. I can't remember
(42:02):
what he called it about their family lineage and their
estate or whatever. This house are birth riders. That's like,
that's such a great commentary too, because it's kind of
like they get their backs up and they're and they're
kind of like, you know, this has been in our
house for our family for generations, you know, and it's like, no, man,
(42:24):
it's not like it's you're you're completely like inventing this
idealized like past it didn't really happen, you know. Yeah.
I'm also a big fan of um the convention that
they use here where they replay scene multiple times, like
you know what was it was the one where Chris
Evans was arguing in the other room and you know,
different perspectives and what's the reality thing? Yeah, exactly. I
(42:48):
love how they're you know, you're thinking, Okay, here's one argument.
Oh no, there's another argument, and there's another argument, Like
there all these things that happened at this party it
just keeps building. What else happened here? Yeah? And also
like the fragments of the argument that they hear and
that they talk about and that have multiple interpretations or
explanations where they're trying to get those dots could mean whatever,
(43:10):
and it's again coming up with what that line is
going to be. That it can work for like three
or four different purposes. You know, you can lead you
in these different directions. Really really well done. Boy, I
need to get Ryan Johnson in here. Yeah, that would
be That would be something else you had to ask
him for tips, tips for your stream, like yeah to
(43:31):
the classic, Hey, I've got a little face treatment. Close
your laptop because I just perfected it. So why follow
in my footsteps? I don't know about. I mean, there's
so much great acting. It may be hard to get
nominations because it was such an ensemble things. And this
is when I wish there was either a Betther ensemble
(43:54):
or like when is casting going to finally be recognized?
Certainly in our academy. I mean a lot of amakers
will say, like casting is of what makes any movie work.
Like if you've cast the right people, then your job
as director is you know, well, well along the way,
and no amount of great directing can outdo bad casting. Yeah,
I would love to know about the I can't wait
(44:15):
for the DVD extras on this one, uh when it
eventually comes out in February. Yeah, because I'd love to
know about I mean, hopefully they talk a little bit
about the casting process. Um. I'm looking up now to
see if I can, because I always talk about acknowledging
casting and I never shout out casting directors. So talk
(44:36):
amongst yourselves that I'm going to do that. Yeah. Does
Brian do good commentary? Have you listened to commentary on
last I have not listened to Come I actually had.
Does anyone listen to the commentary on the Matrix? Maybe? Maybe,
like when it first came out on DVD, I might
have been a long time. Whoever was on a commentary
there's a special effects guy and someone else. They got
(44:57):
a fight in the middle of it. I've been a
little commentary commentary are very like and then they're finally like,
that's a cool effect. Yeah, it's really rueful. You like
weren't even in the room and you're traumatized. Yeah, yeah,
I love it. I love it when there's conflict on
(45:17):
a commentary track, and there's like unspoken tension in the
room and so on to talk about. There's also there's
a really funny one on that movie The Rules of
Attraction to Roger Avery movie Breddy Snelli's adaptation. Not a
very good movie. Oh I like that movie, yeah, but
but uh there, you know Braddy Snell's was supposed to
(45:38):
do a commentary for it. He was in like a
heavy kind of drug period when this was happening, and
so he like slept through when he was supposed to
get to the recording studio, got a phone call from
his agent, like hustled over there. It was just like
completely useless, could barely say two words, and you know,
did this whole track and got to the end of
it and they're like that's not usable, and so he's like, well,
I don't know, you know, do what you want to do.
(46:00):
And so they didn't use that. Instead, they got Carrot
Top to come in having having not even seen the
movie before, and and do the comment to ultimate and
there's just a great moment where somebody's making a phone
call and Carrot Top goes dial down the middle and
I just loved that he did to call back to whatever.
You know. You remember this like eight call collect things
(46:22):
that were around in the nineties' dialing pattern, Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
It was like a you can call collect with this
number and you dial like all the numbers are in
the middle casey. I never expected you to give us
a carrot top deep and then it's out. It's a
really fun commentary track though, Um yeah, I would recommend
it because it's just literally a guy reacting to a
(46:44):
movie he doesn't know anything about jokes. Yeah, so I
have some reading to do because I went to look
at the casting director and you know, our icles will
pop up. One of them is the one Knives Out
actor Jamie Lee Curtis never thought she'd be able to
(47:05):
work with. I don't know who that is yet. And
then one from Vogue on the perfect casting of Knives Out.
So that's gonna be a good read. But it was
Mary Verno v R and I EU and casting director
is a job most always uh done by a woman,
(47:26):
which I think is very interesting. I don't think I've
ever in all my years working on commercials and little
movies and stuff in music videos I did. I shot
a lot of casting sessions. Was always a woman, and
I think there's something to be said there for uh,
an intuition and a the gut feeling of a woman
and maybe listen, I don't want to knock dudes, I do,
(47:51):
but but a woman coming into a room with maybe
fewer hang ups in a more open heart. Not to stereotype,
but does a job women do well, yeah, yeah, give
me or even an award? I think. Well, I mean,
if you think about the history of the industry, like
the the division of labor, let's say, like the each
(48:11):
department in each role has historically been like pretty heavily gendered.
You know, the directors tended to skew mail early on
editors like skewed more female because it was viewed as
almost like a more of a Craftlet's well, it was.
It was basically it was not seen as an art,
you know. It was seen as just like you cut
the pictures and yeah, yeah, you put the scenes in
(48:33):
order and so on, and that's why, yeah, yeah, why
the way that programmers were originally women, right, they were like,
this is just busy work, and so it's just interesting.
I'm sure there's some similar explanation maybe for why casting
directors tend to skew in that direction too. H all right,
we'll explore that. We'll pick that apart later. Anything else
(48:56):
on NICs out, guys, it's great, we gotta get are
you're new to the rating system. We give a total
number of thumbs between one and five no thumbs upper down. Um.
I will go ahead and start out and give knives
out five big, big thumbs, not normal sized thumbs, like
like over extracized, like like, what's the what's the movie
(49:20):
about the Uma Thurman the Hitchhiker? You know that movie,
the classic book. All of us are just drawing a
complete blank. Ramsey would totally no, it was the it
was Tom Robbins book Cow Girls Get the Blues. Actually
never seen that Tom Robbins. Yea the writer. She's a
(49:43):
hitchhiker who was born with an abnormally large thumb. That's
sort of one of the jokes of the movie. She's
just naturally gifted at hitchhiking. So five, five of those thumbs,
five of annie, how many thumbs? Five thumbs also thumbs.
And we should mention this is you're not comparing it
to other films. You know these are independent. You can't say,
how can I give it five thumbs when it's not
(50:04):
ratcham on. I was thinking exactly that thing. Yeah, No,
it's it's it's on its own merits. How many thumbs
I'm I'm with five? Your five, Lauren? Five? All right, Casey,
come on with your three and a half. No, no, no,
I I four is what I gave it on on
letterbox too, out of five. But I could you know
in terms of like on its own terms, Yeah, it's
(50:26):
closer to a five. It's to all the wonderful films
you've ever seen in your life. I mean it's it's
it's that kind of thing, like it didn't reinvent cinema.
So I can't give it the five out of five.
But you know, if you're if you're just taking it on,
did it succeed on its own terms? Yeah, you're knocked
it out of the park. So okay, all right, guys,
Casey can't even be cynical about this. No. I had
a great time. Like I said, I going in, I
(50:48):
was like, I don't know if I'm going to be
into this or not. And I was completely um like
taken by surprise and really really enjoyed it great. Yeah,
and I had seen it already and we were going
to do a double feature, and I was like, you
know what, I'll go to knives Out a kid. I
want your life so great, laughing with your mom double feature. Uh,
(51:12):
I don't ever have kids anyone. So that's it for
Knives Out. Big thumbs all the way around. We almost
had a perfect score if not for Casey's slightening, which
is fine out of five thumbs. Is great and I
highly recommend everyone sees this movie with friends in a theater.
It's the best way to do it. Yeah, this is
what I'm gonna be purchasing, I think. Yeah. Although, if
(51:33):
you've gotten to this part and you haven't seen it yet,
apology a second time. Take some friends with you. Ye.
Absolutely all right, Thanks for being here, you guys. Thank
you for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the
(52:00):
I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Movie Crush News
Host
Chuck Bryant
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