Inside the Creation of Knives Out, One of the Most Unexpectedly Subversive Films of the Year

Time ^ | 11/19/2019 | Chow

[Phoenix8]

At first glance, Knives Out doesn’t seem like a particularly political movie. “A Rian Johnson Whodunit,” the poster reads, with the letters scrawled in cartoonish font inside a magnifying glass. The trailer is stuffed with overdramatic jump cuts and hammy retorts from its famous actors—including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette. The film’s Thanksgiving release date, Martha Stewart-assisted marketing campaigns and jovial press run all give the impression that Knives Out is a popcorn caper, a mindless piece of entertainment.

But while the film starts as a standard whodunit, it soon morphs into a personal drama centering not on a famous detective, but a Latina daughter of undocumented immigrants……..

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The remake of Casino Royale was decent.

Everything after that sucks.

[MD Expat in PA]

Meryl Streep was not in this movie.

[x]

I didn't like the movie. You're right about the political slant, but I thought mostly it was just stupid, like the 1970's detective spoof "Murder by Death."

I did know some of the locations, so I liked that. Same for the miniseries "Defending Jacob," which was a better production.

[MD Expat in PA]

It was great entertainment and has a great ending.

I enjoyed it too. Loved all the twists.

[MD Expat in PA]

Meryl Streep was not in this movie.

[aspasia]

can’t understand why our side can’t produce stuff like this

(1) Don't like propaganda.

(2) Our kind of society doesn't spend time in production studios.

Next question is, where does our society spend its time?

[montag813]

“Subversive”?? This is the MAJORITY view in media, politics and entertainment.

[arizonarick]

Chill. It’s only a movie!
Got “triggered”?

[fr_freak]

I have to say, there's not much room to the Right of me, and I watched this movie when it came out. It's brilliant. My whole, Trump-supporting family loved it.

You're joking, right? Even the core premise was ridiculous. There are two bottles from which the latina nurse gives the old man shots - one of which benefits him at a certain dose, and the other that will kill him at that same dose. The murder plot involves switching the contents of each bottle.

But the "innocence" of the nurse hangs on the fact that she was such a good nurse she knew instinctively which liquid was which by weight? How incredibly irresponsible and incompetent of a nurse do you have to be to administer these injections without looking at the freaking labels, just to be sure? Just one day when your magical immigrant powers are off and you give the set dose from the wrong bottle, and the old man is dead anyway. But we're supposed to think "Aw shuck, she's so good she didn't fall for the murderer's trick anyhow!" The incompetent bitch would have eventually killed him regardless.

[Phoenix8]

Only a movie, you should read more about propaganda.

[Phoenix8]

You hit upon a key point. Ever read Randy’s novels? I have—well 2 or 3.

That’s one of her brilliant thesis, that the reason government tends to become destructive and ineffective, authoritarian over time. That there are 2 basic groups of people; Producers and users (for lack of a better term). Only the producers can create to great lengths so the users have to figure out how to take from them.

By this theory people on FREEREPUBLIC etc build, design, create …work. Users like the Hollywood elites organize, petition, scheme and create propaganda. This is the generality.

Read The Fountainhead, how the creative architect genius is attacked and held down by the users. Atlas Shrugged is the one book that really gets into how this applies to politics etc.

Here is just 1 of quite a few of her being interviewed on videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhaxvXRdENg

[Phoenix8]

Thanks for the correction.

[SamuraiScot]

The incompetent bitch would have eventually . . .

Dude! You're not getting the joke. It's a comedy--specifically a farce. The whole thing is absurd, and it's supposed to be.

Part of that is that he's making sport of the "perfect illegal alien" trope our culture is plagued with. Her naivete and incompetence that you cite blow up that idea as well. The whole thing is very cynical, black humor.

[fr_freak]

Part of that is that he's making sport of the "perfect illegal alien" trope our culture is plagued with.

I think you're giving these people far too much credit.

[SamuraiScot]

I think you're giving these people far too much credit.

Listen. I'm a writer. Done a lot of acting, free and for money, and I've seen and read a lot of plays and movies before and after. My family was in show business and movies--some still are. Plots have conventions, and a certain type of show has a plot that makes fun of conventions. It's a thing.

Every plot element in this movie is set up to be blown up. Notice that it makes you laugh at HER, slapstick-style, for killing the guy. This isn't by accident. Think about it. This could never happen in a PC play or movie--where Lefty heroes are noble and magical, and never clueless. This guy arranges his characters like balloons on a dart board. It's very dark, and it sure doesn't "show us all a way forward. . ."

No, I don't know what portion of the audience gets all this. But it's a total send-up of our culture. It's a format that goes all the way back to the Greeks. Like the current "Brandon" presidency, it's a farce.

[Fledermaus]

Stupid movie. No intrigue. I knew who did in from minute one.

[fr_freak]

Listen. I'm a writer. Done a lot of acting, free and for money, and I've seen and read a lot of plays and movies before and after. My family was in show business and movies--some still are.

Well damn. Any chance I can get your autograph?

Notice that it makes you laugh at HER, slapstick-style, for killing the guy. This isn't by accident.

I don't remember any part of the movie having us laugh at her killing the guy. In fact, I remember it being portrayed as quite a poignant moment. But it has been a while since I've seen it and I don't tend to retain details of things I think are crap for very long.

One thing I have noticed in life is that, often, people in a field can sometimes be TOO involved in the details of the field to see the big picture. This movie definitely was made as a farce, but it still was slanted toward a message. A less leftist filmmaker, and certainly a conservative one, would have taken the exact same script and might have ended up without that slant because there would be no unconscious bias to creep in.

[SamuraiScot]

Well damn. Any chance I can get your autograph?

I don't think that would help.