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Knives Out | Spoiler Thread | Whodonut?
- Thread starter Jam
- Start date
A couple small things I noticed on my second watch that I missed on the first watch: When Linda is recalling the memory of the birthday cake being lowered in front of her father, she and her husband are the ones behind him, smiling. But when Walt is recalling the same memory he is imagining himself and his wife and son behind Harlan, smiling.
Also, when Linda's husband is describing Marta to the detectives he says she is like one of the family and it flashes to a moment during the party when everyone turns around to beckon her, everyone smiling warmly and inviting. Whereas when Marta recalls that moment later it was the same moment when she was about to be used as a prop in the family's immigration argument. No one looks warm or inviting anymore and it takes on the reality of that sinister moment.
Maybe these were obvious, but the changes slipped by me on first viewing.
Also, when Linda's husband is describing Marta to the detectives he says she is like one of the family and it flashes to a moment during the party when everyone turns around to beckon her, everyone smiling warmly and inviting. Whereas when Marta recalls that moment later it was the same moment when she was about to be used as a prop in the family's immigration argument. No one looks warm or inviting anymore and it takes on the reality of that sinister moment.
Maybe these were obvious, but the changes slipped by me on first viewing.
Linda was independently rich, that doesn't mean she wouldn't want even more (indeed, that's usually the case).
Ransom's money wasn't coming from Harlan, it was coming from his parents. Harlan just told him that he wouldn't be inheriting anything from Harlan.
What was egregious about the tuition?
Absolutely loved this. What a satisfying af movie. From the plot reveals to the comeuppance of those rich pricks to Ana De Armas's stellar performance. Just satisfying.
Choosing to dispense with the mystery of Marta's involvement and the nature of Harlan's death early on was so great. It really made the rest of the movie feel like it could go anywhere.
The second you hear Richard say Marta was from Paraguay (contradicting Linda saying she's from Ecuador) you realize how fake these motherfuckers are. Even the "allies" like Meg. I loved Blanc's line about Marta succeeding by playing the game her way: by being a good person.
Great film.
Choosing to dispense with the mystery of Marta's involvement and the nature of Harlan's death early on was so great. It really made the rest of the movie feel like it could go anywhere.
The second you hear Richard say Marta was from Paraguay (contradicting Linda saying she's from Ecuador) you realize how fake these motherfuckers are. Even the "allies" like Meg. I loved Blanc's line about Marta succeeding by playing the game her way: by being a good person.
Great film.
"Dogs are a good judge of character"
They immediately start barking at Richard and Ransom
Fantastic.
I can't imagine college costing 40,000 or 400,000 each year.
I do think Ransom was getting money from his parents because they said that Harlan was paying off the car. And the conversation the will reading would be weird if his parents were paying for his lifestyle. I can't imagine his parents stop funding him and wanting him to be independent because Harlan didn't leave him anything.
The most expensive colleges in America all cost at least $57,000 per year, with the #1, Sarah Lawrence College, at $61,000.
I'm still unsure because I thought he said 400,000 even though 40,000 seems more correct.
He said $100,000 per year, I believe. Maybe assume he's counting living expenses as well, but I'd guess Johnson just threw in a big number (it's not like all the little details in this movie are especially accurate -- he has a lawyer say he had to be specifically asked not to submit the will to probate until Harlan was dead, for instance).
Here's the thing that I think I take a bit of a different impression of than most in the thread so far. It really doesn't showcase Harlan as a bad guy at all in the end. He was a bit of a dick in the way he notified the family that he was cutting them off but even that isn't bad considering the quality of the character of those family members. I honestly am not at all upset about Harlan's choices with his kids (at least his direct kids) before cutting them off.
To me, Harlan comes across as a representation of the Greatest Generation. He wasn't trying to shelter his kid so much as give them the tools to succeed. That they ended up taking that for granted and becoming shitty isn't a result of his giving them help but of some other element of their upbringing. The Eldest daughter took the seed money and made a successful business. The youngest son ran the publication company successfully. Joni isn't on him at all. Ransom is definitely the result of his turning a blind eye to who Ransom was becoming by being completely sheltered. And that I see more as a personal failing and I believe the film showcases that Ransom is Harlan's greatest regret.
I also really enjoyed how they showcased the similarity between Ransom and Harlan in both the more obvious way that they were "outplayed" by Marta when she's not even trying to play a game but also the more subtle mirroring in that Harlan used his clever mind to write Mystery books and attempt to HELP Marta stay out of trouble for what was just a sad accident while Ransom used his to try to commit a murder and frame Marta for it. The actual murder by Ransom and the plan for disguising the death by Harlan were exactly the same with Ransom being clever enough to avoid the cameras, the muddy path, and not damaging the trellis. It was a really great touch.
I really enjoyed this and I'm glad that the allegory wasn't shown blatantly in the trailers. I also really appreciate that the film went the route of putting all the clues necessary to "solve" the mystery right there in the open.
Went in with low-ish expectations because of the trailers (though Im on the boat of liking Last Jedi), but it was an Incredible film with one of the best ensemble casts on screen.
Partway through the film I thought she might've been an actual mastermind killer, but that would go against one of the core themes of the film and position Marta as an immigrant murderer (with an undocumented mother)...completely justifying the alt right mentality of some of Harlan's family and also normalizing those ideas to audiences. That'd be a terrible direction to go.
Partway through the film I thought she might've been an actual mastermind killer, but that would go against one of the core themes of the film and position Marta as an immigrant murderer (with an undocumented mother)...completely justifying the alt right mentality of some of Harlan's family and also normalizing those ideas to audiences. That'd be a terrible direction to go.
Really fun film, but it still pains me that Harlan killed himself over nothing. The fact that Fran was only murdered for catching Ransom cover his tracks, it almost feels like there really wasn't any deeper, sinister motives behind everything.
I guess I was expecting a much bigger cover-up or twist, but the more I think about it, the more contrived my expectation would have been, and how almost believable the fun to follow the final result was.
Really an excellent film. Could have lasted another entire. Stellar cast. Casting of the year? I think so.
I guess I was expecting a much bigger cover-up or twist, but the more I think about it, the more contrived my expectation would have been, and how almost believable the fun to follow the final result was.
Really an excellent film. Could have lasted another entire. Stellar cast. Casting of the year? I think so.
Agreed. Marta being the (conniving) murderer would've really soured me on the movie. I do think the suicide twist should've been the twist. You'd have to rewrite a lot of the movie, but that was the most interesting "twist" and part of the movie. I feel like the mystery, for me, just died there and I really didn't care about the rest of the mystery with Ransom.
I thought it was a good movie. The pacing was good. There wasn't a wasted moment.
All the actors were great.
A+
All the actors were great.
A+
There is one bit I didn't pick up til I saw it mentioned elsewhere.
Harlan paid FIVE years of Meg's tuition up til that point.
Harlan paid FIVE years of Meg's tuition up til that point.
...So there really was no reason for meg to have turned on marta. Fucking hell
It makes me wonder what Meg was after if she had still not graduated after five years...
1. Was she in on the scheme to keep double dipping, which would end on graduation?
2. Wanted to keep living the college life?
Edit: But #2 doesn't explain revealing info on Marta's mother after Marta offered to help on phone. Unless it really was just pressure from family.
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Yo this fucking ruled.
The family all incorrectly stating where she was from got a good chuckle for me. The entire cast is so good, and Craig is just so wonderfully overthetop. Awesomely paced, so much energy, some great little character details.
Had a real fun ass time with this. Parasite is still maybe my favorite movie this year, but this is close.
The family all incorrectly stating where she was from got a good chuckle for me. The entire cast is so good, and Craig is just so wonderfully overthetop. Awesomely paced, so much energy, some great little character details.
Had a real fun ass time with this. Parasite is still maybe my favorite movie this year, but this is close.
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Watch Columbo, where the joy is entirely around watching the guilty party squirm in fear as they walls close in around them. That's entirely what the back 2/3rds of this plays like.
Yeah the movie reminded me of Columbo. You know very early who tf did it but it's the interactions that are good.
So since Blanc said he knew of Marta's involvement from the beginning, was he just pretending to bumble around and missing clues here and there (the ones Marta was trying to cover up) ?
Saw this yesterday and really enjoyed it. A couple of people have mentioned "satisfying" as a reaction and I agree. That final shot is just so "chef's kiss" cathartic. It was also great seeing the different characters' renditions and recollections of events, the interviews early in the movie were great for showing some of everyone's true colors early, before it all truly comes out once Marta becomes the center of it all.
My only disappointment with it is that the revelation of Ransom's involvement and his motive felt like it was almost too simple to warrant the level of complexity of how everything played out. Everyone else in the family fingered him as a shitty hotheaded kid who had everything handed to him for no reason, and that...turned out to be entirely right. I felt like he didn't really have as much to lose as the other family members, but I guess that's where his feeling of birthright spoken of in the ending comes into play.
I also felt like Marta barfing when she lies felt like a really weird and contrived condition, but it was necessary for the plot to work. Still, is there any basis for that being a real thing?
My only disappointment with it is that the revelation of Ransom's involvement and his motive felt like it was almost too simple to warrant the level of complexity of how everything played out. Everyone else in the family fingered him as a shitty hotheaded kid who had everything handed to him for no reason, and that...turned out to be entirely right. I felt like he didn't really have as much to lose as the other family members, but I guess that's where his feeling of birthright spoken of in the ending comes into play.
I also felt like Marta barfing when she lies felt like a really weird and contrived condition, but it was necessary for the plot to work. Still, is there any basis for that being a real thing?
He says himself "you have nothing to gain from Harlan's death". So that's enough for him to sit back and see how things play out.
So stuff like happening to be distracted when Marta throws that broken piece of the wooden frame, was that genuine or him sitting back. I'm guessing he knew Marta was trying to cover up her own foot prints ?
He knew everything. he noticed the blood on her shoes, he would know she's the only one who could have wiped the VHS tape, he expected she covering up her footprints, etc. She's a really bad liar even without her medical condition. What makes it fun is that he also wanted to see how far she would take it because he wanted to see what her ultimate intent was. If she played the game "their" way and tried to be a bad person covering stuff up, she would have lost really easily. She only ended up ahead because she was really a good person deep down and she stopped pretending to be someone she's not.
LIke Craig said to the great-grandma, the truth is black and white, but the grey lies in what you do with the truth after you have it. Facts are one thing, seeing the complexities of what the facts mean is what he felt his job as a detective really was.
I really hope there's a sequel with Blanc. Not sure if it would work, but I guess depending on another all star cast, and the plot, it could.
From what I read online, it was a voice cameo as he's heard on a TV as said detective
Pretty sure he was the Noir Detective voice in the unseen TV Show/Movie Marta's sister was watching that her mother asked to turn off
Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks!
I think it's just a voice cameo as a detective on TV, I don't think he saw any screen time.
I also just found out he was in TLJ, as the voice of the guy on the beach.
There's also the mystery hanging over him of who hired him.
What I love about Blanc is that his strength as a detective isn't that he is a supergenius, but rather that he is patient.
He does seem genuinely surprised by some events, which makes sense because he describes his method as being a passive observer of the truth. He's just looking at the arc and trying to plant himself where the truth lands. He saw the blood spatter on Marta's shoe but sat back and let everything fall into place until it made sense.
He does seem genuinely surprised by some events, which makes sense because he describes his method as being a passive observer of the truth. He's just looking at the arc and trying to plant himself where the truth lands. He saw the blood spatter on Marta's shoe but sat back and let everything fall into place until it made sense.
Even the supposedly liberal daughter provides information to her family that could put Marta's mother at risk of deportation, knowing full-well at how illegal immigrants are treated by the US government, all for her tuition. And even after Marta expresses that she's willing to help her, the daughter immediately hangs up once she knows she's getting what she wants.
That whole family fucking suuuuuuuuucks.
This could also always be shes a student taking her sweet time to graduate or changing majors often. I graduated from a bachelor's in 5 years because I switched majors late in my junior year. I don't think they ever outright specified if she's an undergrad or doing a masters did they? Cause if so she could have always gone straight to a masters degree. 5 years just tells me she's not someone who had their path and goals to be a straight shot.
There is absolutely no denying the poetry that the white feminist studying something related treats the immigrant woman badly and betrays her though.
Also there was a moment that just had me oozing with disgust. It wasn't big, but it was a gesture that, almost on its own, tells you everything you need to know. When the family is around the fireplace talking immigration and Trump, when Random's dad pulls Marta over, a girl who is "treated like family" and who he is now using as a prop for his argument as an example of "one of the good ones." As he is making his shitty point, without even looking or asking, he gestures his empty plate to Marta as if she's his maid. Not even "oh are you going back to the kitchen? Do you mind taking this?" He just hands it to her as if it is an expectation of her job, which it clearly is not. She neither works for him or anyone else but Harlan.
Like, you could turn the audio off in that moment, ignore every other shitty thing being said by this family, and that gesture tells you exactly how he views the power dynamics. I was just like "oh fuuuuuuck youuuuuu"
Like, you could turn the audio off in that moment, ignore every other shitty thing being said by this family, and that gesture tells you exactly how he views the power dynamics. I was just like "oh fuuuuuuck youuuuuu"