The Knives Out Mysteries and the False Depth of Comedic Mystery
I've quite enjoyed the returning relevance of the whodunit genre, but there's still more to say in it.
Knives Out & Glass Onion
Last summer, I watched Death on the Nile; I enjoyed it. I’ve heard since that it’s the inferior of Kenneth Branagh’s two Poirot films, after its predecessor Murder on the Orient Express, but I haven’t seen that one yet to compare and contrast them. Along with Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series, these films represent the reintroduction to mainstream film conversation of a genre that’s been quiet, if not completely absent – the murder mystery ‘whodunit’. Whereas the Branagh films are adaptations of Agatha Christie’s adventures with her enigmatic Belgian detective, the Johnson films are a bit more self-aware commentary on the genre, though that’s more true of Knives Out than Glass Onion and, moreover, less cloyingly tedious than the silly and enjoyable but not superlative See How They Run.
These movies are a lot of fun, but there’s only so much to them, and it does become readily apparent how easily their formulaic nature could grate on an audience. Christie herself is said to have tired of the character of Poirot. But what these films have is charisma in the shape of sharp writing and enthusiastic performances. Not enough can be said about the value of earnestness in art. And they’re enlivened rather than weighed down by the history that they stand atop.
Knives Out, Glass Onion, and hopefully at least a few more sequels are a vehicle for Daniel Craig to put on an accent, to chew scenery through deductive pontification. They’re also avenues for Johnson to explore his recurrent theme of killing the past. And they’re comedic mystery films whose comedy, like so much of now and so much of the past, depends on satirizing the wealthy.
The first film is about the death of a famous mystery fiction author and the estate battle that happens as a result of his will-reading. The second is about a murder mystery party held by a tech billionaire on his private island which turns into a real murder mystery. Both films rely on playing with chronology through revelation to give the audience a chance to solve the mystery. However, in Knives Out, the revelation of how the death happened occurs rather quickly, and the mystery is one of uncovering subtle sabotage. Glass Onion is a more straightforward mystery in some ways, less reliant on deconstruction and reference. However, its second death (a seemingly common occurrence in the genre) during the investigation is part of additional layers which complicate the audience’s ability to engage with the mystery. That could make it feel cheap or unfair, though it doesn’t necessarily preclude coming to a solution.
Knives Out also has an air of timelessness in its vibe, in part due to its setting in a stately New England manor. While contemporary technologies and social arguments are used and noted, it could potentially last a while longer in the public imagination. Glass Onion, on the other hand, is time-stamped significantly more – it is, graciously, a film willing to accept and note that the COVID-19 pandemic is a thing that happened, and uses different responses to social reaction and mitigation for characterization. Glass Onion has also been noted or criticized for feeling to many of the Twitter-inhabiting as a film written in the past few months. However, it was filmed in the summer of 2021. Its notes on the idiocy of the super rich, the emperor’s clothes of their grandeur hiding that they’re often fools of low cunning obsessed with the idea of their own genius, the narcissism which comes from a society – a civilization, even – which continuously seeks to rationalize and moralize itself by assigning virtue to the people with greatest access to resources… that all of this feels so present and current is a matter of prescience at most or, more simply, the fact that rich shitheads have existed since time immemorial and will persist as long as inequality is permitted.
In short, it feels like it’s about Elon Musk because of the way he’s publicly embarrassed himself on Twitter in both the lead-up to and the wake of his purchase of the social media company. But Edward Norton’s Miles Bron isn’t an apartheid heir, just a common idea stealer. It can be analogous or parallel without exact details, but my point is that we all should know by now that intellectual brilliance is not the well from whence wealth springs.
Glass Onion is therefore also about standing up to bullies and divesting from the systems, institutions, or at least individuals that ensnare us in miserable circumstances on the bargain of being in their orbit, of getting just a little compensation, a chance or hint at security. Access, the promise of improvement to our position when really we’re just being set up to take the fall.
It’s about the influencer economy, about men’s rights activism and the lines between relationships and labor. It’s about all of these things, but in a way that builds an artificial world that’s close enough to the real one to be an easily inhabitable satirical facsimile. And Daniel Craig – simultaneously centerpiece and periphery as gentleman detective Benoit Blanc – is a great fulcrum, a certifiable movie star fully embodying a new role, inviting us to enjoy a new character.
The surrounding ensembles – Chris Evans reminding us he can act outside of the MCU, Ana de Armas a true standout, but with stars like Michael Shannon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Colette, and LaKeith Stanfield aside them in the first; Janelle Monáe leading the charge across from Norton, with Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick (who I got to interview once), and Madelyn Cline – help fulfill the film’s promise. Noah Segan is perhaps the oddest addition - one of Johnson’s frequent collaborators as a recurring comic relief in an already comedic film; Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes audio cameos in both. Knives Out was one of the last appearances of Christopher Plummer in a film as the dead author the plot revolves around; Frank Oz plays his will-executing counsel. This series, which is getting at least one more film from Netflix, is a star-studded affair.
The Knives Out mysteries put a lot of themes into conversation with one another, to a satisfying if not profound end. They’re thoughtful in a way that’s decidedly light, fun and engaging. They’re mischievous, well-crafted, and easy enough to follow. The first might be more superlative than the latter, more unexpected. And unlike The Menu – another average to good film that nonetheless had a lasting impact on me – these films haven’t driven any great longings or introspection except wanting to engage with mystery fiction; to watch more movies and shows like this (director Rian Johnson’s got a Peacock show with Natasha Lyonne, Netflix just released a movie about a Poe mystery starring Christian Bale and Harry Melling), to play mystery games and read mystery books. That’s enough, though – art encouraging you to embrace its genre is a success in its own right.
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If you’ve got any mystery movie/TV/game/short story/novel recommendations, I can be found on Twitter @kevinfoxjr