Another Knives Out: is there something I'm missing?

 

I may not be the sharpest pencil in the drawer but every once in a while, a movie comes along that utterly befuddles me. A few come to mind: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston 1941), Gosford Park (Robert Altman 2001) and the Knives Out series of movies, all directed and written by Rian Johnson, the latest being Wake Up Dead Man (after a two-week theatrical release it's on Netflix beginning today). I caught it last week in London UK in a very pleasant Curzon chain theatre, where they serve food and beverages at your seat. Since I never fully got the plot of the only other Knives Out film I’ve seen, 2022’s Glass Onion (the second in the series), I didn’t have high expectations for this. Who knows – all this might just be above my brain level. And I was right - I didn’t get it. Or, I kind of did. But, come on, another convoluted and almost ridiculous plot just like Glass Onion? Maybe I’m just not a murder mystery buff but at least in Agatha Christie or Alfred Hitchcock you can follow the plot. Of course, I won’t go into detail here. But I also notice in the four or five reviews I’ve read of the movie - all by reviewers who loved it – no once delves into the plot either, and I don’t think it’s because they want to give it away. Sure, we like twists and turns. But with Johnson we have twists, turns, dead ends, cul de sacs and both one- and two-way streets. Again, maybe I’m just not bright enough. Or maybe I was just bored and turned off. But why can’t a movie be a whodunnit without all the minutiae of details? Here’s the basic outline. The story takes place in a Catholic church. There are several generations of priests. There is a valuable inheritance. Of course, the plot pivots around a mistaken perpetrator, par for the murder mystery course. Forget the convolutions, the story itself isn’t interesting, and why all this effort to solve an exceedingly unreal scenario? Daniel Craig, as always, is southern detective Benoit Blanc, and he does a good job (so funny watching his transition from James Bond). Josh O’Connor, the central character, is Rev. Jud Duplenticy (duplicitous?). It was also nice seeing an (appropriately) aged Glenn Close as Martha, the priests’ assistant. Jeremy Renner takes a turn as the good doctor Nat Sharp.  Josh Brolin has a central role as a vulgar priest. The other question I have about this film is its context: the Catholic church. The film doesn’t exactly assault Roman Catholicism but uses its symbols (the crucifix, the confessional, a corrupt clergyman) as props. Popular culture has long derided the church, from Tom Lehrer’s The Vatican Rag, to Pope on a Rope to even calling the pope’s vehicle the Popemobile. I was brought up Catholic and I guess I’m not offended. But what other religion have you seen so mocked?

And congrats to the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) for breaking another attendance record this fall, more than 50,000 tickets sold. The festival indeed is on track not only to become one of the country's premier regional festivals but a distinct destination-oriented festival for cinephiles far and wide, similar, say, to Sundance. And its gravitas grows as it draw film professionals from across the country and abroad. In its now 20th year it's more than the little festival that could, screening 231 features, 141 films from leading world film fests, more than 60 francophone films and 25 local ones. It's a genuine Windsor success story, and increasingly a Canadian one as well.