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I watched the new Knives Out movie, and while the mystery plot was fun enough, my enjoyment of the movie was severely hampered by politics. I saw the previous Knives Out movie so I knew what to expect, but I do feel like this just went above and beyond. Minor spoilers to follow.
My wife was disappointed that I let politics ruin a good movie for me, but really, I think that the filmmakers honestly don't want you to view this movie as just a fun murder mystery without the context of politics. The movie is all about making a heavy handed political statement.
The movie just seemed like a pulpit for Rian Johnson to talk about how much he hates Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and various other people. I almost feel like the entire plot is really the secondary goal. The main goal of him making this was to implant and grow a brain worm in the audience that every famous rich person is connected, really part of a cabal that got what they got through no talent of their own, took advantage of individuals and the world at large, contribute nothing, and are evil, vile, worthless, and bratty pieces of shit.
Nowhere in the movie do they ever display the slightest amount of sympathy for anyone besides the detective and the poor black woman who was taken advantage of (major spoiler:or her secret twin sister ). I guess this movie really makes me feel like in order to write good compelling characters, you really have to love them, or have the capacity to love them, or maybe just respect and understand and empathize with them. Rian Johnson clearly does none of this, and his utter contempt for them just seeps through. He comes across like a high school kid writing screenplays to take pot shots at people he hates.
I don't know, I really can't believe that this movie has gotten so much praise. It really irritates me, and just seems like lazy complaining.
Other minor, non political gripe:
The movie came to a screeching halt when they decided to have the entire 3rd quarter of the movie as a flashback. I think small flashbacks are great in mystery stories, but the decision to have over a half hour told in flashback made me feel like it was dragging, and made me want it to just get back to advancing the plot.
You don't go to a movie like Glass Onion for compelling characters. The movie is essentially Murder on the Orient Express, in which every character has a motive for murder. Nor do characters have to be sympathetic to be compelling.
As for the flashback, it did advance the plot, by retelling the story from a different perspective. As a result, we better understand the events and the characters.
All that being said, it was not particularly good.
Sure, except I found the characters in the first Knives Out to be compelling. Atleast significantly more so than in this one. So there is room for improvement there, and it is indeed why I went to watch this movie.
Also having no characters be sympathetic is really not compelling.
Well, it depends on the movie. Were there any particularly sympathetic characters in The Death of Stalin?
Besides, you are now saying something different: Whether a film with no sympathetic characters can be compelling is a different question than whether a character who is unsympathetic can nevertheless be compelling. I don’t really recall any of the characters from the first film (again, given the nature of the film, why would I?) but they might well have been more interesting, regardless of whether they were sympathetic or not.
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