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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.
The first movie, Knives Out, was clearly about and a celebration of white dispossession, with the final scene consisting of the Latina housekeeper who has inherited the mansion looking down on the disinherited, evil white family from the balcony with a mug that says "my house, my rules, my coffee." I haven't seen the new one yet, but it sounds like another "all the white people are evil except the detective" plot.
I dunno, I wholeheartedly agree that Glass Onion was crap -- and not just for politics, but also because there was no interesting story, there was no interesting murder mystery, there were no stakes, the spectacles in the final act served no purpose, it sold itself as a murder mystery and then disclaimed any intent to follow through, and overall consistently treated the audience with contempt. I could go on at length about all the ways the movie was shitty.
But I really liked Knives Out. It had an interesting plot, fun characters, the awful rich people were awful in very entertaining ways, and it hit a great medium between camp and drama. I also don't see its plot as being anti-rich. The patriarchal novelist earned his money, deserved his fortune, was admired by all, was a wise and benevolent figure. His horrible family were parasites on his wealth, their pretenses at business were revealed as pretenses, they were shitty to one another and to the man who created all of their wealth, and none of that works to impugn them if the original fortune isn't genuine and deserved. It had a pro-capitalist message: the wealthy guy became wealthy by creating a product that brought people joy, and built a business from it. The bad people were moochers, looters and ingrates of this well deserved fortune. Some of them were portrayed as politically right-wing, but others as left-wing. And the benevolence of the main character is established by her grit, hard work, good attitude and good moral character -- not as a product of race or victimhood, as it was in Glass Onion.
One thing both I and my (leftist) wife disliked about the original Knives Out movie was that we were supposed to empathize with the SJW girl. She was portrayed as a good character who just made mistakes. We didn't think she earned that at all, and it really just seemed to speak to the filmmaker's own positions, that he felt we should forgive her her indiscretions, but not the rest of the family.
The college student? To be honest I don't remember much about her.
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