Episode 118: The Knives Out Trilogy

[00:00:20] Speaker A: And yawn. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Now I'm actually yawning. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [00:00:27] Speaker B: I triggered you, yo. Actually, now you're making me laugh. Oh my gosh. This. I thought today I was not gonna have to wear a sweater in my own house for this. [00:00:39] Speaker A: Oh yeah, you're in your. Your Chris Evans get up. [00:00:43] Speaker B: I wish. [00:00:43] Speaker A: No, your ransom zombie. [00:00:45] Speaker B: I wish this was a ransom Tommy sweater. No, this is a. It was 40 degrees three hours ago. Now it's closer to 30 in my basement. Does not have insulation. Wearing a hat and fucking sweater. My own house. But I guess it does get me in the mood. [00:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:05] Speaker B: For today's episode. And just jealous of all the nice sweaters and basically outfits of every incredible. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Fashion in today's trilogy. [00:01:14] Speaker B: The in type of incredible fashion that makes it not the main reason why I'm mad at Netflix. But it's at least in the top five that I can't get every single outfit I want. [00:01:26] Speaker A: Because they're on Netflix? [00:01:27] Speaker B: No, because Netflix doesn't capitalize on how beautiful these films outfits are. [00:01:32] Speaker A: So they should. You're saying there should be a knives out fashion line but Netflix is overlooked. [00:01:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:39] Speaker B: I will, I mean I will, I will introduce the podcast in a second. But I'm just saying when I have to look up, how do I get Benoit Blanc's delightful swimsuit romper? And I just see it was made entirely for this film. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Custom. [00:01:56] Speaker B: First question, first answer to that is understandable. [00:01:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:00] Speaker B: It's so well put together and they have like, I don't know, at least 30, $40 million. So of course they can put into Benoit Blanc's outfits. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:09] Speaker B: And two. Well, fuck Netflix. Have a fashion line of all your film. Like God knows there are people out there that would probably buy something from the kissing booth. I've never seen. We're not going to watch any of those movies. There's probably something Jacob Polordi wears in those that someone wants or whatever. This is odd. Trilogies with Logan and Andy. I'm sure it's so awesome. [00:02:32] Speaker A: And I'm Andy Carr. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Why'd you say it sounds so disheveled? [00:02:36] Speaker A: Just because we, you know, we shuffled into it. [00:02:39] Speaker B: We did shuffle into it. That's fair. And on our trilogies with Logan and Andy, we take a trio of films, whether tied by cast and crew, thematic, thematic elements or just numerical order, and we discuss the good, the bad and the weird surrounding each film. And today we have a trilogy that is technically as of right now, finished about a month or so ago. A little over a month about actually about two months ago when it's theatrical run, it's two hour theatrical run before Netflix pulled it said wait three weeks for the Netflix release. But today we are talking about a trilogy that I would say despite this director's, you know, in very controversial fourth film, this trilogy almost gave him the biggest, almost widest appreciation and like appeal. [00:03:34] Speaker A: To so many people, a lot of goodwill. [00:03:37] Speaker B: Despite the fact that this, his film before this was like a mega blockbuster that also made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. We of course are talking about writer director Rian Johnson and his Knives out trilogy. [00:03:50] Speaker A: Yes. [00:03:51] Speaker B: Which includes 2019's Knives Out, 2022's Glass Onion, Colon, A Knives Out Mystery, and then 2025's Wake Up Dead Man, a Knives Out Mystery. [00:04:04] Speaker A: Technically the official title of Wake Up Deadman does not have a Knives out mystery. [00:04:09] Speaker B: Glass Onion doesn't either. That's just. They just add that on to like. [00:04:13] Speaker A: When you're searching for Glass Onion, I think does. I think it's technically part of the title, but they dropped it for Wake Up Dead man. Cuz Ryan Johnson hates it. He hates the subtitle. [00:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Netflix made him at it. Yeah. [00:04:24] Speaker B: I mean, because it's not like it's. I mean, I know there's probably some versions of the Christie line where it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. Death on the Nile and Air Cup Hero romp. There's probably some version that someone's trying to put out like that. But yeah, because these are. I mean, we'll talk about it. When it comes to all three of these, these are like very interchangeable in a good way. Like narratives where you can start at the beginning, you can start the last film and either go backwards, forwards. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah. They're very standalone capers. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And even the little bits that we get of our, of our returning character are very minimal but also very fascinating considering the little pieces we get. But yeah, yeah. So Rian Johnson, as a director before he does the Knives out films in 2019, he has, you know, three films that we might cover later on in the podcast is like a rise of series because they're very vastly different types of films. We have a noir film that is like low budget, that takes place in a high school starring Joseph Gordon Levitt. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:23] Speaker B: We have Brick. I love that movie. I have not seen it in years, but I remember seeing that film in high school is the perfect way to see that movie. And then every time afterwards there's an appreciation just how much that film does and how many people in that movie are just like, wow, These guys are so fucking good. And I still see them from time to time, which is incredible. And then after that, he does a film that he loves, but unfortunately was not well received, I think critically or financially, which is the Brothers Bloom. [00:05:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Which I heard has a cult following. I do need to watch that films. Yeah. I think I've seen every single one of his films but that one. And then he does the film that I think first got him, you know, popular in, was pretty well successful. And that is the Joseph Gordon Levitt, Bruce Willis, dark time travel, sci fi action film. Looper. [00:06:12] Speaker A: I love that movie. [00:06:13] Speaker B: Looper's great. That's a. That's another film I haven't seen in years. I assume Quentin Tarantino hates it because Paul Dano's in it, but. [00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:22] Speaker B: And he's playing a weasel. That's a movie where you should hate Paul Dana. He's a absolute weasel in that movie. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Maybe worst. Paul Dana. [00:06:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. It's like there's like cartoony weasel Paul Dano, which is like Cowboys and Aliens. [00:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Or like 12 Years a Slave to a degree. [00:06:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:38] Speaker B: And he's good in 12 Years a Slave, even though that character is a fucking. Just monster. [00:06:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:43] Speaker B: And then there's like the Looper. Just whiny, weasley, just like just. He sucks. He's. He's going through a lot and he's not handling it well at all. But he does these three films and then he does a film after that that is. You know, we will probably, if we ever talk about this movie on the podcast, we might have to go back to doing just a film, an episode. [00:07:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Because we did the. [00:07:11] Speaker B: The Star wars sequel trilogy. Because his next film after Looper, after Looper does as well as it does is Star Wars Episode 8 the Last Jedi, a film that is not even a decade old and it feels like it's been out for 20 years. When? It depends, depending on who you talk to about it. [00:07:31] Speaker A: Yeah. A film that I think beyond its own merits or faults had a hand in what felt like kind of a paradigm shift in how people talk about movies online and consume online discourse and engage with franchises. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Did I ever tell you how I watched that movie, the Last Jedi? Yeah. [00:07:55] Speaker A: I never talked about it. [00:07:56] Speaker B: This is the most last Jedi we'll get to for at least three years, maybe 10, but maybe 10 when we hit our, what, 500th episode. That's what's going to happen. We finally do Star Wars 498, 499 and 500 are just the sequel Trilogy episodes. [00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:14] Speaker B: My dad, out of the Blue, a man who hates movie theaters. Not because he hates the experience, but he hates the people. [00:08:21] Speaker A: Oh, sure. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I think I've talked to you about this on the podcast. Again, Love that man to death in every single way. But it's the most fun when he wants to go to a movie theater because he is the type of man who always sits at the very end of the row in a row that has no one in it. And if someone. If a person OR 2 sits eight seats away from us, he'll go, why. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Are they sitting there? Yeah. [00:08:45] Speaker B: As if there's not 200 seats in the theater. And it's so funny, as my brother is the exact same way. [00:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:52] Speaker B: He has literally turned into my dad because it's probably chilled out a bit more sense. But he had this weird. He had this, like, out of the blue. He's never. We've never done this since this. He wanted to double feature into Last Jedi. Could you guess what the first film was? [00:09:09] Speaker A: It was a film that December 2017. [00:09:13] Speaker B: Yes, it is. It is a Blade Runner Downsizing. [00:09:19] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:09:19] Speaker B: So we started the day watching Downsizing in one of the small theaters in the AMC in Columbus. [00:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:26] Speaker B: Nobody was in it. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:09:28] Speaker B: It was just my brother, me and my dad. [00:09:30] Speaker A: Makes sense. [00:09:31] Speaker B: That was a 10:00am 11:00am showing. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:09:34] Speaker B: And then we got out at like 11 30, and then we were like, okay, now we'll go see Last Jedi. And this is again, this sounds like this didn't happen. Like, this is bullshit. But this is truly what happened. We went to go see Last Jedi and we ran into Adam and his dad, friend of the pod friend in real life, Adam LeClaire. Him and his lovely dad were going to see Last Jedi at like 1:32 o'. Clock. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Wow. [00:09:58] Speaker B: So my dad's like, hey, let's just sit with them. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:01] Speaker B: So we watched the Last Jedi together, totally by happenstance. And we left that movie being like, wow, man. I cannot wait to see how people are going to respond to that. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:11] Speaker B: And that's the end of our Last Jedi talk. So he does Last Jedi and it. [00:10:15] Speaker A: Goes over really well with everyone. [00:10:17] Speaker B: It is the type of film where you think, you know, considering how big of a mass global appeal that franchise has as a whole and even as a brand, you would think that would open doors up to him. And to a degree, it does, but not in the way you would think. Instead of going bigger and bolder and maybe even crazier, his next project instead is like, clearly reserved, pulled back enough, still about mid budget. I'd say this movie was like what, 60, 70 million? Yeah, it's, it's, I mean it's, it's a decent amount. It's a gorgeous looking film and it's a film that clearly looks like every, you know, there were. They at least put 5 million on sweaters alone for at least the first film. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:04] Speaker B: Especially with the amount of stars that are in it and probably 40 million. 40 million. Crazy. But they. He goes from a $200 million film to a $40 million film. And in Thanksgiving, December, Christmas time of 2019, releases a modern day, completely original whodunit murder mystery film that is about basically an Agatha Christie esque murder mystery writer committing suicide in a mysterious way. And the people that are sort of the family surrounding it, the characters at play and then the not titular, but just iconic detective. The first time we've ever met the man, the myth, the Kentucky Fried Chicken drawl that is Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig. [00:12:01] Speaker A: A modern American, distinctly American stab at a classic detective. A classic whodunit detective. [00:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:11] Speaker A: In the spirit of Hercule Poirot. [00:12:15] Speaker B: Played wonderfully and flawlessly, I think Eddie would say by Kenneth Branagh. [00:12:19] Speaker A: And I don't have an opinion. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Have you seen, you've seen at least one of them? [00:12:25] Speaker A: No, I've not seen these movies. Well, if the first one came out. [00:12:29] Speaker B: When I think a year before this. [00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:12:33] Speaker B: Because Death of a Nile come. Death on the Nile comes out a few years after this because I saw that. [00:12:38] Speaker A: Was that like 2021. [00:12:39] Speaker B: I saw that with my ex in 21 at A, at a review screening, a preview screening. That was like eight people. Yeah, yeah. I think it was 21 for that. So I think it was either 2018, 2019. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean maybe it was the same year. [00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's funny to think because that Murder on the Orange Express adaptation has Leslie Odom Jr. Right at the time of Hamilton fame. Still have Hamilton fame. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Who ultimately will show up in this series. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:09] Speaker B: I would say better used, but that's for another time. But yeah, there's. It is going right into this. There is just you. All you need to know is that it's a murder mystery. That's all you really need. It's phenomenal how someone who feels like. Because we see a lot of trajectories like Johnson's where it's like you start with a smaller film, you go a little bit bigger. Even if it doesn't do as well as you'd hope it is maybe the next film is either the same budget, even bigger, and then that hits. And then maybe you are in a position where the Marvel Gods or someone similar, the big brand Gods will be like, you may handle this brand. [00:13:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:50] Speaker B: At least once. And then we will decide if you can come back. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yes, we will decide your fate. [00:13:55] Speaker B: Because again, it's another thing too, to keep in mind that, like, when Knives out comes out, at the time, Rian Johnson was not considered, like, he was not in Star wars jail. He's never been in Star wars jail. [00:14:07] Speaker A: Yeah, he was in Star wars jail with, like, fans, a minority of fans who were very upset. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:15] Speaker A: But, yeah, he's never been, like, stuck in Purgatory as a director. Although worth noting in the context of this trilogy as a piece, the most recent piece of his career is that I think since before these films, or at least since around the time the Last Jedi came out, it was reported that Rian Johnson had a Star wars trilogy. [00:14:43] Speaker B: That's what I was gonna bring up. Yeah. [00:14:45] Speaker A: In the works. And now he's produced an entire trilogy of his own making. And no real sign of that Rian Johnson trilogy. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Produced an entire trilogy in two seasons of a Peacock show. [00:14:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. [00:14:59] Speaker B: That apparently is very Knives out adjacent in a way. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:05] Speaker B: Have not seen any of Poker Face. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Me neither. [00:15:07] Speaker B: Heard it's great. But it's on Peacock. There's the end of that. I don't. And that's not saying Peacock is bad or good. It's just when it comes to streaming services, I don't. It's just Peacock. I don't. What else is on Peacock. That's actually. [00:15:23] Speaker A: Never mind. [00:15:24] Speaker B: Don't even answer that. I'm going off the path from this. But, like, yeah, he basically, at a certain point after is basically once he did Last Jedi and Taika Waititi did Thor Ragnarok, they were both introduced as like, these are the two guys that are gonna be making trilogies because. And again, this feels like ages ago, but it's. The truth is that the plan for the 2020s was going to be if it wasn't an Avatar sequel, because Avatar 2 was supposed to come out. I believe in 21, something like that. If it was an Avatar sequel, it was a Rian Johnson film, then Avatar sequel and then a Taika film, or like, vice versa. And it's like rotating because they were basically. They were saying, yes, we are going to do the final. Like, we're doing an Episode nine. JJ is coming back. JJ wanted to come back because he Read the script for Last Jedi, and he was like, I just kind of want to finish this. Yeah, that's the end of the Rise of Skywalker conversation. But basically they were like, okay, the 2000s is just going to be Avatar and Star wars that are not chapters. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:28] Speaker B: And nothing's going to change from that. Nothing could ever change that. So it's fascinating to think that that's what they had in mind at the time. And then just to think of the reality of things where it's like, we didn't get. We got Avatar sequels, but we didn't get either of those trilogies nearly. I mean, six years into the 2000s, we have not gotten either trilogy, nor will we probably will, unless there's a huge surprise. [00:16:54] Speaker A: I think only recently it was kind of finally reported that, like, Rian Johnson's trilogy's not happening. [00:17:01] Speaker B: No. Because I think it was a mixture. [00:17:03] Speaker A: And it was reported a while ago that Taika's was not happening. [00:17:06] Speaker B: Yes. But I think it's because. Yeah. I think it's because for Wake Up Deadman, the final film in this trilogy, when they were doing a New York screening, they had a New York screening with him and J.J. yeah. And I think that was the first time for many people that was like, the first time seeing them together publicly post Rise of Skywalker. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:24] Speaker B: And they almost made it seem like they hadn't talked to each other since 29th is like, that's not. Stop it. It's not what happened. But, yeah, he basically. He's like, yeah, I'm not in Star wars jail, but I'm also not like, that trilogy was. It was an idea, and I just fell out of it. And it makes sense because literally for the next six years, he is making these trio of films that are just, you know, what clearly wasn't supposed to be a trilogy. Like, it clearly was just like, let's do something fun. Let's do something different. Let's do something that's like a third. At least a third of the budget. Yeah. Of my last film. And, you know, let's have a cast and crew of people that are like, you know, filled with established actors and actresses that are like, you know, either have never really gotten their due or, you know, people love. But have never gotten, like, awards. [00:18:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Or just off of big franchises. A language. Chris Evans in this film. Because literally the same year is Endgame. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah. A month later. No, Six months before. [00:18:27] Speaker B: Six months before. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:29] Speaker B: He. He put down the shield to don a sweater for this film. And honestly, it's I think of his post endgame run. This is the best, if not one of the best uses of a Chris Evans performance. And also, just like, you know, you got Lakeith Stanfield, you have Tony Collette, Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon. Gosh, the kid from it as a Jared. But, you know, I'm talking about the youngster. [00:18:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Nazi child. [00:19:00] Speaker B: Yes, the Nazi child masturbating in the bathroom. Benoit Blanc says at one point, which is so funny because he doesn't masturbate in the bathroom. But it's funny that the lie, that's what sticks. Yeah. He's such a sick fuck in there. His family's eyes. Clearly he was doing that when all he was doing was just on his phone not wanting to. [00:19:17] Speaker A: The overheard words of the Nazi child masturbating in the bathroom room. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Murder it is. I think when it comes to this trilogy, there's so many things that I love about this trilogy. I will already say outright this is probably the first trilogy we've hit. We've covered in at least 10, maybe 15 episodes, at least. It feels where I feel like all three of these films are on the same level for me. [00:19:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:42] Speaker B: Pretty much like. I love all these. All. All three easy nine out of tens. And I feel like I will wait until the end to say which my favorite is at the moment, but also it could be tomorrow that could change. Like, that is kind of. These movies are just these fascinating things of Rian Johnson as a creator. Because it's like this is also the first time we are seeing Rian Johnson handle a franchise not only of his own creation, but multiple films of a franchise. [00:20:09] Speaker A: Yeah, well. And I mean, to think that, you know, a director with what, how many? Eight now. Films under his belt, I think. [00:20:17] Speaker B: Eight. [00:20:18] Speaker A: Yeah, just eight. I mean, that's not a ton. He's not been, like, you know, hugely prominent for a long time. [00:20:28] Speaker B: It's seven. [00:20:29] Speaker A: Okay. Seven. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Well, even, you know, still further to the point, you know, to. To go from kind of, you know, indie genre filmmaker working your way up to, like, slightly bigger budgets and things to suddenly doing a Star War that makes buku bucks does well, and then to pivot and just make three movies in a row in a franchise of your own creation, basically, is just interesting. And the fact that, like, yeah, he hasn't. Aside from Poker Face, he hasn't directed anything else in this time. He's been fully on the. On the Knives out train. [00:21:10] Speaker B: He's been an EP for a few things. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:13] Speaker B: Big films. He's been an EP on or producer on. And that's about it. He's very much been in Knives Out World while also dabbling to help other creators a little bit here and there. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Which also kind of brings up the subject that, I mean, I would conjecture. Is that a verb? I don't know. That it's unlikely. This remains just a trilogy, and that makes it a kind of an interesting one for us. But I think it's still. Because they have not formally announced a fourth film. But Rian Johnson, Daniel Craig have both been like, yeah, we kind of want to make as many of these as we can get away with. But Rian Johnson has, for the moment, announced that his next project is not going to be Knives Out. [00:22:03] Speaker B: No. [00:22:04] Speaker A: So that does isolate this trilogy as kind of like a single run, you know, 2019-2020. This was kind of all the man was doing in terms of directing work, and he was full bore on it and putting all of his creative faculties in it. And it shows because these three movies are very diverse, despite all being whodunits and. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And also as he brings up a conversation about the next era of filmmaking, in a sense, especially when it comes to the companies and the studios that are involved, because the sequels to these films are Netflix originals. And that was clearly never the original intention was not to be like, I'm gonna do one film with a traditional studio and then make these streaming originals. [00:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, really, it was. Netflix gave him the budget and freedom he wanted for a sequel to make it the movie that he wanted. And so he went with them. [00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah. At a time where Netflix was just giving Dave Chappelle truckloads of money they had at a certain point, gave that almost that same amount of truckload of money at one point to the rights of Knives out to get two and three. [00:23:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Which is kind of fascinating to think of because it's like you would think in that mindset, then it's like, okay, then they're probably going to try and push getting both those films out as soon as possible, when in reality, it takes three years in between two and three to come out. Like, yes, same. Between one and two. Like, there is a solid gap to build the script, build the characters, build the ideas. The visual style. Yeah, the visual style for sure. Because all three of these films are so vastly different in what they're interested in, color wise, landscape wise, lighting wise, God fucking lighting in these production design. [00:23:51] Speaker A: Set dressing, costumes, topics, themes. [00:23:55] Speaker B: Like, they're. They're very similar themes going throughout. And I think one of the best themes through all three of these films is the modernization of news as well as how we feel about the truth and how much the truth really matters in a world where people can bold face lie. And it's like, what does the truth really mean? What is really a win in a world like this? And because, like, in. In a classic kind of whodunit way, you would think, you know, ah, they find the killer and then they get sent to the police because of the thing they did. And honestly, there is a kind of interesting version of that where it's not always that case. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:34] Speaker B: In fact, usually it isn't that case. And I think it's kind of fun to see the way that they play with that and think about like, oh, yeah, there's a lot of classic and Christie novels that are very similar to that where it's just the truth is a lot of times in a gray area, and especially in a world like today where it's, you know, whoever. It's asking someone what the color gray is and you get vastly different answers to that. And it is, I think in an era where it's. You feel like there's so many kind of studios or directors about tours and writers who are kind of afraid to touch that stuff. [00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:08] Speaker B: It is wild to watch Knives out and have characters literally say, that boy is literally a Nazi feminist libtard. Stuff like that. It just kind of like stuff you'd. Liberal Snowflake. [00:25:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Crypto, Marxist, you know, theory or whatever they're talking about. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Like, really, all three of these movies really do not shy away from, like, using language of the moment. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Yes. Which, absolutely. [00:25:38] Speaker A: You know, a lot of people don't like that. I've seen that criticism leveled at all three of these films that, like, oh, they're going to age poorly because, you know, they're too plugged into exactly what's happening at that time. But yeah, I mean, every era of filmmaking, you get that, oh, my God. I mean, Cold War Films, like, you know, 80s films, just, like, it's all. It's all like that. And I think that's going to be. I think it'll make a. More interesting to watch in 20 or 30 years. Like, oh, this is a. Who done it from that era? [00:26:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:15] Speaker A: This is a whodunit from the Trump era. Like, you know, like, oh, my God. Yeah, that's just a. A fascinating thing to think about. And they're wonderfully, you know, on the pulse and wonderfully written, and I think they'll only age better. [00:26:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Cause I also think it's because of that. To show how sharp of a writer Johnson is. Like every use of a modern, whether reference or term, it is used in a way, on a purposeful way to just define the characters and what they believe in and also define the hypocrisy in those same characters. Where you have characters who, like in the first film there, where they have a. A troll, an alt right troll in their family being Michael Shannon's son. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:02] Speaker B: But you have John Johnson, who's, you know, totally fine with calling him a Nazi and a fascist. But then later on in the film, we'll have a discussion about why he voted for Trump. [00:27:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:13] Speaker B: And be like this really interesting kind of dichotomy and just kind of like where. What is your line in terms of what you're talking about? And then Toni Collette's a great example of that too, because two out of three of these films basically have like a Gwyneth Paltrow adjacent person, like personality. [00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:29] Speaker B: And Toni Collette basically has like a goop brand. She's a lifestyle influencer. She's absolutely full of her own shit. And Toni Collette is just eating that up so. Well, she's phenomenal in this film. And then in that same scene where he, like Don Johnson's character, one admits that he doesn't know where Marta is from. Yeah, I think. [00:27:50] Speaker A: Or he reveals it by, I think, claiming she's from a different. He says Uruguay or something. [00:27:55] Speaker B: I thought she said. He said Paraguay, maybe. [00:27:58] Speaker A: So. [00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think. I think Jimmy Lee Curtis says Uruguay. He says Paraguay. [00:28:02] Speaker A: She's from Guatemala. [00:28:03] Speaker B: I think so. But actually, I don't even think they fully say out loud in terms of the family realizing, oh, this is what it is. I think he says in the scene that she's from Ecuador. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:28:13] Speaker B: So they just keep changing your nationality. And it's just like. It's the fascination of this, you know, the first in what will ultimately become a series. Just seeing our first cast of characters being basically this family that is living in the shadow of a man played by the late, great Christopher Plummer, who is known for an Agatha Christie level of appreciation for his murder mystery series. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:43] Speaker B: Has like hundreds, not hundreds of books, but at least hundreds of millions of dollars into his brand. Doesn't have any adaptations of it. It's entirely just different languages, different novels. [00:28:55] Speaker A: He's a purist and won't sell the rights to the books for film adaptations. [00:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Then it's just like the film does this fascinating thing, and again, we'll get into more of the Other films. Because it's. Even when you think you know how these films are going to go, Ryan finds a different way to throw it off for you in terms of the introductions of the characters, especially its protagonist. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:17] Speaker B: But when the film starts, you were introduced to the family as they're basically sitting down with police officers just talking about what happened the night of his 80th birthday. Because the night of his 80th birthday is where he kills himself. [00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:31] Speaker B: Slices his throat in his little cubby. [00:29:34] Speaker A: Study, study at the top of the house. [00:29:36] Speaker B: And they, they basically ask the whole family and you get name cards for everybody who they are in relation to him and basically hear from each level, what is this and what is that? And at the time, we are only introduced to two detectives played by Lakeith Stanfield and, gosh, Noah Segan. Noah Segan, who is a Rian Johnson collaborator through and through. [00:30:00] Speaker A: He's friend. And he's been in almost all of Ryan Johnson's stuff. [00:30:04] Speaker B: He's in Brick, he's in Looper. I'm pretty sure he's in Brothers Bloom. When I saw Wake Up Dead man, when it was in theaters for five seconds at the Alamo Drafthouse, looking to us, the please turn off your phones thing was Noah Segan pulling out his phone while Ryan Johnson's talking. And then Ryan pulls out a fake knife and stabs him. [00:30:23] Speaker A: I remember that. [00:30:24] Speaker B: And it's like that shows just how close they are because Noah plays three different characters in all three of these movies and they're delightful either way. But he plays the cop, Lakeith Stanfield's partner, who is a huge fan of Harlan Thrombey. A great name. [00:30:42] Speaker A: Oh, Harlan Thrombey. It's incredible. [00:30:44] Speaker B: You can see the COVID font of Harlan Thrombey when you hear that. [00:30:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Written larger than the title of the book. [00:30:53] Speaker B: But like, if you've seen the trailers of this movie and you're aware that this is like a Daniel Craig led series, you. You will notice from the get go, you do not see Blanc. You do not see his character up until he pushes. You see a random figure push a key on a piano. And that's when you start to realize that there's been another figure in this room the whole time interviewing the family members. And that has been while Blanc being introduced to the audience as this, the last of the gentleman sleuths. And it's. He's famous. The, the. He's been known in this film. It's because of a New Yorker article. [00:31:30] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a big New Yorker feature about him. [00:31:34] Speaker B: Something about an actor in a jewel. I think in this one, they talk about a Kentucky Derby photo finish murder. [00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Where they use finish line cam to identify the killer. [00:31:45] Speaker B: There's another one in Glass Onion. It's to really add to, like, the very. The Christie esque, you know, kind of the classic nature of these novels. They will give you all the Benoit Blanc stuff you get is perfect for the story at hand. The little details you get here and there, but it is. You don't have to basically watch Knives out to be like, I wonder if this will come back into play and wake up Dead Man. [00:32:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:32:08] Speaker B: You're just getting a nice portrait from different angles of this. [00:32:13] Speaker A: Well, the nice thing about the way that Johnson treats his career as like an existing thing in these movies is that because each one of these films makes reference to at least one other case that we have never seen or heard anything about before and probably will never see or hear anything about. Beyond those lines of dialogue, you kind of get the impression like, oh, we just. This is just another one of his cases. We just get to sit in on it like, you know, the. The Harlan Thrombie murder happens, and then he goes and does the Kentucky Derby thing, and he goes and, you know, does the Miles Bronze mystery. And then, you know, and it's just. The man's just always. He's always working and the best. He's always making headlines. [00:33:02] Speaker B: The best part is. Is that he's embarrassed by every single reference. [00:33:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Not because he's embarrassed of the cases themselves, but he's embarrassed that he is so well known in. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:11] Speaker B: To the point where I think is in Wake Up Dead Man. Like, the way that it almost makes him stop the whole, like, wait, you're this guy is. You were on the View. And they're like, no, stop. We're done. We're done. [00:33:22] Speaker A: I think. [00:33:23] Speaker B: I mean, that kind of guy. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Yeah. To. To, you know, theory, theorize a little bit. I feel like Benoit Blanc is just somebody who, obviously, he has an ego. Like, that much is clear in these movies that he knows he's very good at what he does. He likes that he's very good at what he does. He has no problem showing people that he's very good at what it is, but I think he's embarrassed by the, like, you know, the pomp and circumstance of the fame and the media cycle that follows his work. [00:33:56] Speaker B: Yes. [00:33:57] Speaker A: And it's like, he's not gonna stop doing it because he loves doing it. And he knows he's the fucking Best at it. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:02] Speaker A: But every time he has to, you know, interview for a New Yorker article or talk to Oprah or whatever, like, it's. He's like, oh, God, this is a sham, isn't it? Everything I'm doing is a fucking sham. [00:34:15] Speaker B: It's phenomenal how much Ryan puts into little details of really selling that. Because at one point, we do even get to see the New Yorker article. And just the. The picture, the drawing, the artwork done for that. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:28] Speaker B: Is unique and is so fantastic. How. It's like, this is exactly how you would see a New York oracle about Gentleman sleuth. [00:34:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:35] Speaker B: And it's only for a scene where, like, Ransom rips the page out just for a single shot of that. And it's. Yeah, it's. It is. Like, the most fascinating thing about the three of these movies is, I feel like the most personal I think you get in terms of, like, his family line tied to a case is this movie. Because at a one at the point I forgot about this is that he reveals to Marta, played by Ana de Armas, who is the real protagonist of the film. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:05] Speaker B: Who is Harlan Thrombey's nurse, who is one of the last people to. The last person to see him alive. He basically reveals to her that Harlan used to come to Benoit's dad, who was a cop, a detective, to basically ask questions about murders and stuff to help with the books. So they had a relationship, which is kind of fascinating because it's so casually thrown out there, and it's like, the most casual. And it's like, the only time Benoit is really related to the case in a familial sense through a family member. Because the second film is more like the familiar aspect you get in that second film is more about his home life because it takes place during COVID So the first time we see him at his apartment doing something that is, I think if I said out loud right now would just be insane. So I'm gonna give it some time before we get to his introduction in that and then wake up Dead man is, I think, very fascinating because that's about more of a vulnerability in an ego sense. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Because that's the one where at that point, it almost seems like this has to be the third film, because the way that he talks about. Oh, and this is the part where Benoit Blanc solves it together. He already talks about himself like he's, you know, he. He knows the third act of any case leads to him knowing how to do this. And it's just fascinating to see Craig just, in all three of these films, find different unique ways that clearly make him just interested in this character more by tackling this aspect of this character that really hasn't been talked about and then this and that. And I just gotta say, like, as much as I think Craig is a great Bond, as much as I'm glad that Craig got to have the time, even though it feels like it took 30 years to get him to his final Bond film. Yeah, it is kind of great. I think Craig is doing something in his career, especially starting with Knives Out. I think more than anything where he is just going, he's taking jobs that he is just clearly invested in. Way more than just this is a gig. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:13] Speaker B: Like, not even saying that the Bond films are like that because, you know, it. Just pick it. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Just. [00:37:17] Speaker B: The Bond films are, again, a big blockbuster machine that is pretty much, you know, that's existed longer than any Marvel film, than any Star Wars Wars. Like, it has been around for 60 years before you talk about the novels. And so it's just kind of like he is stuck in that system. He's like, I know what a Bond film is. I know how she'd play this character. Bond is Bond. And then you get to this point where like, he's, I think, right out of Spectre, I think, is when Knives out takes place kind of between Specter. [00:37:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:37:48] Speaker B: And no Time to Die. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:50] Speaker B: Because it's. [00:37:52] Speaker A: I don't remember what year Spectre came out, but it was before this. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Yes, but it was. [00:37:58] Speaker A: I think Spectre was like 2016 one. Skyfall was 2012. [00:38:07] Speaker B: I was. Yes. I've now blanked on all the films that he's in, in the Bond franchise. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Let's see, we got Quantum of solace and that's 2008. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Skyfall. [00:38:19] Speaker A: Skyfall's 2012, I think. And then Spectra, I think, is 2016. [00:38:24] Speaker B: 16. Yes. And then there's like a six or seven year gap and then there's no time to die. [00:38:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Because no time to die came out in what, 22, 22, 23. Supposed to come out in 2020, I think. [00:38:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But see, anyway, so again, this process of, like, he is still embedded in the Bond machine. [00:38:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:42] Speaker B: They have not let him go. And he's not necessarily saying he wants to be let go, it's just he's kind of in this, in between after Spectre. Yeah. [00:38:49] Speaker A: I mean, it's one of those things you sign on to a franchise as an actor and there's no. You have no way of knowing how many years that could get stretched. Yeah. Like, you know, if you're contractually obligated to a certain number of films and then the world goes and has a pandemic. [00:39:05] Speaker B: Yeah. You're getting an ass load of money and probably spending a. At least a year. [00:39:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:11] Speaker B: On a film before like reshoots and this and that and especially with a bigger film as that. And. But at this point when he's doing Bond, his filmography is mainly just Bond with the occasional jump here and there like Cowboys and Aliens. [00:39:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:30] Speaker B: He did Adventures of Tintin, which is kind of a wild shunt from him. He's the villain in that. He's great in that movie. But he's also in cg. So I don't think a lot of people realize that the crazy haired man who's the antagonist is Daniel Craig. But his career is in this fascinating place because at the beginning of his career he is like doing. I think the first film he ever did was a king in King Arthur's a kid in King Arthur's court. He's one of the. He's one of the knights. He was in the first Angelina Jolie Lara Croft film as the love interest. Probably his most unique two films he did early on in his career is he worked with Spielberg on Munich and then he worked with Sam Mendes on Road to Perdition, which is like two films that have always. That have been on my list for a while and have been very much just like in a. This is a Daniel Craig's in these movies. This is wild and this is kind of these weird aspects of him. And then he becomes Bond and that's basically what he is. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Through Specter until Knives out and then Knives Out. He is goofy. He is committing hard to a very, very strong southern draw. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:40:37] Speaker B: To a. To a very, very Foghorn Leghorn I think is the best way to describe it. And really just committing to a character that is there to be honestly just the best type of supporting character. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:50] Speaker B: He is there in all three of these movies to be in a way the hype man to our real protagonists in each one of these movies. And with Ande Armas, it is this kind of fascinating thing of the twist because each one of these films kind of has a little bit of a twist here and there of like, not a huge, like Sixth Sense type twist, but like a narrative twist that almost makes it go like, okay, I'm invested. We're like halfway in what's gonna really kind of get me interested. Intrigued in this. And with Knives out the big thing is, is that there's this big revelation that it's very hilarious that Marta cannot lie or she will vomit. [00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:33] Speaker B: She has a. What does Blanc say? A regurgitatory repulsion to the truth. [00:41:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:42] Speaker B: Or to the. To. To fibbing or to line. And. And then she. Did she lie? And then she throws up and she says, my girl, I'm so sorry. I thought that was figurative. I thought you were speaking figuratively. And so clearly they think that she doesn't have anything to do with the death. And then you find out that she herself believes that she is the cause of Harlan's death because of a mix up of drugs. [00:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:07] Speaker B: And so halfway through the film, you're basically as the audience told. Here's the. You know, if they're looking for a killer, it technically is probably Marta. [00:42:15] Speaker A: Technically. Yeah. [00:42:16] Speaker B: So halfway through the movie, not only is the audience being told this, we're also being told by Benoit Blanc, hey, it'd be great to have you on the case, because I don't think any. I think someone on this family is not telling the truth. [00:42:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:27] Speaker B: And so. And so Martin becomes a part of the team and tries to cover her tracks at the same time. Just like trying to, you know, figure out if. If Blanc will ever get close enough to figure out if it's her. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:40] Speaker B: As well. Some mysterious black loved blackmailer who is like sending letters to her house as well as the big reveal that while the medical mishap is something that she is clearly dealing with and was, you know, entirely a mistake, it did not stop Harlan, for when he was unsound in mind to give her everything in his estate. [00:43:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:01] Speaker B: In her is will, which makes her look even more guilty even though she had nothing to do. [00:43:07] Speaker A: Didn't even know that it was going to happen. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And there's not even like. There's not even like this implication of like, was she like a lover to him or were they like. It. It is entirely. This is a man who was so lonely in a. In a sense, not in a. In a kind of an emotional sense. [00:43:26] Speaker A: Well. And he needed, I think, so disappointed in how his children turned out. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Disappointed in himself for how he never saw his success. Could basically cast a shadow so huge. [00:43:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:38] Speaker B: It affected each of his kids differently. And his kids are Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, and then Toni Collette is the widow of his second son, whose daughter in law who passed off screen. And all three of them, even though it's Toni Collette is. Yeah. His daughter in law, they all three are basically, in a sense, have a tie to him that he wants to cut loose in some way, shape or form, which leads, you know, Benoit Blanc basically admitting to the cops, one, he was hired with a wad of cash to, say, find the killer. Two, everyone has a motive as to why Thrombey could die. [00:44:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:16] Speaker B: And they would get something out of it in their heads. And three, he doesn't know who hired him. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:21] Speaker B: It all seems like it's basically. He. He basically says, it makes no sense. Compels me, though. Like, it basically is like, I clearly am walking into a trap, but this trap is delicious. I need to see what this goes to. And there is kind of. I mean, there is. It is constantly playing with you as an audience member of being like, even if you haven't read. For me personally, I've dabbled a little bit into the murder mystery Christie stuff here and there, but I've never, unfortunately, finished a full novel. But I've read murder mystery stuff in the past of other kind of authors and whatnot, and are aware of the film tropes of it and the tropes of just naturally within the genre. And so even as someone who really isn't that huge in experience of reading the full brunt of it, I can watch the movies and be like, I see what trope they're playing with, and they're really hamming it up. [00:45:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:22] Speaker B: To pull that rug in the most fascinating, like, satisfying way possible. And that's basically. I mean, that first film is basically doing that, and then you think, how could they do this again? And then the other sequels show the different ways you can still pull that rug, knowing that they're gonna pull that rug without even thoroughly still throwing you off. [00:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:45:42] Speaker B: Well. [00:45:42] Speaker A: And I think the thing that makes this both just a fascinating and super fun whodunit and also kind of a perfect introduction to Blanc as the carryover character across these movies is that like, he's, you know, he's introduced to us essentially as, you know, the greatest living detective. And he, you know, demonstrates his skill many times over throughout the film with things that he picks up on and, you know, conclusions he correctly draws from, you know, very tenuous evidence. Yeah. But the funny thing is he kind of spends the entire movie being wrong, like you said about. About Marta. Because I think that one of the first things he says to her when he's, you know, trying to get this case started and get her his little team of investigators is that he trusts her kind heart. He's like, I trust you openly. Because I can tell you're a good person. [00:46:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:51] Speaker A: And in doing so, draws a lot of incorrect conclusions about her and about her involvement in the thing and spends basically most of the movie being wrong about her. But ultimately, in the end, he's actually right to trust her because it ends up revealing the truth. And, you know, he. He. He basically, as a professional, does a lot of, you know, makes a lot of mistakes and overlooks a lot of things in order to trust her. [00:47:26] Speaker B: Mm. [00:47:27] Speaker A: But ultimately manages to solve the case because he overlooks a lot of things to trust her. [00:47:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:34] Speaker A: And it's just a wonderful little. And that'll kind of re through the other two movies that Benoit Blanc is, yes, the world's greatest detective, but he's also. He is a detective who leads with empathy. And there are other scenes peppered throughout this movie, like when he sits down to talk to Mrs. Thrombey, Harlan's mom, who's like, everybody else, thinks she's gone mentally. Cause she doesn't say a word. She barely says a word the whole movie. She just kind of stares out the window all the time. [00:48:07] Speaker B: She calls him Nana. [00:48:08] Speaker A: Yeah. She sits silently in the corner. [00:48:10] Speaker B: They don't know how old she is. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Harlan's 80 years old, so, you know, how old could she be? [00:48:16] Speaker B: Jesus. [00:48:18] Speaker A: And, you know, there's that great scene where he sits down with her, and it's just like, you know, I want to be the first, in case nobody else has said it, to tell you that I'm sorry for the loss of your son. And, you know, sits with her a minute and all of that. And there are just little bits here and there with. With Marta and with others where it's just like, man, it's nice to have this kind of big bravado figure at the center of your movie who is also the only one in the room besides our protagonist Marta, who seems to give a shit about other people. [00:48:53] Speaker B: And I'd also say, too, that it's like, on top of that, there are little moments with characters that are not super tied with Blanc, but are suspects in a way that I also would think is just very loving, because it's a very empathetic moment to have that. I think if it wasn't Johnson, other directors would do stuff like this. But I feel like, because it's Ryan and we see his later films, how much empathy, like you said, plays a huge part in the narratives that it has. One of my favorite little moments, too, is even though I think Jimmy Lee Curtis character is so fucking uptight, in every single way and is such an asshole in her own specific, specific way. Clearly a woman who has a chip on her shoulder because she is the oldest in the family and has her own company, has built something for herself and has basically made that her badge of honor that she is not a mystery novelist, murder mystery novelist like her father. You still have that great moment, I think, where she is just like, you know, finds all those letters they used to send to each other back and forth, and she goes like, I'm still waiting for that big reveal that she's not dead. This just feels like one of his novels. It's such a genuine moment of just like she's by herself in her old room, and it's Michael Shannon who finds her as her baby brother and is the one that consoles her. And it's like this moment of just like, I just, you know, I cannot believe I've gone through the funeral. I've gone through the, you know, the service, and we've had people come over to the house, and I just. It still just doesn't seem real. [00:50:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:21] Speaker B: And to have those moments and to just, you know, still have, you know, the family be like, you know, well, now that we've done everything, you know, everything will be back to normal. Nothing is out of the, you know, he killed himself. There's nothing to it. But when we start to realize that Benoit is not letting that go, that's when I think a lot of the threads start to get pulled in very unique ways, and the characters start to lash out in their own unique way. [00:50:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:46] Speaker B: And. Yeah. And I think it's what's in. [00:50:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:48] Speaker B: Benoit just has this phenomenal notion of just, like, by the end of this movie, he basically looks at Marta and goes, I figured you probably were there as soon as you slit his throat. And she's like, how do you know? And he just taps on the one single drop of blood on her shoe. [00:51:03] Speaker A: That he noticed immediately at the start of the. [00:51:06] Speaker B: He's like, I knew you probably were there when it happened, but you didn't kill him. There's something else had to have been. There's a twisted web weave. It's just like all these. A wolf den, like, these den of wolves and have their knives out, I think, is the one he brings up. And twisting the knife into one another is another one of those lines. And, yeah, he is very much just. He is extremely confident. He's very good at what he does. But at the end of the day, he also is someone who just, like, really loves that third opinion or that second opinion that is completely the third party that is outside of this all. [00:51:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:44] Speaker B: And leads into some just phenomenal moments that lead to the family just kind of bringing in on one another, you know, basically just showing their worst colors towards Marta when it's revealed that she gets everything and they get nothing. [00:51:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:59] Speaker B: Even though they're all, well, well off. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Yeah. There's this kind of thread running throughout the movie, and it's not subtle. [00:52:07] Speaker B: No. [00:52:07] Speaker A: About, you know, the family is constantly telling Marta and telling other people about Marta that she's a part of the family. She's just, you know, she's just another one of us. You know, we've always taken care of her because she's always taking care of us. [00:52:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:24] Speaker A: And, like, just. I think every character, every family member has a scene where they basically just patronize her to her face and, you know. Yeah. The instant that she is revealed to be the inheritor to all of Harlan's assets. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:43] Speaker A: Just instantly turn on is when they. [00:52:45] Speaker B: Go, oh, that's right. Your mother is undocumented. [00:52:48] Speaker A: Right. [00:52:48] Speaker B: So if you do anything to cross us, like you're doing right now, your mother is going to get deported. [00:52:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:54] Speaker B: Like, honestly, one of the best moments, because I think, Michael, everyone is phenomenal in this movie. I mean, it's one of those situations where I think, you know, the huge highlights. I think this is Ana de Armas's best performance, the stuff we've ever seen of her. It's one of Chris Evans's best performances. He is such a little shithead in this movie. He's great. He just eats everything. Eats pain up. [00:53:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:17] Speaker B: He loves social awkwardness and loves being painfully just rude to his family. [00:53:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:24] Speaker B: And it's so much fun, especially with the name. Is it Hugh? Hugh Ransom Thrombi. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:32] Speaker B: And. But, like, Michael Shannon is just hilarious in this movie. Even though he's playing it super straight, I think still one of the funniest things. [00:53:40] Speaker A: I mean, he is probably like, if, you know, if we were in a room with these people, had met these people, interacted with them as real people. His character, Walt, I think is his name. [00:53:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Walt. [00:53:54] Speaker A: Walt is probably the least funny person in the family, just in terms of his actual comedy chops, his wit. But Michael Shannon is so fucking funny in this movie. [00:54:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:08] Speaker A: Like, just playing that straight man. [00:54:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, is when his. His son and his niece are going, like, fascist, liberal snowflake. It ends and we're going. I don't even know what any of that means. Like, completely straight. [00:54:22] Speaker A: Well, he Looks, I think I can't remember if it's. Oh, he's talking to Don Johnson's character. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:33] Speaker A: He just looks him in the face and says, you want to go like, you want to physically fight right now. [00:54:37] Speaker B: The man with the cane, with the cane going after Don Johnson, who. Don Johnson, again, is another actor in this who. It's like at this point, many people, you know, are our parents and the older generations would know him from so many things. Definitely Miami Vice is his biggest thing then from modern times. I mean, he's just in everything. It seems like now he just sneaks in here and there. I. I have to tell people that that is Dakota Johnson's dad. [00:55:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:03] Speaker B: The amount of times I'd be like, oh, by the way, I think I actually told Adam when I was rewatching Knives out, it's like, yeah, that's Dakota Johnson's dad. He's like, wait, what? I was like, yeah, yeah. The guy who plays the funny racist from Django Unchained. Is it Big Daddy? [00:55:16] Speaker A: Yeah. He returns to play the funny racist in Knives out and has a something. [00:55:22] Speaker B: That again, shows just how well done Ryan's script is. Is that when he is talking to the cops, he says a line from Hamilton, immigrants forget the job done. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:35] Speaker B: And then says he saw it at the public. And I think if you do a deep dive when someone did that, they said that is an insane pool because that is like the Off Broadway. Like, you had to pull some strings to see that before it hit actual Broadway. So it's like, that's how fucking rich and how early this guy. [00:55:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:54] Speaker B: And then he had. He's just a sleaze bag cheating on Jamie Lee Curtis. And you find out that like his whole thing is that Harlan was going to out him to his wife. [00:56:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:06] Speaker B: To Jamie Lee. And it is. Yeah. Everyone is just so funny, whether intentionally or unintentionally. And that's like kind of the best part about it. And then when they're meant to be serious and intense, it doesn't take away from those moments because like, Michael Shannon, again, I brought him up initially because it's like he's got some of the biggest laughs for me. [00:56:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:27] Speaker B: Because he's just so straight faced. Because Michael Shannon just every time he does an interview, he's like, I just, I was just told to say it like this. I mean, the guy, the guy did like one of the funniest, funnier dive videos. And every time he talks about it, they just said. They just told me to read it as Intensely as I could. [00:56:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:43] Speaker B: Not be funny, just be intense. And I guess that's funny. But there's a scene where he shows up at Marta's apartment and just overshadows her in height and is clearly intimidating her. And it's like this whole time we've seen Walt is kind of like the bruised puppy dog little son. [00:57:02] Speaker A: Yeah. It kind of gets pushed aside by the other more socially domineering kids. [00:57:06] Speaker B: And then now Walt has shown up to Marta's apartment to threaten her. And it's uncomfortable and it's genuinely tense. [00:57:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:15] Speaker B: And it also makes you go, oh, I knew you were probably a son of a bitch, too, but now you really are a son of a bitch. [00:57:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:21] Speaker B: And like, all this is, like, again, in a cast filled with Michael Shannon, Jimmy Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Christopher Plummer. Christopher Plummer. [00:57:31] Speaker A: God. Which I just. Yeah. He is a secret ingredient in this film. And I agree with you, what you said earlier, that, like, I pretty much love these. All three of these movies equally across the board. And that only was reaffirmed in rewatching them for this pod. But this movie does have Christopher Plummer, which is something the other two films do not have. [00:57:54] Speaker B: No. [00:57:54] Speaker A: And don't really even have an analog for. Which is a likable. A likable victim that we actually get to know. [00:58:06] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [00:58:07] Speaker A: Because Harlan has quite a bit of screen time via flashbacks and at the beginning of the film before his death. [00:58:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:14] Speaker A: And also, you know, kind of through Marta's memories because she and Harlan were very personally close. Yeah. As she was his kind of nurse and de facto personal assistant. He is just so fucking good in this movie. I mean, Christopher Plummer's, like, always good, but it's insane, the level of. I don't know, just the character and depth he puts into every little line. [00:58:40] Speaker B: I don't know about you, but this is probably the first time seeing the movie since he passed, like, post his passing. [00:58:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Because by the time. I mean, because the movie came out, he was still alive and he was still a few years after. But, like, it is. It's one of those movies where it's like. It's definitely not supposed to hit you in that way where it's like, man, he's actually gone. But now watching the movie, it's just like, he's so good in the little time he has. He has my. I think my second favorite line or my favorite line where he's. This is elderly abuse when. When March is being him and go. And he has. [00:59:10] Speaker A: He's so good when he's being the little. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Yeah. He's like, please. Earthquake. What are you done? Let me win. He's just. He's such a baby in the best way when he's with Marta and it's the most vulnerable. [00:59:24] Speaker A: Ah, you gave me 100 milligrams of. [00:59:26] Speaker B: The good stuff and that's bad. Can we. [00:59:29] Speaker A: And Marta's like, can we not call it the good stuff right now? [00:59:32] Speaker B: And then I think leads into my favorite little comedic moment, which is probably, you know, this would be great. Great for a book premise. Like he's writing down. You could kill someone. Like dying. He is. [00:59:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:44] Speaker B: It is just the closest. Yeah. Would be, I guess in the later films something like Brolin in terms of having like an older character. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:53] Speaker B: That you are like, oh, yeah, he's. [00:59:54] Speaker A: In this movie gets depth similar to Christopher Plummer, but he's not like. [00:59:58] Speaker B: No. [00:59:59] Speaker A: Like he's a piece of shit. [01:00:00] Speaker B: No. Like, it's clearly Plumber fits that of kind. Kind of same, I think part. And like, you know, when it comes to a cast, like a stack cast like this and a whodunit like this is. You see someone like that and you probably wonder this. He probably is the victim of this film. You can almost tell, especially with like certain posters or like even trailers, how they talk about it, which a lot of the Kenneth Branagh films also do as well when it comes to like, you know, you see like the Murder in the Ori Express and you see like, here's this person. This person and Johnny Depp. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:31] Speaker B: And you're like, I'm having a strange feeling that I think one of these people is only gonna be in it for like 10 minutes. And Plummer, it does have that energy of like. Well, if you're doing like the legacy and the estate of like this well known murder mystery novelist who's been around for decades. It's gonna be the old man in the room and he's. And he's. But the way that they just characterize him. And there's this phenomenal scene because, like again, Brian being just a very tight, very cheeky writer. Every single one of these films has these great little foreshadowing lines that really you'll keep in mind, you know. Oh, the big moments that'll kind of come out later. Like these very micro moments that lead on to foreshadowing to the big macro events towards the end of the film where like his big description of his relationship with Ransom, played by Chris. Chris Evans, is basically that he sees too Much of himself. And Chris Evans, right. Basically says he's so confident, like I was at that age, that he can't tell a stage prop or a real knife from a stage prop. Which is so funny because it foreshadows later on when it's revealed that Chris Evans really was like the one who was trying to kill Harlan at the beginning and then failed because Marked is so good at her job. She actually didn't mess up. Up. [01:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:53] Speaker B: And that unfortunately, Harlan did kill himself, but it wasn't. There was an attempt. And when Chris Evans has found out and they find a way to kind of push him in a corner, he decides, oh, well, I'm already in the bag. Might as well this up. Tries to kill Marta with a knife and it's a prop. [01:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:11] Speaker B: Thinking, oh, sweet, my grandpa killed himself with a real knife. I think all of these knives in this knife chair are real. He finds. [01:02:17] Speaker A: He finds retractable. [01:02:19] Speaker B: He finds a. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Clearly full of real knives. [01:02:23] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a great throne. A great throne that I think is. They say the title once of what that book is and it's the silly. All of his titles are silly as. And I love it. It's a great movie. These all three movies are great. But this starts off so strong that it's like when this movie ends, it is genuinely when I remember seeing it in theaters because I think I saw this in theaters Thanksgiving night or like Black Friday of 2019 where like I just like, no, I think we all were kind of like with our family still doing stuff for Thanksgiving and whatnot. No, we weren't doing anything after work and I was working both those days. And so it was just like me. And I was like, well, I guess I'll just go see Knives out at like 11pm So I saw like 11pm showing of that film in like an empty theater. And it just was like, what the fuck? This is just so good. Like, I again, I was like, I liked his previous films, but this is just something else. This feels like a mile above even my favorite of his other films and leads to be like, okay, what's this man gonna do next? And the craziest thing about seeing this film again for this episode is that I didn't realize, or at least I forgot this was a Lionsgate movie. [01:03:34] Speaker A: Yeah, this is. [01:03:35] Speaker B: This was. At one point, Knives out was owned by the same company that does at one point did the Saw films to all the Twilight movies and is still using all of Suzanne Collins's spin offs for the Hunger Games on top of. [01:03:48] Speaker A: The Hunger Games, right? Do they. [01:03:50] Speaker B: The Knives out was a part of that, but the movie comes out. I think the movie does fairly well. Not huge gangbusters, but I think solid. Yeah, I think review wise it does incredibly well. [01:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it was incredibly well received. Especially I think, you know, after like the kind of tumultuous reception to the Last Jedi. I think it was, you know, kind of just blew the doors off. Three over 300 million. I mean, that's incredible on a 40 million budget. Yeah. [01:04:18] Speaker B: But apparently there's just like this. There seemed like there's this energy that, you know, if there was going to be another Knives out, would Lionsgate do it? And maybe there wasn't a for sure thing until it was announced that Netflix decided, hey, we really want to get into the business of, I don't know, making blockbuster films and, or, I don't know, Academy Award driven, like, you know, very well regarded movies and have them be under the Netflix original brand. And if you're not gonna do Knives out, we'll pay you 60 million for the rights for 2 and 3. [01:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:57] Speaker B: Which again, a lot of people just went, especially us. We went like, that's a two and three. You do two more. [01:05:03] Speaker A: Right. [01:05:03] Speaker B: That's insane. I mean, it felt crazy that you wanted to like be like, oh, by the way, this is a trilogy now. It's like, okay, right, right. So, you know, they pick it up in the process of this is happening when they pick up the rights to the Knives out franchise. [01:05:19] Speaker A: A little thing like three or four other studios were bidding. [01:05:22] Speaker B: Yes. [01:05:23] Speaker A: The sequel rights too, and Netflix got them. [01:05:26] Speaker B: And Netflix just snuck in during this process. I mean, I don't know if you heard about this little thing called the COVID pandemic happened. [01:05:34] Speaker A: Refresh me. [01:05:35] Speaker B: Refresh you. [01:05:36] Speaker A: It was not a great time actually. That's funny thing. I'll let you do your preamble. I'll save it for when we actually talk about the movie, but go ahead. [01:05:46] Speaker B: No, but in the process, I think when the announcements fully, like Netflix has picked up the next two films and I believe at that time they said the next film is going to be called Glass on Onion or at least Ryan maybe a few months after has picked up like, yeah, I'm gonna do it. It's called Glass Onion should be coming out at this point. It's during COVID time. It's during probably late 2020 when we're having this like, okay, cool, that Netflix is picking something up that I feel like, you know, if Knives out came out in 2020. Unfortunately, I think it wouldn't. It would not have made the money that it would have made that it did in 2019, literally a year prior. So it made sense for Netflix to pick those two films up. But it is that energy of, like, what? You know, at the end, like, what at the end of the day, what are these movies going to cover? And if so, like, is this going to be, like, a direct sequel to Knives Out In a way that is going to be like, are we going to have to, like, remember the stuff in the first film? Or is it going to be like, I got the Christie novels, where it's like, you know, Benoit Blanc, you know him from Knives out, he's going to do his own thing. Don't worry about anything else in terms of the narrative structure of it. We get to class ended, we see that they're wearing masks. We hear that it takes place in May of 2020. Movie comes out in November 2022. It is, at this point, we are two years since, you know, two years and a few months since the pandemic locked everything down. If you say anything about COVID in any kind of piece of media, most people will just trash it immediately and say, I don't want to be fucking reminded of what I just saw yesterday. What. I'm still living to an ascent. So to hear that Glass Onion is going to take place in the peak of all that. It is that energy of, oh, God. Ryan's really choosing a very interesting, a very modern and a very difficult thing, which is, I think now. There's no real term for it, but I think is now just called it Covid Cinema a little bit. [01:07:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:46] Speaker B: Just kind of that. Whether it is, like, actually dealing with that, the pandemic time, or just, you know, dealing with a virus that is putting people in their houses and they can't be next to each other. Like, definitely not what we're talking about. Like, in. To have that movie kind of be talking about. It's like, okay, what is this all gonna entail? And to be completely honest, and I think I would be interested to hear, I would never have expected what Glass. [01:08:13] Speaker A: Onion ended up being in terms of a Covid film. [01:08:17] Speaker B: In terms of just everything as a Covid film, I think this is, like, the best case scenario. [01:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah, well. [01:08:22] Speaker B: And I. [01:08:23] Speaker A: That's what I was gonna mention earlier. I completely forgot until this, really, that it was a Covid film. And. Yeah. So when they do the whole sequence where they're all. Obviously, it opens with them all quarantined and Then fucking Ethan Hawke shows up at the dock with a instant. Basically instant vaccine. Throat gun. [01:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:42] Speaker A: He's like, you're good. [01:08:44] Speaker B: There's so many candidates. [01:08:45] Speaker A: I love that, though, because it was like, okay, we're gonna open with that Covid cinema experience, but then, like, we're kind of putting that behind us as we go into the industry. [01:08:59] Speaker B: But, yeah, it is. It's funny to bring this up because this. This word has had a. A controversial tie to Johnson in a lot of ways because. Because of a big blockbuster film we have already talked too much about in this episode. But Glass Onion in my head is, you know, the one I was kind of worried about going into the most this time around because we had both already seen Wake Up Dead man, and we talked about a decent amount in our best of 2025, because we have it on our best of 2025. So, you know, we had just seen it. Knives Out. I've literally. I think literally before we decided to put Knives out on the list for this year, I just. My YouTube algorithm would just put a. Here, here's some Knives out soon. And I would just be like, I'll play a little bit of it. And then I just watch the whole fucking thing. So I've been watching Knives out scenes like that for, like, the last five years, I think every so often. I think I've seen the end reveal more times than I've seen the actual film in full. [01:09:55] Speaker A: Really? [01:09:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's one of those things that just kind of pops up. Yeah. Anytime there's a Benoit Blanc compilation, I'm there, especially from that first film, because all his lines are just delightfully delicious. They only get better with each film. But this Glass Onion is a phenomenal subversion of expectations, I think, through and through when it comes to what the actual mystery is. How the mystery is handled. Our cast of characters, the pacing, the protagonist, the location, just everything attached to it is not at all what I could have expected from a Knives out two other than the fact that, like, the full confidence of it, the confidence, the star power. And hilariously, I would probably argue, the most star power out of all three of these films is probably the first film, I would say. [01:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, if only. Well, yeah, yeah, probably in general. But it's also like, the biggest cast of, like, names of names that you would recognize because Glass Onion is definitely a smaller cast. And then Wake Up Deadman as we'll get to, just focuses less on the ensemble. [01:11:08] Speaker B: It's more of a, I think, character driven, still very Rising Star energy. A lot of across the board Ryan seems to clearly have in these films. And I feel like if he. Regardless of how many more he makes, I hope he makes 18 more by the time we hit 2030. [01:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:25] Speaker B: But like, he clearly has this great idea of having a nice mixture of established actors and actresses who are phenomenal and have been doing this forever. So, like, you can throw them in their pitch perfect. They will handle it every single time. Mixed with rising stars that already have two or three kind of projects under their belt that have shown how good they are and how willing they are to be able to mix in with the old. The old guard, per se. Not the Netflix film the old Guard, just the phrase the old guard. And that's the case with Glass Onion, because Glass Onion, you have Kate Hudson, you have Dave Bautista, you have Ed Norton, you've got Daniel Craig back, you've got Leslie Odom Jr. You have Katherine Hahn mixed in with Madeline Klein. Jessica, I think Hennick or Henwick? [01:12:17] Speaker A: Henwick. [01:12:18] Speaker B: Henwick, who is phenomenal. I love her. I think she's. I think I loved her even more this time around on my third watch of this movie than before. You have. And of course, our protagonist, which is probably. Even though she is a popular singer and had been in a Oscar winning film before, but she wasn't the biggest part of that film. Janelle Monae. [01:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:37] Speaker B: The first time I had seen her act, I think, was Moonlight Moonlighting. She's great in that. And this was like she ends up becoming the de facto protagonist. And, you know, when she's introduced in the movie, it is not like how Honor de Armas is presented. [01:12:56] Speaker A: Right. [01:12:56] Speaker B: She basically is introduced with the rest of the cast with Benoit, and then is treated like she's a murder mystery subject for the entire thing for like the first 90 or so minutes. [01:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:13:11] Speaker B: Up until the movie does a little twisty and goes, actually, Janelle Monae is playing Double Duty. [01:13:18] Speaker A: Yes. [01:13:18] Speaker B: The real protagonist is the twin sister of the woman she's been pretending to be this whole time. Because the whole thing about the Glass Onion mystery is that while the initial mystery is Benoit Blanc gets invited to basically Elon Musk's private island, played by Miles. Miles. I can't remember. [01:13:41] Speaker A: Miles Braun. [01:13:42] Speaker B: Miles Braun, played by Edward Norton. He gets invited to this murder mystery game that Miles Braun is putting on. Basically putting on a game of oh, who Killed Me. And then he hangs out with all of his rich friends over the weekend. [01:13:53] Speaker A: His disruptors. [01:13:54] Speaker B: His disruptors who all met at the Glass Onion bar when that still is around. And then Benoit Blanc shows up and he goes, oh, my gosh, Benoit Blanc's here. That's great. Why the fuck are you here? I didn't invite you. And so it becomes, like, him going, oh, my gosh, who invited me? And then, you know, Benoit goes, maybe someone invited you because they're actually gonna try and kill you. [01:14:16] Speaker A: Right, right. [01:14:17] Speaker B: And then the twist ends up being Benoit's a fucking liar. [01:14:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:14:21] Speaker B: That's not the case. [01:14:23] Speaker A: The inversion of formula this time around is that it's all a con by Benoit and the protagonist. [01:14:31] Speaker B: Yes. [01:14:32] Speaker A: Who are in on it together. [01:14:34] Speaker B: Yes. [01:14:35] Speaker A: Of course. Then things go sideways and a real murder must be solved and all those things. [01:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I feel like when we got in before it came out, or when it was. At least when I was watching it, I always kind of was like. I always kind of had the idea that Janelle Monae was the protagonist, like Ana de Armas. So when the film just kind of treats her like this mysterious presence that clearly has a grudge with every single person on this island because they all fucking burned her, you're like, this is a cool twist on things, but, like, I don't feel like we're getting a lot. [01:15:11] Speaker A: Yeah. A lot of substance to her. [01:15:13] Speaker B: And then when we start to feel like we're getting something of her is when something big happens where, like, someone nearly, like, nearly kills her. You think she's dead at first, and then you find out later, no, that was. She was thankfully saved by a book in the jacket. A classic trope. And I'll never not be. I'll never notice love. [01:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:15:32] Speaker B: And then you find out that this. You know, the reason why you haven't been told is because in reality, it's her. I believe she's from North Carolina or South Carolina. Her twin sister, who is an English teacher. [01:15:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:15:43] Speaker B: Or a school teacher who believes that her very uppity yet brilliant sister, who is reportedly committed suicide, actually was killed. It was foul play. And so she decides to be like Benoit Blanc in your nice New York apartment, I imagine. I know you're having so much fun. Playing Among Us with. [01:16:11] Speaker A: Was it a Playing Among Us with Stephen Sondheim, Natasha Leone? [01:16:17] Speaker B: Abdul. [01:16:18] Speaker A: Abdul or Kareem Abdul Jabbar? [01:16:20] Speaker B: Yeah, Kareem Abdul Jabbar. It's like they're all playing on Zoom and he's playing among us in the bathroom tub, which is fucking hilarious. Even though that is probably going to be. Out of all three of these movies, that has to age the most. Like milk. And probably when something does age. It does introduce the idea that Benoit Blanc fucking hates mystery games. He hates Among Us and he hates Clue. Yeah. And I love it. I love. And I love. The reason why is because he hates checklists, which is perfectly understandable and perfect for his character. [01:16:56] Speaker A: He sums up his dislike for these cheap games in a. In a line that also, I think, kind of sums up the movie. [01:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:05] Speaker A: Or not. Not the movie, but kind of the trilogy in general. And that he says, I am very bad at stupid things. And that's his excuse for being bad at Clue. It's his excuse for being bad at Among Us. And I think it also, you know, it speaks to his difficulty in dealing with a lot of the people in these mysteries because they're all up to such stupid shit. They all have such stupid plans, and that's. That ends up kind of being the. The. You know, the climactic issue in this film is he's like, this is also fucking stupid. Like, no wonder I couldn't figure it out. You're an idiot. [01:17:44] Speaker B: Yeah. He's a man that, again, loves to live in the gray. He loves being like this seems stupid. This could be work like this. No one would do this. But what if they did? Like, he's just doing that, and then constantly. And then Glass Onion is. Yeah. Where he just goes. This is so black and white and so straightforward. It is genuinely embarrassing. And I'm annoyed by this. Like, his big rant in Glass Onion is just being an. To Edward Norton, because he's like, literally everything you have done in this film to be the spirit, you know, the secret murderer is just taken from ideas everyone else has given you. [01:18:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:22] Speaker B: You hired Gillian Flynn to write your murder mystery and he solved it in 30 seconds. Yeah. Which is. I will say, I was so glad to go into this movie and not feel like, oh, this is the weakest of the three, but in fact, have a newfound love for this movie, as I think the funniest of the three. [01:18:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:18:41] Speaker B: Glass Onion is so funny. Daniel Craig is having an absolute ball being a detective during COVID time that literally has no cases because he's supposed to be in guacamole. [01:18:53] Speaker A: And he's, like, withering away because he doesn't have any cases to solve. [01:18:57] Speaker B: He lives the most, again, you know, personal life we have ever gotten in any of these three films. He is living with his partner, played by Hugh Grant, who is constantly berating Blanc because he hasn't left the bathroom in days. He has all these books next to his bathtub, and he's playing among us on a. On a dinner tray in his bathtub while he's wearing like a scrunchie. He's like wearing. He's got a cigar lit. [01:19:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:29] Speaker B: He's smoking in his bathroom and he's just like, I just need anything. Anything to keep me occupied. And then when he's given this case, he's like, ah, yes, this has to be something, you know, stimulating and literally behold. It's the dumbest case he's ever opposite. But it also, I think it has this interesting idea of it being. Even though it is, you know, the most obvious and the most groan inducing to him. It is. I think the villain in this movie, I would say is even more evil than I would say ransom. [01:20:01] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [01:20:02] Speaker B: In terms of like just the whole idea of the fact that like, when they discover what the real thing is going on and who killed Annie, I believe. [01:20:11] Speaker A: Is it Andy? [01:20:12] Speaker B: Andy. [01:20:13] Speaker A: Andy is the twin sister who was murdered. [01:20:15] Speaker B: Is it Heather? Is she the one that is. [01:20:17] Speaker A: I think that's right. [01:20:19] Speaker B: Who is, you know, Janelle Monae is playing the twin sister. The country bumpkin kind of esque. Like I'm not smart enough to understand these things when she's really just extremely smart. [01:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:30] Speaker B: Very well. Has a great head on her shoulders. And it's not what she would say a. Which is her favorite word in this film. And she's great. She a bunch of sheatheads and she's phenomenal. Her rich voice is what she describes that Andy has. Fantastic. And again one. Yeah. Once Janelle Monae shows up in terms of like being told like what her whole tie is to everything. Because like, again, what's so great about this movie as well is that Andy already said before, but like, Miles Braun talks about his group as the Disruptors, when in reality these are all people that Andy brought together as friends trying to lift each other up. And then. [01:21:14] Speaker A: And then they latched themselves onto Miles Braun's success when he started taking off. [01:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah, because Miles is, you know, constantly. He is a. He is an idea man to the point where he is fucking wearing Steve Jobs black turtleneck and jeans combo when he's trying to propose to Andy to use hydrogen gas for homes. A crystallized hydrogen fuel to basically say, we could not saying this in his own way because he's stupid, but basically turning multiple houses, cars into Hindenburg. Hindenburg casket bomb situations. Yeah. [01:21:53] Speaker A: The kind of the origin of his fame and power and wealth is that he basically stole Andy's idea for a renewable energy after she realized that it was a dangerous idea and refused to move forward with the tech. He basically, you know, screwed her over, took the idea and kind of ran with it. [01:22:20] Speaker B: But what's. I mean, what's great about Andy, as well as her twin sister, is that this whole idea of the disruptors being, you know, the only people that are saying the truth and no one else is like them. And they. [01:22:32] Speaker A: We tell it like it is. [01:22:33] Speaker B: We tell it like it is. No one really controls me. And then in reality, very similarly to Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate. [01:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah, the manosphere. [01:22:42] Speaker B: The manosphere. And just conservative grifters, people that use snowflakes in a unironic way. [01:22:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:49] Speaker B: They are actually, the snowflakes. They are clearly tied to the teat of capitalism. [01:22:53] Speaker A: Right. [01:22:54] Speaker B: And the bullshit that they spew is not at all what they really, really believe, but they just do it because they think it actually is what everyone wants to hear when it's not the truth. Or they're just fucking stupid. Like, Kate Hudson's character is stupid, but she's delightful. She's hilarious. Birdie J is incredible. [01:23:10] Speaker A: I love how much Benoit butters her up. [01:23:14] Speaker B: Yes. [01:23:15] Speaker A: And also seems like the impression I get from Craig's performance regarding Bertie J is that, like, he actually is quite a big fan of her. [01:23:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:23:27] Speaker A: Knows that the more he gets to know her, the less he's gonna like her. [01:23:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I think it's like, it really plays into his character. [01:23:34] Speaker A: A fan of her as a celebrity. Yes, but not as a person. [01:23:37] Speaker B: But I love that, like, it plays, I think, into his character of, like, loving the Gray as well. Is that the movie doesn't outright say that Benoit Blanc is gay. He's definitely queer. But it is. And it could. He could just be. Just, you know, likes men and that's it. But the thing is that there is this kind of. He has this charisma and this, like, captivation captivity. Like, he just loves to get to know people. He just likes talking to people. That when Bertie J. Is absolutely just thirsting over him, he just loves it and loves just talking and hearing what the fuck she's saying. Well, also, like you say, is a fan of just her as a celebrity and plays along with it. There's never a scene where he's just like, women. Like, he's just clearly like, oh, she's done. That's very flattered, but I'm taken, like, that kind of energy, but also having a fun time because it's like a summer vacation before it really gets serious. And it's just fun to see Just kind of like Ryan play with the idea of just being like, yeah, this is Benoit's life. He's got a beautiful partner in Hugh Grant, who's clearly baking and making food for him. And they live happily. And they're nice upstate or their nice apartment next to. Is it. Are they next to Central Park? [01:24:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they're on. My guess is they're on the Upper west side. [01:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah, they're right next to Doc Ockslab and Spider Man 2. But it is just like, yeah, he's living a little lovely life, except for the fact that he's so bored he could just, like, die. Like, he's so dramatic, withering away. Yeah, he's withering away. He's just an old queen in his bathtub. But it's just so much fun to see him play off these people and ultimately just give in to. When he realizes that there is no real legal way to get around the fact that Miles Braun is an asshole. Murdered Andy. But there's no reason. There's no evidence of why he would. [01:25:30] Speaker A: Do such a thing. [01:25:31] Speaker B: And all the Disruptors are fucking cowards and are shitheads. And so he gives in to what we've seen from the very beginning of the film, which is when Andy gets the box at the very beginning of the movie, and he just breaks the fuck out of it. The whole beautiful. The box is gorgeous. There's this big box of everyone. Every Disruptor gets that just. They have to play basically, child games, nursery rhyme, ass shit to just basically get a card that says, come to my island at this date. Which is funny because when Daniel Craig talks about how elementary and rudimentary these games are, Miles Braun is just, like, insulted. [01:26:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, simple children. [01:26:18] Speaker B: Simple children's puzzles. But to start off the film basically being like a murder mystery is always fun because of the comeuppance of the antagonist or the reveal of who the murderer is and whatnot. And a lot of the times that come up, and it's just like, you're going to jail or you're gonna die, and, you know you're gonna get your justice. That is in the, like, in the eyes of the law. And the reality is Miles Braun is rich, as he's a billionaire that literally could get away with anything. [01:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:26:50] Speaker B: And when Benoit Blanc realizes that that's the case, it is. Why don't you take some liquid courage and, you know, finish this off for yourself and then basically just takes, you know, Heather and his. Yeah, just does this beautiful. Just bashing everything, destroying the house and being like, if this doesn't mean anything to you, then I can just destroy it all. [01:27:13] Speaker A: Yes. [01:27:14] Speaker B: And they all get some catharsis out of just destroying Miles Braun's place and leading to them. Phenomenal scenes. I mean, just phenomenal lines. Phenomenal moments with these characters. This cast is. I would say. Do you think that these characters, even though they're absolute shitheads, do you think they're worse in the Thrombie family? I would. Oh, yeah, I think so. [01:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:27:39] Speaker B: I mean, these are, I would say, because. [01:27:41] Speaker A: Are not just entitled rich assholes, but also, like, influencers who are affecting the minds of American culture. [01:27:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And I also will say, stupid props to Rian Johnson being a cheeky in all three of these films. But you have Dave Bautista in this film. And then there's a reference in Wake Up, Dead man as well. But have Dave Bautista be this manosphere, you know, horse dick pilled, you know, pedaling dude. And there's like, a single shot of him scrunching up like a towel in disgust and hatred. And one of his tattoos on his knuckles is the fucking Empire logo from Star Wars. Like, clearly being like. Like, these people don't understand the big brands that they constantly say are. You know, when they weren't woke, they meant something. And it's like, when they weren't woke, they were fighting against people. Like, you shut the fuck up. And then in Waco, Dead man, there's a great joke about, yeah, we're gonna be like father and son, like the rebels. [01:28:47] Speaker A: We're gonna rule the world. Like father and son. Oh, yeah. Like the rebels. [01:28:52] Speaker B: Like the rebels. Just like, what the fuck? But to have him just put those cheeky Star wars moments in there. [01:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:28:58] Speaker B: And the ca. The cast is great because there's this kind of like. Yeah, there's this energy. Like, the Thrombi family sucks, but these influencers go in between. The idea of. You have influencers that don't understand that a sweatshop is not a shop that makes sweats. It is. It is not what they entailed. [01:29:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:16] Speaker B: And then you have people that are like, you know, I think this time around, I really liked Jessica Henwick's character. [01:29:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:23] Speaker B: Peg. And then Madeline Klein's character, Whiskey, because they both are, you know, these very out basically in the shadows of the disruptors to a degree. Whiskey is fully shown initially as the sex appeal Duke's arm candy that also, Miles clearly is also being used to be, you know, a bargaining chip for Miles to give him something. Because Whiskey has clearly had sex with Miles Constant Multiple times. It's also funny when she's introduced because even though Kate Hudson, who is just. She plays dimwitted so well, and I know she's so intelligent and so such a good. Generally a good actress. Yeah, it's so funny. Her funniest part, I think, is when she is, like, in her full, like, look how sexy I am outfit. I'm doing so great. And then Madeline Klein comes out of the water almost like a swimsuit model washes her out. And then he's like, she's half a rage. She's like, yeah, I'm gonna go lay in the sun. And it's like, just a fun cut. Kate Hudson's got great moments in it. But, like, yeah, Peg is clearly working for someone who is stupid. And whether or not she knows it probably is racist and is just complete disregard of just human life in a lot of way, yet she also is like, I'm using Birdie as a bounce pad for my own career. Which we never really find out what that is. [01:30:51] Speaker A: No. In terms of the implication that she, like, tried. She left working for Birdie to try and do something else, and she couldn't make that work. [01:31:00] Speaker B: I think she worked at, like, a Kohl's or something. Yeah. [01:31:02] Speaker A: So she wound up back with Birdie. [01:31:04] Speaker B: And then Whiskey as a character, she is clearly pushed as, like, I hate feminist. Ew. I love my boobs. [01:31:12] Speaker A: Yeah. She's used as the token kind of conservative mouthpiece woman of like, oh, yeah, I'm a woman. But also, women belong in the kitchen, and I love tits. [01:31:22] Speaker B: Why would I want rights when I can make my man a nice, hot meal at the end of the day? And then later, she's like, I mean, if I'm ever gonna jump off into politics, I think I need to, really. And it's like. [01:31:32] Speaker A: Which makes it clear she's been thinking about a political career for some time. And also, she's just miscalculated in attaching herself to him. [01:31:40] Speaker B: Clearly smarter than she lets on and is totally. Probably more progressive than she puts on. [01:31:46] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. [01:31:47] Speaker B: And it's so. I mean, she's just. It's so funny how this cast of characters, you know, Ryan finds another way to bring in just a barrel full of assholes that are just assholes in a different way. Yet you can see the captivating kind of element of each one being. There is a good person in each and every one of them, but it is covered entirely in shit, because they're all shitheads and have been shitheads for years. [01:32:13] Speaker A: Well, they got so attached to Miles. Yeah. The golden teat, as I think Benoit says. [01:32:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Because. Yeah, because he says that. Because it cuts to Edward Norton and then he covers his. He covers his chest, pulls his blouse. No, because Andy says you've been sucking on the teat. [01:32:32] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:32:32] Speaker B: Because that's when. When fake Andy is going to, like, you're sucking on his teeth and you're letting him do it and they're outside and they. [01:32:38] Speaker A: Is his shirt. [01:32:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Which Edward Orton is also phenomenal. [01:32:41] Speaker A: He's so funny. [01:32:43] Speaker B: He's such an asshole in this movie. He's his funniest moment, I still think, is when he is fucking pissed off at Benoit for ruining the game. [01:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:32:52] Speaker B: And I'm not mad. I'm not. He just throws the iPad. It seems like I've struck a nerve. It's just like he's such. It is such a fun time with this cast. And again, I think this was the kind of the film that, like, if this felt like a little bit like a sophomore slump, like this idea of Benoit meeting a new cast of. Wasn't going to be enough for another film. It would make you wary of, like, God, we do another one with another cast that isn't the Thrombi family, but Glass Onion shows. Nah. If it's well written, this cast works together. There's a magnetism to them and a charisma that they bounce off of each other chemistry wise, really well. Like, I don't care who the Benoit's hanging out with. Like, they just do her in a great. They're just a great crew. [01:33:35] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Glass Onion also makes a really pivotal choice to kind of. That kind of separates it from Knives out in that it's fun to watch Benoit Blanc, like, completely out of his element socially. [01:33:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:33:56] Speaker A: Like, he doesn't really know. At least at the beginning. It seems like he really doesn't know how to deal with these people because they're stupid. They're fuck you rich. Like, not just, you know, a rich family like the Thrombies that has book publishing money, but changing the world rich. [01:34:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:16] Speaker A: And all of them have massive influence and careers and things like that. And he's just walking around on this island like, oh, wow, this place is crazy. [01:34:25] Speaker B: They have a. Yeah. Doesn't he have, like a dock by Banksy that only shows them a glass and a glass as shows up at low tide? [01:34:33] Speaker A: The pizza sheet. [01:34:34] Speaker B: The pizza sheet, yeah. There's also the amount of cameos we get since Miles Braun is so prominent. We have like a nice little Ethan Hawke Cameo. The funniest cameo in the movie is Serena Williams. She is implied that she's being hired to be trained as a virtual assistant for Miles Braun's home gym. Yeah, it's so funny because when she's introduced in the film, it is when Heather. And it's when Janelle Monae and Daniel Craig are talking about possible motives and stuff. And there's just a shot of Serena Williams in the back. And then Serena Williams moves and goes, are you gonna. I'm on the clock. Do you want to do anything? And it's like, what the fuck? Why are you here? She's just sitting there reading a book. She's very funny. And, yeah, it just works really well. And I think is a great. You know, Glass Onion's great because it also is just kind of like it's, you know, alluding. Also using the. Evoking the Beatles a little bit. Because, of course, now they have a bigger budget. They can also now have two Beatles songs. They have. They have Blackbird. [01:35:39] Speaker A: And they have actually, interestingly enough, same budget, really, Knives out, which shocked me because I thought the whole thing was 60. [01:35:47] Speaker B: I thought this was 60 million. [01:35:48] Speaker A: Well, and I thought, like, a huge part of the appeal for Johnson probably would have been like, yeah, bigger budget. You can do whatever you want. Like, creative freedom. Because this was in Netflix's era of just throwing money at everything and do what you want. But, yeah, still 40 million. But I'm guessing, you know, they probably also have resources to pull things like that, you know, licensing and stuff. [01:36:13] Speaker B: Two Beatles songs in one film, which is just great choices for songs as well. [01:36:19] Speaker A: Also, just crazy to think they, like, Netflix, paid like, almost 500 million for the rights to this. [01:36:27] Speaker B: Was it 500 million? Fuck, I got 60. Wrong. 60, I thought was. Is one of them. The budget of 60 or did I just fucking pull that on my ass? [01:36:34] Speaker A: The budget, according to Wikipedia. I haven't checked, like, Box Office Mojo or any of those, But Wikipedia says 40 for both this and Knives Out. [01:36:42] Speaker B: Well, just so you know, it was 500 million. My brain, when I said 60 million earlier for the rights, I was like, that does seem low. Yeah, 500 makes all. Yeah, because I think, yeah, that was the number that was catastrophically crazy. Like half a billion for these two films. Especially for films that aren't gonna really get any kind of box office. [01:37:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. Yeah. It's funny looking over the box office for glass onion. It's 15 million. [01:37:08] Speaker B: Yeah. 15. Yeah. [01:37:09] Speaker A: Because it was in theater for, like, two weeks. [01:37:10] Speaker B: This was. Honestly, I think Last night was the first time they really started actually giving some of these movies releases in theaters for, like. [01:37:18] Speaker A: I mean, I think my impression is that. I mean, Rian Johnson probably threw a professional fit over the idea of not getting a theatrical release. And he was pretty. He was even public with his comments, like, you know, that he. [01:37:32] Speaker B: Well, Craig was very pissed. [01:37:34] Speaker A: Craig was pissed. Like, clearly they were not having it. [01:37:39] Speaker B: So there was Wake Up Dead Man. I think they were very well aware of just, like, yeah, I mean, they paid for it. We got to make the movie that we wanted to make. I think even, like, Johnson himself with Wake Up Dead man was like, listen, like, I have to be honest. There are people gonna be watching this on their phones. And you know what? I can't really be mad at that as long as they're watching. But, like, I also will say that I think the best way to watch this movie is in a. Is it a communal sense with a bunch of strangers in a movie theater? [01:38:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:05] Speaker B: On the big screen, that's, like, the best way to see it. But I'm not gonna say that, like, you shouldn't watch it in any way. You should give it a watch if you want. Like, to give it a watch. But just know that the movie theater would be the best way. [01:38:16] Speaker A: Right. [01:38:17] Speaker B: Like, that's, like, the. The most tame, nicest intent, like, approach to that compared to other, you know, tours of his caliber and maybe above, depending just, like, being, like, doing it streaming that he's like. He's just like, yeah. I mean, we still made the movie made. We didn't feel like we had to, like, reiterate the plot every five seconds, like other things had to. And, yeah, just. I. It is kind of. And I'm now just shocked that it wasn't more than 40, like, because, like, Glass Onion looks like an upgrade visually because of its vibrancy in its location, as well as just how powerful and popping every color and set design option is. There's even this crazy moment that I forgot until rewatching this time, which is the lighthouse lighting. God, that was so cool. [01:39:10] Speaker A: The lights go out in the house. Yeah. [01:39:12] Speaker B: And I was like, holy. He was kind of doing a little bit of what he, like, perfects and Wake Up Dead Man. [01:39:16] Speaker A: But in this movie, Steve Yedlin, his cinematographer, is a God. He's fantastic. Three of these movies, he's trying. Crazy and pulling. Pulling it off. [01:39:25] Speaker B: He's great. It's phenomenal. And it has. Probably the best shot of Edward Norton is when he looks scared, when the lighthouse, like, light Hits him when he's, like, hiding behind one of the glass walls. He looks so funny. It's just a great movie. Like, it genuinely. It is one of those movies that you tell, like, you. When it starts and it says, you know, May 2020, you're probably thinking, oh, God, this is not going to age well. And then you're like, fuck, this is. This is really funny. This is really well done. And this is aged well. It is. Definitely deserves the Knives out moniker, but shouldn't have it on there. [01:40:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:40:03] Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, it's great. And it's to think that, like, all right, now we got two great films in this franchise. What the. What the fuck else do you do next? Like, since Glass Onion felt very subversive in what it was doing as a murder mystery and felt like it clearly was, like, the expectation put upon the franchise, now that Netflix has put so much money into becoming a franchise, there's this feeling of, like, oh, is there going to be more pressure put upon Ryan to make something else? And then Glass feels like there's no pressure. Feels like he's doing what he wants to do, at least to, like, okay, well, what does he want to do next? And then we get three years later, and we get the final film in our trilogy, the most recent film in our trilogy. And I would also say the darkest, the most serious, and I would probably say the most emotional movie. And I would also say my favorite of the three. Despite the fact that I think all three of these films are on the same level. I think even though this is like, you know, I've seen Knives out maybe four or five times. I've seen Glass Onion three times. This would be my third time. And this would be my third time for Wake Up, Dead man in the span of two months. Yeah, but just. It feels like with Wake Up Deadman, all the things he's did in Knives out and Glass Onion that I already thought were fantastic, it just feels like he perfects them in certain scenes, in certain line deliveries, in certain editing choices. Like, there's even a scene in Glass Onion where Janelle Monae is trying to get information of who has a motive and why would this happen. There's. At one point, she throws a recording device into Bertie's bag. Bertie and Peg leave, and then she picks up the recording device. Later, they listen to it, and as they're listening to it, it's just Benoit Blanc and Monet listening to it. And then it just hard cuts as if we're back, we're in the scene With Birdie and Peg. There's a version of that in Wake Up Dead man, but it's infinitely cooler in how it's presented. Like is when Psy is playing the video of what happened the night of Monsignor Wicks burning everybody. Like, the shot of them playing them playing the video. And as soon as it presses, play just a match cut into that night. And then just as, like a dolly move in and it's like, what the fuck? This is already preceding again, like you said, Yedlin's a God. And making this look great. And then Wake Up Dead man looks even better than, I think the other. [01:42:34] Speaker A: Two, Arguably the best looking of the three. [01:42:37] Speaker B: Like the lighting. Like, again, the lighthouse scene in Glass Sunning, where they're using a lighthouse light that is constantly rotating to really light multiple rooms. [01:42:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:42:47] Speaker B: In multiple different set, like, shot setups and scenes. And to go from that to a beautiful scene in Wake Up Dead man, which is Benoit's introduction into this narrative where he's talking to our protagonist, Father Judd, who is my favorite of the protagonists again, Marta. And, you know, Andy and Heather, like, they. Janelle and Ana de Armas are phenomenal, and I love them both in both Glass Onion and Knives Out. But Josh o', Connor, there's just something about this performance that he's so good. [01:43:22] Speaker A: And I. I think he's. I mean, it also helps that not only is it a great performance, this is definitely the most protagonist, thoroughly developed protagonist we've gotten in these three. [01:43:32] Speaker B: Because he is the first. First thing we see. Because he's the first person we talk or. No, it is. Craig is the first person we see. But he's the first line. [01:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:43:41] Speaker B: And he's the last line of the film. [01:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah. We really. Only. We see one shot of Benoit Blanc at the very. The first shot of this film, and then he's not in the film for, like, 45 minutes. [01:43:51] Speaker B: It's the first time we've ever gotten Benoit Blanc in the first few seconds. [01:43:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:43:56] Speaker B: Because usually they wait, but then they. [01:43:57] Speaker A: Make you wait the longest out of the three, not counting that scene, to get any. [01:44:01] Speaker B: And what's great is that when it comes to his scene showing up, it almost feels like you're in. Like there's that. [01:44:08] Speaker A: There's. [01:44:09] Speaker B: It's not like a meme now, but, like, you know, that's that shot of, like, someone watching a game in a bar. And then, like, everyone just starts throwing shit the screen, just going fucking hog wild. It's like when he shows up, you just go fucking nuts. You're like, oh, thank God. Because you're just so. [01:44:25] Speaker A: I think when I. Johnson probably knew, like, as he was editing the film, like, oh, yeah, we're not gonna get any Benoit for a while. Let's throw him in at the beginning so everybody knows he's here. [01:44:34] Speaker B: But, like. Because when I watched this with my roommates and, like, Adam was watching it, I think he was. I think he turned to me, or it might have been Rey and just was like, you for a second. I forgot this was a Knives out movie for a moment, because I'm so invested in Father Judd, in Hanging Rock or whatever it's called, something like that. It was shot in Essex, but it's supposed to be the East Coast. It's supposed to be New York. [01:45:02] Speaker A: Yeah, upstate. [01:45:03] Speaker B: Upstate New York. And, like, he's so invested. You're so invested in the actual mystery at hand with Father Judd and his whole dilemma with it that it's, like, almost a genuine surprise to see Benoit Blanc in a Knives out movie. Yeah. And it's great because of it, because it basically gives those first 45 minutes in a film that is the longest of the three movies, which, thankfully, again, I don't really think there's any pacing issues with any one of these movies. And I think that, you know, when Glass Onion and Wake Up Dead man both decide to push for 2:30, like, two and a half hours while knives out is just over two. [01:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:45:40] Speaker B: There is that energy of, like, shit, is there going to be a little bit of a slowdown in the middle of the movie? And then it's like, no, there's just so much more to chew on in a good way that I kind of want that time to really stretch it out and really develop it. Like, it's crazy what the halfway point is of this movie, because it feels like we have a whole other movie left. And it's because we kind of do. There's a lot. Because I think the halfway point is the Monsignor Wicks burning everybody. Burning the bridges with everybody. I think it's like, the halfway point. [01:46:11] Speaker A: Well, the big one. The big, like, holy shit. Where this early moment, for me in this one was, like, the resurrection from the tomb scene happens with, like, 45 minutes left in the movie. [01:46:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:46:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:46:28] Speaker B: It's crazy. It's. Yeah, it is kind of like it's. You hear that out there, and you're probably like, jesus Christ. There's no way. This movie feels like it just flies by and. No, it fucking flies. Yeah, it flies so well. It is just Constantly going, hey, you remember how we did this? And I was out a little bit. You remember how Glass Onion kind of had this. Well, yeah, here's this version of that. It's basically Johnson. And I think it's something that, like, at some point, if we get to a Knives out movie and it feels like, all right, we've seen this before. Like, I wouldn't be surprised because these three films are constantly just like, God damn it, he's doing it again. He's just doing something that I remember him doing in Knives out, but, like, with enough of a flair to feel unique to Wake Up Dead man or to Glass Onion. And, like, the Yedlin cinematography is the same way. It just kind of like. Because literally, it's like you have that clearly this person didn't do it. Or like, you know, each one of these films has the energy of the guy who died or the guy who is being purported to be dead with Miles Braun and Glass Onion pretty much has every single person that is in the suspect list has a very solid reason for wanting to kill this person. [01:47:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:41] Speaker B: Each one of these films has that and also has, like, almost like a cleaning house kind of energy. Whether it is they actually do it, or they. Or they are basically threatening to clean house if something goes wrong. [01:47:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And yeah, I will say, wake up, dead man feels a little bit. Not in a bad way at all. Like the kind of the odd man out in that way between the three of these. Just because the way the mystery is set up in this, we don't get to know enough about the supporting characters to think, like, oh, yeah, they all have great reasons to do this crime, but instead we're really focused on, like, oh, our main character, who we're pretty positive did not do it, is like, far and away the most obvious suspect. [01:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:48:34] Speaker A: Because nobody else even seems like they'd be the ones to do it. Because while that's interesting because, like, the first two, it's like, oh, it could be anybody. [01:48:43] Speaker B: Yes. [01:48:44] Speaker A: And this one is like, how is it not Father Judd? [01:48:47] Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. It gets away. Again, he gets away with the fact that, yeah, like Andy said in the first Night is out, it's like you get basically in the first 20 to 30 minutes, Lakeith Stanfield just basically gives you the timeline of what happened at the birthday party. And you're like. [01:49:02] Speaker A: You immediately have all these reasons why any of these people could have killed him. [01:49:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're like, how could they not? Or also, how could anyone if they. Because there's this whole Thing in the first film about the creaky stairs. [01:49:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:49:13] Speaker B: Where, like, there. And Jamie Lee Curtis being a light sleeper and how she only woke up three times. So clearly, you know, someone in those three times had to be involved with the death. [01:49:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:49:23] Speaker B: But it doesn't make any sense because one of those three times was Harlan or you think. And it's kind of like this whole situation of. Okay, that's cheeky. Glass onion. How do you get around that with glass onion? They don't need to do that because the murder mystery aspect of that, for the most part, is a fucking game. [01:49:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:49:39] Speaker B: And it's kind of like constantly talked about how it's going to be really cool. We're going to spend the whole weekend doing it. And then Benoit solves it because it's fucking stupid. And then with Wake Up Dead man, it is. It is the most challenging because it is a. I think it's the Invisible Man. It's like an Invisible man esque murder. [01:49:57] Speaker A: They call it Hollow Man. They call it the impossible crime. The impossible murder. And it's a race. Yeah. Basically a reference to the novel the Hollow Man. I. I can't remember his name. His last name's Carr. [01:50:11] Speaker B: Yes. Not Andy Carr, unfortunately. [01:50:15] Speaker A: No relation. [01:50:15] Speaker B: No relation. But it is. Yeah. It is very much like you. Yeah. The film doesn't give you a lot of motives as to why any of them would want to kill Bond. Senior Wicks, played by Josh Brolin. [01:50:26] Speaker A: John Dixon Carr. [01:50:27] Speaker B: John Dixon Carr. That makes sense. [01:50:29] Speaker A: Sense. [01:50:30] Speaker B: But it is kind of like, even if you did know the motives, how the fuck would you still kill a man who was in a closet whose door was open the entire time? Yeah. [01:50:40] Speaker A: He's in a concrete room with one room. Yeah. One door that we can all see by himself. Yeah. [01:50:47] Speaker B: And it's this great moment where, like, when Benoit Blanc gets brought in, he brings up the whole book of Hollow man and uses, like, the breakdown of what it could be. And it's like in classic Benoit Blanc fashion, he is using goofy, like, knife robots, robots that shoot knives. He's trying to help Father Judd by being like, you know, there's no ghost, there's no God or devil being brought. This is just a old classic murder where someone did it. And that Josh Brolin is not the second coming of Christ. So they go to the coroner's office and Benoit Blanc just starts, like, squishing Monsignor Wicks's dead body. His flesh, like he's a wiggly flesh in front of Mila Kunis. And that. Which again, Mila Kunis is like the. The sheriff of this town. And she's also Jewish, but the film never says it out loud that she's Jewish. You just see it on her desk. [01:51:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:51:40] Speaker B: You see the Star of David. She also pulls a little. A few lines here and there where it's like, I like that a little bit. I like how you're doing that. Which makes it great because it also is like she's. They're not playing as if she's like, I don't believe this is God, because I don't believe in God or any kind of like that. It's just doing it where it's like, this is not my church. I'm treating this as matter of fact as possible. [01:52:02] Speaker A: A little bit of distance. [01:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:52:03] Speaker A: That makes it clear, like, oh, this is just one more reason that she doesn't get wrapped up in this stuff. [01:52:09] Speaker B: Yeah, she is. She is something that I guess you can say is kind of missing in Glass Setting, which is kind of like the cop character who is just kind of like, not necessarily missing, but, like, I do kind of love Lakeith Stanfield and Knives out, who is just. He's there, and it's just like these rich white people, and they're like, yeah, goofy. [01:52:27] Speaker A: They don't accomplish a whole lot, but they, like, kind of help keep Blanc on task. [01:52:32] Speaker B: And gosh, when he. When Martha. Martha vomits and Noah saying, like, she's lying, he's like, yeah, we know, man. He's like, dude, I don't care. His side eyes. Anytime there's a reference to a fucking murder mystery thing he's never seen. And with this, it's like Mila Kunis is. I think it's very fun to have her there because she is. She keeps the seriousness of the scene as well as being the one that kind of reiterates the idea that is in your head. It was in my head the first time, watching it constantly. And even though I knew there was something to it, it couldn't be this, but it is. Like, was it Father Judd? It couldn't be. But there is a motive. [01:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:53:13] Speaker B: Could there be something to it? And this is a man that is being introduced to us as a born again priest who genuinely believes in the faith and genuinely believes in God and the importance of the faith for people who are down their luck because he was at one point down on his luck because he was a fighter that killed a person in the ring. [01:53:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:53:37] Speaker B: And he. So he is. They don't outright say he has anger issues, but he definitely at One point probably did. [01:53:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:53:45] Speaker B: And also means that if someone is accusatory of him, he is very defensive, which leads to, you know, him putting his dukes up at times when he is act. He actually gets like the shit kicked out of him and he doesn't hit back. He just like defends himself. The most violence he does at the very beginning when he punches a priest for a priest saying something that we don't know what he says. [01:54:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:54:07] Speaker B: But Jeffrey Wright says, listen and you know, we don't probably deserve. He brought. That guy was like, yeah, that guy's a few rosary. Be few beads short of a rosary. [01:54:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:54:18] Speaker B: And one hell of a son of a. Or something like that. [01:54:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:54:21] Speaker B: Jeffrey Wright, again, an actor that could just show up. He is. He's a show up for five minutes and I will be like hooting and hollering and he can leave. He's just love that man. Because that's basically what he does in. [01:54:32] Speaker A: Wake Up Dead Man. [01:54:33] Speaker B: And it's great, but it just. It has this, you know, the cast is just so well tuned and well defined and unique and goofy. I think as goofy in places as Glass Onion. But since it's not as colorful, it feels very grounded. [01:54:51] Speaker A: It's also not as much of an ensemble film. They're not. [01:54:54] Speaker B: Yes. [01:54:55] Speaker A: In focus as much. There's still plenty of like screwball antics between them, but they are more on the periphery. And the story is really more about Father Judd and also about Father. I think Father Judd's effect on Benoit Blanc. [01:55:12] Speaker B: Yes. [01:55:12] Speaker A: Which is another thing I really love about this movie is that so like the Knives out, we really get introduced to Blanc as like detective empathy. Like, you know, he is this masterful detective, but like, the man leads with kindness and empathy and understanding of others. And then Glass Onion, he's surrounded by like, you know, uber rich assholes who don't really garner any empathy. [01:55:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:55:43] Speaker A: And it's just, you know, the stupidity that they put him through. And then in this, I feel like his empathy is really tested. His love brother is really tested because he is subjected to this religious atmosphere that he doesn't buy into whatsoever and has to kind of in process wrap his head around, you know, the value that this faith brings to these people. [01:56:12] Speaker B: Yeah. He's. And he's confronted with a religion that he clearly has a tie to historically through his mother, which he references. But. But clearly it's a tie that he does not wish was still in any way tied to his life in any way, like whether historically or not. And then he comes up against who I would argue is our weirdest protagonist, which is, you know, Father Judd, who is like, you know, Marta and, you know, Monet. You know, Armas and Monet are very, I think, grounded people that are just brought into these wacky situations. Well, as Father Judd is genuinely, like, he is butting up against Benoit Blanc's version of what a priest should be. And Judd seems like to be the opposite of everything he remembered a priest being. [01:57:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:57:03] Speaker B: He's so empathetic. He's so loving. He is such a great communicator in a way that, like, you know, basically asks Benoit to be honest with him about how he feels about the church. And leads to, you know, Benoit's first beautiful moment, which is his big, whole monologue about how this is a house that is filled with misogyny and homophobia and just pushing down on the man. [01:57:28] Speaker A: It's all farce. [01:57:29] Speaker B: And then he realizes how emotional he got in front of Judd and just goes like, well, I mean, the architecture is very nice. The rare rafters are great. And then Judd basically goes like, oh, I get it. I appreciate you being honest. Like, there's nothing super historical about this place. We are in upstate New York. This is like neo gothic. [01:57:49] Speaker A: And I love how uncomfortable Judd's vulnerability makes block. [01:57:55] Speaker B: Yes. [01:57:56] Speaker A: Because Blanc, if he doesn't, he doesn't get it. He doesn't see how you can, you know, believe this stuff and also see the. The foolishness of it all at once. [01:58:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:58:08] Speaker A: Judd has a great. In that scene that you're talking about, Judd's kind of retort to Blanc is great, where he says it's all storytelling. Yeah. Do these stories convince us of a lie, or do they resonate with something deep inside us that's profoundly true, that we can't express any other way except storytelling? [01:58:30] Speaker B: And to tell you in this, again, while this scene is happening, Blanc's response is, touche, touche. Great. Again, it's a phenomenal dynamic that we haven't seen yet with Blanc. And during this scene is when Blanc is having his monologue. It is the sun goes into the clouds, and it is dark in the church. It is almost like a fire and brimstone energy of just the amount of kind of almost disgust in his heart with how much in his head the church has affected other people as well as affected him growing up. Clearly, when he brings up his mother, there is not a lot of conversations around his mother. But the way that Craig plays, it is this energy of. Of the religious aspect of his mother's life. And what used to be his past definitely got in the way of them knowing each other. And she. And she passed. She says. He says she is. Was a religious woman and says like, so clearly there was. There's some un. Discussed, some pretty much some. Some threads that were never fully healed or finished in their relationship because in some way shape or form her religious narrative, her religious nature. And so like when he starts talking, it gets really cloudy and dark and it feels like, like Andy said, way more vulnerable than you expect him to be. And then when Judd is speaking those lines, the Andy just quoted the light, the sun shines through the. The clouds and it's this beautiful. Just. Yeah, there's a great motif of Johnson is not fun. There's no energy. And I haven't seen enough of any other. I've seen a bunch of interviews with him, but I don't think he ever says whether he is a Christian or a Catholic or what his upbringing was per se or what he fully, truly believes as himself. But there is just a real fascination with how religion affects people and brings the best and worst of people out in this film in a way that makes this probably one of the best, inadvertently one of the best religious films he's ever covered on the show. [02:00:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:00:39] Speaker B: In terms of the conversation, it's a. [02:00:41] Speaker A: Remarkably even handed, like, portrayal of faith and religion. And like is just as unsparing and brutal in its depiction of the ways that religion has been used to exploit people and Outrage Farm as it is a completely like, joyous and beautiful celebration of the love and community that faith can breed when it's, you know, used the right way. [02:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it's. This has more in this scene alone than all five God's Not Dead films when it comes to just like a religious empathy and a religious fast, a fascination with religion. Not in a third party kind of, you know, disconnected way, just genuinely engaging in it. And it is really fascinating how this movie constantly is having those conversations and in using Benoit and Judd butting heads at times with, you know, the conversation of, you know, this is the first protagonist of these films that, that, you know, Benoit has ever run into who really does not care if this case gets solved or not. Yeah, it leads to. There is. This film is my favorite of the three because it has my favorite line in the entire film, the entire trilogy, as well as my favorite scene, I would argue might be the only perfect scene in these movies that are phenomenal. All these films are phenomenal. And I understand if there's. Well, I think this scene is Perfect in these movies. Again, I totally understand. But to me, the phone call to the mechanics in this film hits a nerve in a way that I just was like, I didn't realize. As much as I love Knives out and Glass Onion, I don't know if they have a scene that really hits me like this. [02:02:43] Speaker A: I don't think they have a scene that hits the brakes on the plot. [02:02:48] Speaker B: No, no, no. Not at all. [02:02:50] Speaker A: But brings to the surface what the movie's about in one scene. [02:02:55] Speaker B: It is a scene that has made me genuinely frustrated when people talk about this movie, because there have been people that go, why the fuck is this scene in the movie? And it's like, my brother, my brother and Benoit Blanc. This is the whole fucking point of the movie. It's about the empathy. It's about why Jud is doing this. Judd is doing all of this because he wants to prove that he is, you know, innocent. Why? Because this is his calling in his head is to give these people these empathy and to be there for people and to show that this is what Christ's love is in his mind. It leads to this phenomenal, fucking phenomenal scene with him and fucking Benoit Blanc in the rain and the. Just like this grassy knoll with these beautiful trees in the background and the wind is constantly blowing and just like. Like, again, Josh o'. Connor. Jesus Christ, again. Ana de Armas, Janelle Monae, Josh o'. Connor. I feel so bad for whoever is going to be in Knives out for whenever that happens as the protagonist. This is a tough act, tough trio to follow, because all three of them just shine next to Daniel Craig and Josh o' Connor in just some way these last few years. Last year, he had, like, four films. In every one of those films, some people, someone goes, it's crazy. I know. You better sit down for this. Josh o' Connor's fucking great in it. And this was one of those movies where it's just like he is in this in scenes with Brolin Renner fucking Glenn Close, who's also great in this movie. Yeah, everyone's great. [02:04:25] Speaker A: I forgot the heavy weight she carries emotionally toward the end of the film. [02:04:34] Speaker B: She is phenomenal at the very end. And, I mean, even the characters, like I said, I do agree with Andy that this is less of an ensemble piece than the other two movies, but I do think each one of the ensemble has at least a line or two that really shine. Jeremy Renner is definitely the one where his one line that I think really stands out is the funniest. It is we don't know this woman. We don't know who this person is. And it's like. It's the line that apparently when they actually shot, they had to reshoot constantly because they all just started laughing. [02:05:07] Speaker A: I actually wrote that down too, because it was like one of the funniest bits of the movie to me. Because he says that, like, we don't know who she is. We don't know any of this. And he ends with, is any of this real? [02:05:18] Speaker B: So. [02:05:19] Speaker A: And that's just the end of the line he ends it with. [02:05:22] Speaker B: So he's like, well said. Well said, Nat. It also, my second favorite thing about his character is the fucking shot of him in the portrait at the El Diablo. His little smirk and like, pose at the bar as he's being an alcoholic at the bar with Noah. I mean, it's. He's got a great moment. Andrew Scott is an actor that, like, you know, he's fucking hot priest. He's Moriarty. He's been in fucking so many things. He's been with Daniel Craig in a Bond film in a very forgettable role, but he's been in a Bond film regardless. So, like, he is. He is a great character actor and it's always fun to watch. In playing basically a science. Basically a science fiction writer turned, like maga Art of the Deal follower who's just trying to get a new following. [02:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:06:12] Speaker B: Basically been given the maga woke brain worms. [02:06:17] Speaker A: Yeah, he's kind of gone down the conservative grifter. [02:06:21] Speaker B: He's like. It's his. One of my favorite lines of his is the sub stack is killing me or something. [02:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, he's like. He's basically like, I have to get off sub stack. [02:06:30] Speaker B: All my fans look like John Goodman from the Big Lamella, which is incredible line. Glenn Close, Thomas Hayden Church. My God. I don't. I don't know how Andy's gonna take this, but I think I. I get a lot of. And Andy energy out of Thomas A. Church. Not specifically in this film, just in general. In general. I feel like. I feel like. I feel like. I feel like you could pull off Thomas Aiden Church in this movie, like, as a costume. Like, okay. Also I love how, like, his introduction that we get to him is him slapping Glenn Close his ass and being like, I love my wife. And he just drinks. He's a recovering, you know, alcoholic. [02:07:10] Speaker A: He's got like a different beverage in every scene. [02:07:12] Speaker B: He's got a Pepsi. He's a sweet man. He's got my favorite poster. I actually saved it on my Phone. Because it's so funny. He literally just says every day is a struggle. He's. He. I just. He has a great voice. He's a great actor. [02:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah, his voice. [02:07:25] Speaker B: He's. He's one of those people that, like, you could put on a film like this, and I'm just like, I'm sold as Thomas Hayden Church, and someone's gonna be like, who you talking about? It's like, how dare you not know this man from fucking Sideways George of the Jungle? This man is a character actor. He's so good. And Samson. Samson, the newest. I think the. The newest of the actors is the guy that plays Psy. [02:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't think I'd ever seen him. [02:07:53] Speaker B: He's also great. He is abhorrent, and I love. [02:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah, he's probably the worst. [02:07:59] Speaker B: He's the worst out of all of them. [02:08:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:08:01] Speaker B: And I love him. I've hit the trans thing, the AI thing. The bitcoin thing. [02:08:06] Speaker A: Yeah. The Mexican thing. [02:08:08] Speaker B: He is the closest real thing. It is funny because Judd has such empathy for everybody. I think the closest to being a genuine antagonist, consistently, for Judd, the entire film is Psy. [02:08:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:08:20] Speaker B: Even though Monsignor Wicks was technically worse to Judd. Like, every time Psy is in a scene with Judd, Judd looks like that empathy is about to run out a little bit. But he's great. And then you have Kerry Washington, who's an actress that I feel like. [02:08:40] Speaker A: I. [02:08:40] Speaker B: Kind of balance between. Put her in everything until I'm sick of her, or, wait, don't do that. Use this woman to the perfect extent. Because this is a movie where I think she is used to so perfectly. She stands out so well. I love her whole thing about why they bring the meeting together, which is the reveal of the parentage. Her whole thing in that scene is like. It's the most dimension that character has gotten at that point. And you can tell why it is, because by that point, she's so repressed. Out of everyone that's there, she is the most repressed character because she clearly is the one who has stayed in that tiny little shitty town because her father put so much pressure onto her to keep the family business alive. [02:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [02:09:29] Speaker B: And then when that finally gets uprooted when she finds out that her adopted brother is actually Josh Brolin's kid out of wedlock after decades of just calling his. His own mother the harlot whore. [02:09:45] Speaker A: The harlot whore. [02:09:46] Speaker B: Harlot whore. Even though he's literally just as hypocritical and even worse than his Own mother. It leads to the scene where even Glenn closest character is like, this woman is crazy, but she is. She ends up becoming, I would say the most redeemable person out of all of them. If not like. Yeah, because like it's like Kaylee Spany is great in this movie as well. She's probably the one who is the youngest and is the least connected. She's like, she's the most recent of the group. [02:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah, she just moved to town. [02:10:16] Speaker B: She's moved to. There she is. [02:10:18] Speaker A: She is rich. [02:10:19] Speaker B: She's rich. She's dealt with a tragedy because she was a world star, world renowned violinist and has a chronic chalice. [02:10:25] Speaker A: Thank you. I don't want the music people to come for you. [02:10:29] Speaker B: I already said the Netflix bought it for 60 million. It took me like 30 minutes. [02:10:35] Speaker A: The budget people are coming for you. [02:10:37] Speaker B: It's been the studio people again. The announcement of how much they bought it for felt like eight years ago, but it really was like five, probably four or five. But I mean, she is a world renowned cellist and she has a chronic disorder that basically made her stop or at least she felt like she couldn't perform anymore. Meaning she hit a rut. Chronic pain and put a bunch of money into doctors to say that they could help her and they couldn't. So she basically was desperate and was told she felt a new renowned faith in the church for like maybe a miracle. [02:11:11] Speaker A: I mean, she basically lost her faith in medical science. So she turned to the church hoping for a miracle. [02:11:17] Speaker B: And there's a version of this person that almost feels like you could play this in a way where she's like, you know. Yeah, I just. It has to be like, you can play this character so much more worse than they actually play it. Like Cailee Spaeny plays it as a character and she's written as just a genuinely desperate person who is not trying to get any kind of of monetary value out of the church. More so she is just trying to be like, is there even a possibility that a miracle that is talked about constantly in the Bible could even happen today? Right. And she does that while looking just absolutely gorgeous in a wheelchair in a room full of plants. [02:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:11:56] Speaker B: Being one of those actors or actresses where it's like, I have no interest in smoking whatsoever, but as soon as she starts smoking, I'm like, God, she looks. [02:12:05] Speaker A: I will try. [02:12:05] Speaker B: She looks. No, I'm not going to try it. But I was like, she looks. I mean, damn, she makes it look good. Yeah. But the whole cast is great. Again, they all Get a moment to shine in different ways. Kerry Washington has my favorite line in the movie, which is, the money is a psalm is just a mere song. I just. I sent it to you. [02:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah. The money is just one psalm in the Bible of my bitterness, you child. Yeah. [02:12:34] Speaker B: And it's like, I'm gonna put your on the side of the road. Get it by the end of the day or something. And again, she is an actress who is like, we know who. People know who she is. She was on Scandal. She's been around for decades. She's phenomenal. And she is. And she's still phenomenal to this day. And just watching her in this movie be like, my God, I just would watch her in anything. But don't put her in everything. Use her to her best degree. I don't need her in just, like, every single thing. But I hope this is like someone watched this movie and was like, holy shit, we haven't been using Kerry Washington enough. Like, it just. It ultimately ends in this phenomenal. Just another phenomenal ensemble that is not, you know, the film is not putting too much onto. But once they're able to really jump in here and there it is kind of. There is a captivation to it. Because when we finally get to the finale where Benoit Blanc is, you know, going to do what he has constantly said in the movie, and he basically is saying how the other movies end, where it's like, Benoit Blanc's big reveal. He's gonna show who the killer is. You get an insane choice, I think, a genuinely insane choice that I think it makes this film go from being really good to really great, which is the. But like Andy said earlier, a change in Benoit's own, like, personality just for a second. Yeah. Genuinely evolves in a way that he never would have expected, but not in a way that feels like a narrative cop out. It very much feels natural and is described as a Road to Damascus moment. [02:14:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:14:11] Speaker B: And the way that it's handled, I think the first time when I saw just, like, threw me off because I think I almost had to, like, be like, okay, I. This is not. I. When he's like, I cannot solve this murder, I'm like, what are we doing here? Until they really show that, like, he's known for, like, at least the majority of this time who did it. [02:14:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [02:14:32] Speaker B: But he's doing something that he never thought he'd do before, which is have empathy for the piece of shit that has done this whole thing. And what's great, too, is even though this Road to Damascus Moment shows a level of empathy that Blanc never thought he had. That doesn't keep him from not being disgusted at the murderer when it's revealed that Glenn Close is behind it all. Which, to be honest, I think the movie does a phenomenal job, especially rewatching it two more times, just being like, yeah, it's gotta be her. Yeah, they do a great job of. Basically, to be fair, they also do that well with, I think, Granson as well. [02:15:12] Speaker A: Yeah, they do. I will say this film probably has to sell the most convoluted murder plot in order to make it work. But it makes it work. [02:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah, but it has some of the funniest moments where he's. She's like, I need a weak, pathetic man. And a hard cut to Jeremy Renner sitting in a chair, which is funny, too, that I forgot to say that in Glass Onion, there's two great. There are two great cameos and products, which is Jared Leto's Heart Kombucha. [02:15:44] Speaker A: Yes. [02:15:44] Speaker B: And of course, Jeremy Renner's hot sauce. [02:15:46] Speaker A: Renning Hot, which Blanc puts in his eyes to make it look like he's been crying. [02:15:51] Speaker B: And then when he first tries, it is, I think, in Glass Setting, it's the mo. His improv scene where he goes, halle Berry. Halle Berry. [02:15:59] Speaker A: And then when he puts it in his eyes, he goes, balls. [02:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And then in Wake Up, Dead man, apparently his impromptu moment is Mila Kunis goes, listen, I don't believe in people rising from the dead and all that, but this screams like some Scooby Doo. And then you just. Yeah, Scooby Dooby Doo. Like he does. Not in the script. [02:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:16:16] Speaker B: And. But, like, when Glenn Close is revealing her whole, like, 60 plus year tie to what this whole thing has all been about, there are shots to Craig that just. You can see the level of disgust in his face where it's like, you have no idea what kind of fucking vile thing you've just done, the amount of people that have died. But at the same time, he's willing to push that aside to give Jud what he needs to understand that Judd and Kunis character. Like, okay, so now you know, Judd had nothing to do with this. This is the real killer. But also, Judd, you get to have your moment to bring another soul to Christ if you want. [02:16:58] Speaker A: Well, yeah, he gives in passing up the opportunity to solve the case himself. He not only gives Jud the opportunity he needs to be that light and love of Christ to someone who needs it, he also gives that to Glenn Close, his enemy. And he has, I Think he has a line where he basically says, judd was my example to have grace for my enemy, for the broken, for those who deserve it the least, but who need it the most or the guilty. [02:17:39] Speaker B: Yep. [02:17:40] Speaker A: And it's like. It's so. It's just so good because it's like, here's a man whose whole thing, like, his whole character is putting the bad guy behind bars, like, solving the crime, outing the evildoer. And it's like his whole lesson in this is, okay, well, you know, justice is still my game. But sometimes grace and compassion and, you know, I think he sees the opportunity. He sees that Glenn Close's character needs to have that. That realization of guilt herself. [02:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:18:22] Speaker A: And allows her to have that to. [02:18:25] Speaker B: Be fully honest as well as give not only her motive and Renner's motive and why Thomas Hayden Church would be involved in everything. Because Church ends up dying towards the end of the film, which Judd at one point thinks it's him, where he thinks it's like this moment where he's completely in a haze and just thought he saw Monsignor Wicks again and just wanted to kill a zombie man because he was afraid he came back to life, when really he had nothing to do with that. They just needed a moment, I think, for both, you know, for Kunis to be like, okay, so there is something here that has just been brewing for a while, but why is it now? Oh, so this is why it's coming out, Matt. Because Monsignor Wicks figured out where the Jewel was and was going to be a piece of shit about it and. [02:19:12] Speaker A: Ditch the church, burn all these people, take the money and. [02:19:17] Speaker B: And then ends in this beautiful way that is just like. I mean, again, with three films that have just prime Benoit Blanc moments, to have one of the final moments of Benoit Blanc be. Look at the ground, at something, look at Jud, and then just put his hands up and pretend like he didn't see something. Just walk out and shut the doors. And then he shows up again in the nicest fucking suit. And like I said at the beginning of this episode, it is a fucking crime that I can't buy any of these. I would not look anywhere as good as fucking Daniel Craig would, but I would still. I would. I would go a little bit bankrupt just to have. Just to have the Glass Onion romper. I just want the romper. [02:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah, the swim romper. [02:20:03] Speaker B: Yeah, the swim romper. Like, he looks like something out of fucking, like, the 20s. Like, Biochunk Infinite, but, like, in the best way possible. Just Sitting in the fucking middle. Standing in the middle of the pool with a glass in his hand. And these guys like, it looks like a Cuban look at the end of this movie. And I love how the end of this movie basically is like this. Oh, my gosh. Will Blanc go to. No, he's not going to go to religion because of this. But he has a newfound appreciation to what Judd does as a priest and leads to the end of the film. Just. It's just of all the film of all three of these movies, which all three of these movies deserve. Best adapted screenplay or best original screenplay for Knives out, but I guess adapted screenplay for these other two sequels. I would say that out of all of these, Wake Up Dead man is the most. That feels like a play in the way that it's written. Especially when you were rereading those lines where I was like, I could see such good. These would just be great, like monologues, like, yeah, Lynn. West End. And just seeing, like seeing a black box theater kind of version of this, which, of course is a lot of Agatha Christie, you know, adaptation. Adaptations of her works under plays. And this is the one that feels the most like, I would. I'd be curious if anyone ever tried to turn one of these movies into a play. I think Wake Up Dead man would be the easiest transition in a way. [02:21:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:21:32] Speaker B: But it is. [02:21:34] Speaker A: Great. [02:21:35] Speaker B: I love, again, love all three of these movies. Knives out rips. I'm glad Rian Johnson wasn't stuck. Even though we like the big sci fi blockbuster film he made that will not be named anymore, at least for five years. Yeah. Oh, Looper's great too. Knives out just shows that Rian Johnson, he's had the sauce the entire time and he's just been able to do something that I think a lot of actor, like maybe only Cameron, James Cameron has been able to do, which is just find a fucking sandbox that he likes and just plays in it for six years. [02:22:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:22:07] Speaker B: And now we're at a point, like Andy said, his next film isn't Knives out related, but he has basically said if in the next few years, he has been kind of thinking, if I wanted a Knives out for what would I kind of want it to be? But not in a way that is like, it actually is going to happen in three years. It's more like he's got inklings of maybe things he's interested in that could be a cool Benoit Blanc caper. But overall, in a. In a world where it feels like, you know, most trilogies, especially on a Bigger on a bigger scale are kind of like, you know, built in already. Or maybe even times where it's hilarious to see a film try to say it's going to be a trilogy that it doesn't happen kind of this. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. To see an original, I hate to say ip, but it's true. To see an original idea turn into a franchise that has had three consistently phenomenal films is great. That also means with each new consistent film means there's more fear that the next one will not be as good as the last. But that is something we will worry about when that happens. [02:23:12] Speaker A: I think that fear is allayed for me because Johnson is not immediately going into the next. [02:23:19] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I agree. [02:23:20] Speaker A: Something else. It'll probably be fucking great and have nothing to do with any of this. And, you know, by the time he gets around to a Knives out for, I'll just be pleased as punch that we're getting one. [02:23:30] Speaker B: I agreed. Yeah, absolutely. But, yeah, that's the Knives out trilogy. And that is the last of our January episodes. And oh, boy, everybody, our next episode is Valentine's Day and we have a treat for you. You see, you know, we. Again, we love to have little romance trilogy that we can tie into here and there. And you know, in the past, we might have shot or shot a little too early with the before trilogy because that was a fantastic. A peak choice or like, you know, Wong Kar Wise Love trilogy, as much as those were great. Now we're like, shit. If we want to have something that ties in, we want to have something that could be, you know, fun. Also, genuinely, again, still odd in its own way that it's even existed. Well, here, here's the thing there. There is a rom com trilogy that's been around for 21 years, since the last film, technically 25 if they make another one this year, which they're not. But it has been around for two decades and it has just been consistently. If you're a fan of the first one, it seems like people like the second and third one, the cast keep coming back and you're probably thinking, what would that be? Well, on Valentine's Day with our dear friend Paige Stratt. First time guest, first time on the pod. On the pod. Longtime friend for us. [02:24:55] Speaker A: Longtime friend, longtime movie companion. We've been going to movies with Paige for years. [02:25:01] Speaker B: Yeah. The first time I ever met Paige was seeing a movie with Andy. And Andy's saying, hey, this is my friend Paige. She likes seeing movies with me. Yeah, because you guys met in college. [02:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [02:25:14] Speaker B: But we are going to be covering with Paige my Big Fat Greek Wedding trilogy. That's right. My Big Fat Greek Wedding has three films, and they are My Big fat Greek wedding 1, 2, and 3. There's a part of me that wanted to call this My Big Fat Greek Trilogy. But, no, they're all calls on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. [02:25:38] Speaker A: I mean, we can call it that. I'm down. [02:25:42] Speaker B: But I mean, it's a trilogy that I. My mom. This was. I think the first film was a jam for my mom. She. At least I remember her owning this movie. And I watched it maybe once or twice with her. I have not seen it since I was young. [02:25:56] Speaker A: I saw the first one in theaters. [02:25:58] Speaker B: Wow. [02:25:59] Speaker A: I don't know why. I don't know why or how. [02:26:02] Speaker B: That's crazy. Because you would have been like, one, what, five, six? [02:26:05] Speaker A: Young. Yeah, yeah. [02:26:06] Speaker B: I was gonna say so young to be like. [02:26:09] Speaker A: Remember why? [02:26:10] Speaker B: To be like, are all Greek weddings this big, in fact. Oh, that's crazy. No, but, yeah, I. It was one of the things when we talked about, you know, a big. What kind of, you know, romance, romcom type trilogy we could do this year? And I just was like, wait a minute. I think there might be three of these movies. And sure enough. Sure enough. So, yeah, tune in on Valentine's Day when we team up with our friend Paige Stratton as we talk about the My. [02:26:39] Speaker A: I just have one more thing after. [02:26:41] Speaker B: Your My Big Fat Greek Wedding Trilogy. But Andy. [02:26:46] Speaker A: And also tune in on socials, because now that January. Our January work is under our belts, we are going to be publishing our schedule for the year. [02:26:56] Speaker B: That's right. Yes. [02:26:57] Speaker A: So not only will we be doing My Big Fat Greek Trilogy or Logan's Big Fat Greek Trilogy, I suppose we will be doing many more trilogies this year. And we will. We're excited to announce those alongside. [02:27:12] Speaker B: Super pumped to see people's reaction to it. And we already have a list of guests that are really excited to join the pack. Some newbies, some returnees that we're excited to join with us, and some very odd choices that. That we're both really excited to cover. But to start off, tune in on Friday or tune in Friday. Friday. What the hell am I talking about? The Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day. Thank you. I think I was so curious as to what he didn't. Andy forgot to tell me that he was going to talk about your socials. And I was wondering what that big surprise was. And now I was like, oh, that's right. We did talk about that a while ago. It was exactly what I should have expected. Yeah, yeah, but y. Yeah, tune in on Valentine's Day when we cover the My Big Fat Greek Wedding trilogy. But as always, I'm Logan Soosh. [02:27:56] Speaker A: And I'm Andy Carr. [02:27:57] Speaker B: Thank you so much for listening. [02:27:59] Speaker A: Bye.