#michael shannon

Inspector Cluedo

There’s no mystery that writer-director Rian Johnson loves playing with genre expectations. From the shady central mystery of debut movie Brick, to the twisty sci-fi plot of Looper, the director has a gift for pulling the narrative rug from under your feet, so much so that his divisive story for Star Wars: The Last Jedi was accused of veering too far away from the galaxy far far away. Let loose in the more modest setting of a murder mystery drama, and freed from studio control, Johnson latest film is a much more assured and entertaining use of his skills, though the approach is very much still the same - set up familiar genre rules, and throw everything you know out of the window.

Set in present day, but with the old-timey sensibilities of a classic murder mystery, the plot hinges on the death of wealthy patriarch and renowned crime author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer effortlessly communicates his character’s generosity in a handful of scenes) on the night of his 85th birthday. With an ingenious interview sequence that introduces the film’s many colourful characters, we quickly get up to speed with the dysfunctional family that spent this night with him, establishing potential motives and tensions, and laying down intricate details that come into play later. Though initially dismissed as a clear-cut suicide, this does little to quell the suspicions of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), an eccentric detective whose gift for sniffing out mysteries are the stuff of tabloid celebrity.

We see this unfold through the eyes of Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan’s personal nurse and friend, and typically, the person you’d least expect. Surprisingly holding the cards to some of the movies key moments, de Armas plays her character’s complex character arc to perfection, a warm-hearted yet determined presence that you root for as the film progresses. Surrounding her is what can only be described as a circus-like bunch of big egos and hangers-on to Harlan’s enormous fortune, memorably brought to life by a dreamy ensemble cast. Jamie Lee Curtis is the proud, ‘self-made’ daughter with a successful real estate business, Don Johnson smarms it up as her unfaithful husband, Toni Collette is brilliant as Harlan’s cloying, social-media obsessed daughter-in-law, and Michael Shannon impresses against type as the insecure son who looks after Harlan’s publishing business. As Harlan’s entitled grandson ‘Ransom’, Chris Evans is a particular delight, a smug and smirking ‘trust-fund baby’ who tells the entire family to eat shit in his very first scene.

Throughout, Johnson shows an expert grasp of his material, drawing a lot of comedy from his subversion of audience expectations. Things never quite go the way you expect, and the story’s dramatic revelations are punctuated with odd little details that add colour and intrigue to the story, like a character who throws up when telling a lie, an ill-timed car singalong, or one of the most anti-climatic car chases in cinema history. And, in Benoit Blanc, Craig has delivered one of mystery cinema’s biggest oddballs - an unconventional sleuth who adores the thrill of unravelling a mystery (his donut analogy is hilarious) and speaks in an old-fashioned southern drawl that shouldn’t work, but somehow compliments the character’s quirks. Like this character, you’ll find joy in puzzling together the film’s various plot points, which come together in a way that makes sense, and feels worthy of the build-up before it. The end result is a film so engaging and cleverly put together, that you’ll likely be disappointed when it reaches its thrilling conclusion.

Smart, funny and masterfully orchestrated, Knives Out is a pitch-perfect murder mystery that pays homage to the genre’s conventions, while repackaging them in a way that feels witty, fresh and unpredictable.

★★★★★

Unable to perceive the shape of you, I find you all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with your love, It humbles my heart, for you are everywhere.

The Shape of Water (2017)

A mind made for murder.

The Iceman is a film by Ariel Vromen. I have never heard of him before this, but he does a decent job creating a film with a lot of potential, but with a lack of direction on its story and its characters’ developments, which ultimately makes this film a lackluster portrayal of a ruthless killer.

Richard Kukliniski was dubbed the “Iceman” after his victims were found to be frozen in order to hide their time of death from the coroners. He rose from low level illegal pornographic distributor for the mafia to favored hitman for the New Jersey and New York crime families; over the span of his illustrious 30+ years as a contract killer he has claimed to have killed over 100 people. During that time span he also raised a family, of whom knew nothing of his troubled career. This film is based on a true story of an inherently evil being who has claimed to have no emotions towards the killings of others.

A lot of the problems in this film revolve around its own timespan. Because Kuklinski is a sociopath and exactly when he started killing are left to our own interpretation the film suffers, for it begins to develop a plot and then goes off track just as quickly. The focus becomes less and less about the psychological nature of what makes Kukliniski so fascinating and more about the betrayal that comes with the territory of being a criminal. There wasn’t enough method in the film to his killings, this was a big “no-no” for me considering a lot of these details are already readily available via the HBO’s documentary/interview with the real Richard Kukliniski.

However, The Iceman is enriched with excellent performances, from all of its actors as they are introduced into the film almost like the ghosts that inhabited Scrooge’s dreams in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Each significant visitor being played out in short segments of pure brilliance. It is in these short moments do we get to see where the film shines for it is after each of these interactions do we as an audience get to see Kukliniski’s character lose his way, more and more.

Specific moments that stood out for this film were his interactions with his brother played by Stephen Dorff as he visits him in jail, as well as his interactions with his own wife played by Winona Ryder, and lastly his brief “divine intervention” with James Franco.

These actor’s performances really stood out for me for they are the driving force towards Kuklinski’s actions. His brother revealing that they are cold-blooded killers and unfit for society, his wife anchors what little humanity may or may not exist within Kuklinski, and lastly with James Franco’s character we realize Kuklinski is truly crazy for he questions God’s inability to stop himself from killing others, he even pauses his execution to give God an opportunity to stop him.

I am glad this was made, for Vromen is a talented director. He was able to make sense of a screenplay that should have otherwise been a movie that almost hit the 3 hour mark, but is abridged into just under 2hrs, presenting a lot of beautiful detail but failing to elaborate on a lot of it as they are short handed with cliche story telling to keep the film with a duration that can appeal to many. He just has to be careful on his next projects for I am sure this film will garner him attention in Hollywood.

Michael Shannon delivers a chilling performance as his burly disposition slowly turns from nihilism to pure evil. If this film wasn’t enough to prove his talent, I don’t know what will.

¾

-DK