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[Hairy Lime]

Words cannot explain how much I adore every single frame of Knives Out. From the almost imperceptible barking of the dogs over the March of the Logos to Don Johnson's black eye, to the coffee mug as a framing device to  Chris Evans's perfect line reading of the single word "Shit".

[barton]

The sigboth and I both loved it.   I could have said we hated it,  but then I would have had to involuntarily vomit up breakfast.  I'm going to watch it again.   Sounds like there's a sequel greenlit, in which Foghorn Leghorn Benoit Blanc will solve another mystery. 

Not sure a sequel can succeed at so many things... a pitch-perfect eccentric whodunit,  a superb sendup  of the classic twisty plotted mystery,  a clever metaphor of the sclerotic and racist subcultures of America,  the brilliant cinematographic rendition of a house as America,  the final take-down and exorcism of all things Trumpian,  and as you note the clever framings... including the most literal sense of framing as Harlan's portrait is altered at the end to a bit of a smirk.   I liked the "something is afoot" double entendre, the plot trajectory of a baseball,  every family member naming a different SA country of origin for Marta, the donut analogy...and others that will come to me on a repeat viewing.   

[Hairy Lime]

All those things. Plus the very first thing Blanc looks at when he meets Marta, which explains why he keeps her close in his investigation: he needs her to determine the arc. And Michael Shannon's alternating whipped and intense performance ("I am not.eating one iota of shit!" "Have another cookie! Maybe Harlan left you a cold glass of milk in his will!"). And the way Meg's betrayal causes Marta to toss in with Ransom. And Chris Evans's sweater. And the titles of Harlan's novels. And Lakieth Stanfeld's response to Noah Segran's fan boy moments. As an aside, I will never, for the rest of his career, not notice whenever Stanfeld's character tells someone to get out. And Walt and Linda both claiming they were outvoted about inviting Marta to the funeral. And the way the movie goes from Whodunnit to Crime Drama in a flip of a coin. And then back.

I think Johnson can fashion a clever and entertaining whodunnit but I doubt he can totally recapture the magic, especially without Ana de Armas. She worked so well with Craig. If only someone would pair the two in a blockbuster movie franchise... I would die for such a movie, if I had the time for that.

Actually, why not include her? Every Holmes needs a Doctor Watson. Or Nurse Watson.

Streaming on Prime, everyone. Watch.

[Hairy Lime]

RIP to my doppelganger Wilford Brimley.

[barton]

Yes.   He was 50 when he played a senior in Cocoon.   Somehow,  maybe the gravitas of the gray moustache, allowed him to look seventyish for nearly four decades of his career.   That dip in the Antarean life energy pool probably gave him a few extra years.

My doppelganger has become a plucked chicken,  which makes me wonder if a moustache would help much.   Perhaps a goatee,  to cover the wattle. 

[Echo4]

Yes.   He was 50 when he played a senior in Cocoon.   Somehow,  maybe the gravitas of the gray moustache, allowed him to look seventyish for nearly four decades of his career.   That dip in the Antarean life energy pool probably gave him a few extra years.

I'd had no idea he was so young when he played that part!

But he'd have been well over 100 now had he been as old as he played.

[Echo4]

Apparently, in the 60s the Beatles wanted to do The Lord of the Rings.

They wanted to cast Paul, Ringo, George, and John as Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and Gollum, respectively.

[Hairy Lime]

Finally saw Dunkirk, which I liked more than most Nolan movies. My biggest problem, every time there was a new Britisb soldier, I would think, "That's Benedict Cumberbatch". It turns out none of them were.

[barton]

Hahaha.   

Sometimes have the reverse problem,  as when we watched The Death of Stalin and I kept thinking the guy who played Molotov looked a bit like Michael Palin.   But it turned out to actually be Palin.   

[Hairy Lime]

I watched all of Light Between Two Oceans thinking it starred Jude Law, who turned out to be Michael Fassbinder.

Death of Stalin is by far the funniest movie that ends with one of its leads being shot in the head, his body drenched in gasoline and and set afire. But it was Beria, so, cool.

[barton]

Yep.  One of the best films of 2017, and somewhat underrated.   Aside from the terrific screenplay,  and no-weak-link ensemble (no idea why they would cast Buscemi as Krushchev,  but he absolutely killed it),  I was also impressed by the soundtrack which I spent most of the film thinking was excerpts from Shostakovich, or Prokofiev,  but was in fact original composition by some Brit I'd never heard of.   

And it also had flawless timing,  every comic beat,  every good line,  lands at just the right moment.    I remember we watched it without pausing,  because there was simply no place for that,  it was unstoppable.   

[Hairy Lime]

Almost as good as Iannucci's previous In the Loop. Makes me wish I had access to whatever Veep was on.

[bodiddley]

Hmm.  Death of Stalin kind of happened without me.  I was a distant spectator.  There were one or two scenes I liked, and most of the rest just kept me waiting for something to like/engage with.  I should rewatch it, if I can dredge up the dvd. 

[oilcan]

I liked TDoS.    My guess is you have to be in the mood for relentless mockery of power, for seeing the men who chase after power as buffoons.   My second guess is that three years of Trump and ilk will render the movie more accessible.   The overall tone seemed Melbrooksian to me, with the same sharp jabs to vanity and dignity.   

[barton]

I read a tweet about a New Yorker article about you. 

Knives Out is indeed worth a second viewing.   As with many twisty plots, the second viewing is one where you enjoy the ride even more when you know where the road is going.  And there are there pleasures of a fine script,  savoring lines you may have forgotten or which weren't quite absorbed the first time around.   I liked the bit about the cops being truffle pigs while Benoit boasts of a technique of anticipating the terminus of Gravity's Rainbow, a book he hasn't read ("nobody has").   And then the recurring references to this arc,  to the Newtonian/Pynchonian physics of a flying droplet of blood or hurled baseball or flung Go board or,  finally,  a projectile of truth-vomit impacting the guilty.