Director: Rian Johnson
A ton of fun, for anyone who ever has loved a good murder mystery or loves seeing a somewhat worn-out genre reinvigorated through crackling energy and narrative inventiveness.
Summarizing the tale would defeat a certain amount of its purpose, so I'll use broad strokes. Knives Out tells the story of a wealthy author of murder mystery novels who dies, perhaps under sinister circumstances, and the fallout among his highly dysfunctional progeny. Nearly all of the standard elements of a classic murder mystery are there: greedy, bizarre suspects, a brilliant detective working the case, and multiple twists and turns in the plot as more details are revealed about the death and those involved. If you want your marks hit, director Rian Johnson bullseyes every one of them.
But if Knives Out were just another cookie-cutter, contemporary take on Murder on the Orient Express, it wouldn't especially standout. And standout this movie does, for several reasons. One is that the cast is as brilliant as one could ask for. Whether it's the well-seasoned veterans like Christopher Plummer and Jamie Lee Curtis, relative newcomers like Chris Evans and Lakeith Stanfield, or the bevy of other accomplished actors, there's not one performance that is less than pitch-perfect. They all bring the fun, dark humor into full form with aplomb, and it's a blast to watch them work. And I must point out just what a great job was turned in by Alma de Armas, with whom I was completely unfamiliar before this movie. Daniel Craig is also among the most memorable of the many indelible characters, but de Armas showed exceptional range here.
Of course, no murder mystery is worth its salt if it doesn't have a compelling narrative, plot, or both. Well, true to his risk-taking form, Rian Johnson plays with the genre in several creative ways. Again, I won't spoil them for those who haven't seen it yet, but the story folds out in an unexpected order and resolves in a way which I found uniquely satisfying.
Given just how many sequels, reboots, and adaptation from other media we are offered in the world of film these days, it is wonderfully refreshing to get a completely original story. Yes, it is in a nearly century-old genre, but it is telling its own tale in the novel way that its teller sees fit.
I highly recommend this one.
Director: J.J. Abrams
It was fine. No more, no less. But for an infinite-budget tent-pole movie in one of the largest franchises ever, "fine" can feel like a letdown.
The massive Star Wars franchise is in a strange place these days. In one sense, it's stronger than ever, now that it has the full might of Disney behind it and has broken into previously-untapped, massive and burgeoning markets like China. The toys, shows, and films are as ubiquitous as ever, and the release of a primary film in the main storyline is still as grand an event as one can find in movies.
At the same time, this recent trilogy has taken an odd trajectory. First we had The Force Awakens, in which J.J. Abrams took a ton of elements from the original Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope, tweaked a couple of things and gave long-starved devotees a return to form strong enough to give them multiple orgasms. Still, it was treading a lot of the same ground. Curiously, Disney tapped a very different director, Rian Johnson (see review above), for the next chapter, The Last Jedi. Johnson took a lot of admirable risks with his Star Wars film, something that the franchise has never really done at all. As one might expect, this met with incredibly divisive reaction between critics, who lauded the film's attempts to break free from the franchise's conventions, and the hardcore fanbase, who felt like their entire childhood had been obliterated like Alderaan. The swing between these two movies was massive, as one might expect when you give two very different writer and directors full control of movies which are supposed to be two chapters of the same overall tale.
So along comes The Rise of Skywalker. The film had had a somewhat muddled history, in the originally-slated director, Colin Trevorrow, left the project. Rian Johnson was meant to write a treatment for the movie, but never did. And then Carrie Fisher, whose General Leia Organa was supposed to be a central character in the final movie, passed away before production could begin. So Disney calls in J.J. Abrams to save the day.
I guess he did, sort of. At least, in the sense that the movie got its act together enough to not be bad.
What I've learned over the years of seeing several of Abrams' movies (I've never watched any of his TV shows) is that the man is, as John Powers once described him, "brilliantly unoriginal." The guy knows how to tell a story well and make a movie with technical prowess, no question. But he's all too happy to color within the lines drawn by artists and creators who came before him. Sure, he'll throw in a "fun" little curveball to let you know that he's not a total hack, like switching Kirk's and Spock's positions from Wrath of Kahn when he did his reboot Into Darkness several years ago. But he's never going to take any major risks, seemingly terrified of asking too much of his audience. And this is pretty much what he seemed to fall back on when he was asked to "rescue" The Rise of Skywalker.
This is a spoiler-free review, so I won't go over any plot points. But I found the movie decent enough. The first 15 or 20 minutes are annoyingly frenetic, with herky-jerky pacing and new story elements hurled in your face all too quickly. But once you settle in, it becomes a decent enough fantasy-adventure ride. If one is willing to relax a bit, then they'll find a several decent examples of the following: gags, action sequences, set pieces, and Easter eggs for devoted Star Wars fans. And the acting is solid all around, except for a weird return engagement by Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrisean.
I think what I ultimately come away from Rise of Skywalker with is the larger question of why on Earth Disney didn't show more foresight when diving into this trilogy. It just feels like something which could have been far fresher and more cohesive that it was.
If nothing else, it just solidified my opinion that Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie we've gotten since Empire Strikes Back nearly 40 years ago. And it's not even really close.
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