Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

[Chyromaniac]

16 hours ago, Shorty186 said:

Okay, two things I don't get about Miles Bron. If he's not actually a genius, why did Andie need him? She was the creator and brains of Alpha. Don't think he was bankrolling anyone until he made Alpha $$. Is it just that he's a great bullshitter?

Second, why did he send Andie the box after he killed her? Everyone thought it was weird that he invited her, so no one would have batted an eyelash if he hadn't. I guess it was his own hubris that lead to (Benoit Blanc, which lead to) his downfall.

I assumed Miles was just born rich- like maybe his dad owned a diamond mine or something.  He probably is also fairly charismatic- but just having money is, by itself, a great way to get people to indulge your whims.

To me, sending the box to Andi was basically just a cover.  I agree that no one would have assumed anything if he hadn’t sent her a box, however by sending one it suggests that he didn’t know she was dead.  Tbh, before the weekend I figured he either didn’t know, or just forgot, that she had a sister- let alone an identical twin.  That’s one thing I’d really like to know more from the film- who exactly did he think showed up prior to Duke’s big reveal?  Did he suddenly remember Helen, or did he think Andi somehow survived?

[MissAlmond]

19 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I don't know how the company would have chosen Miles to lead them over Andi, unless Miles drew up the company's original paperwork so that he might take over one day.

Ha! IMO, not only would a real-life board choose Miles to lead the company, some would gaslight Andi she was responsible for his mistakes.  Who honestly believes a Black woman could get away with half the crap Elon Musk - a fool who was once declared a "genius" - currently is?  Glass Onion got it right.  

Edited December 25, 2022 by MissAlmond

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

It would have been impossible for the people who work in the company not to know that Andi was the genius and that Miles was an idiot. It is almost impossible to convince people knowledgeable in the same field as you that you are way smarter than them. Miles might have had brilliant vague ideas, but Andi had to be the one that fleshed them out and directed the company. I don't know how the company would have chosen Miles to lead them over Andi, unless Miles drew up the company's original paperwork so that he might take over one day.

I prefer to imagine that Duke's savant Ma (Jackie Hoffman) was the secret brains behind the super fuel.

[DearEvette]

Just watched this and it was fun.  I knew I was gonna enjoy it when in the beginning everyone is doing al the complicated puzzles to open the box and Helen simply took a hammer to it. I love shit like that.  Basically a Gordion Knot.  No, not everything has to be untangled in a whole complicated series of moves.  Sometimes you can just cut through it with a knife and get that shit done!  Also, I liked how almost everything was A Clue.

I love how my original thought about Miles when we first meet him on the beach was  "this guy is an idiot that got lucky" was proven to be his whole shtick.

I absolutely loved the costume design in this.  Birdie's and Benoit's clothes especially were gorgeous. 

Janelle Monae and Daniel Craig are superb scene partners.  I loved them in this and I love every one of their scenes together.

3 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

Ha! IMO, not only would a real-life board choose Miles to lead the company, but some would gaslight Andi she was responsible for his mistakes.  Who honestly believes a Black woman could get away with half the crap Elon Musk - a fool who was once declared a "genius" - currently is?  Glass Onion got it right. 

Yeah, I could not ignore the subtext of this at all.  It was not even subtext really it was so blatant.

I hope they do another one.

[peridot]

I enjoyed this movie.  I wasn't expecting all the celebrity cameos.  People called Hugh Grant's character Benoit's husband, but I didn't catch that.  I thought he was a housekeeper or something.

I liked the beginning, when everyone tried opening the boxes together.  I laughed at Duke's mom.

Since Miles was proven to be an idiot, I wonder if that spray at the docks actually did anything against COVID? 

I really loved the maxi dresses that Andi/Helen was wearing, even the multicolor dress and eye makeup that Birdie was wearing.

When everyone was breaking the sculptures at the end, I was cringing because I was expecting for someone to slice up their foot.

What happened to Andi was really sad, I hate that her so-called friends committed perjury and were even willing to hide her murder just to keep the gravy train running.  I wanted to see Miles in handcuffs at the end.

[shapeshifter]

4 minutes ago, peridot said:

When everyone was breaking the sculptures at the end, I was cringing because I was expecting for someone to slice up their foot.

I just hate seeing stuff broken. But one of the last to be smashed looked like a balloon animal, so I told myself that's basically what all the props were and everything else was CGI. Yeah. I know. Not likely. But it made me feel better.
And, so, yes, of course I was not thrilled with the idea of the Mona Lisa going up in flames. When I was a little kid I wanted to be Leonardo when I grew up. But I was okay with it because it was an awesome way for Elon Miles to get what he deserved. 


 

 

8 minutes ago, peridot said:

Since Miles was proven to be an idiot, I wonder if that spray at the docks actually did anything against COVID? 

Oh, I wondered about that spray from the beginning because it all seemed so Goop-y. 
But it was an excellent way to convey to the audience that this was a group of easy marks who would go along with almost anything if it seemed "on brand" for their public images.
But it also briefly bothered me a bit because it could be taken to be a dismissal of of vaccines——even though I'm sure that was not the intent.

[DearEvette]

21 minutes ago, peridot said:

I enjoyed this movie.  I wasn't expecting all the celebrity cameos.  People called Hugh Grant's character Benoit's husband, but I didn't catch that.  I thought he was a housekeeper or something.

Yeah the cameos were nice.  Totally wasn't expecting Ethan Hawke.  And I liked the Serena one.  Not really a cameo, but I cracked up when Benoit ate something spicy and said 'Halle Berry, that's hot."  LOL.

Forgot to mention that I liked that the stoner dude guy... Daryl?  Wasn't really a plot point.  Just hanging out. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 12/23/2022 at 1:26 PM, shapeshifter said:

The cameo with the late Angela Lansbury at the beginning was very fitting as this was an entirely non-gory multiple murder mystery.

I need to learn not to look up imdb credits during movies with any kind of suspense. I didn't recognize "Angie" in the Zoom call, pulled out my phone, and was semi-spoiled by Janelle Monae's credit. Luckily the way things played out was still twisty enough to entertain me. I didn't really like the very end, but I had a lot of fun up to that point.

23 hours ago, festivus said:

I think I liked this one even better than the first.

It wins just based on the reduction in vomiting.

[kiddo82]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

Yeah, I could not ignore the subtext of this at all.  It was not even subtext really it was so blatant.

I hope they do another one.

To quote Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer:  "The subtext is rapidly becoming...text."

[arc]

21 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

Oprah's last show was in 2011

On her main show, but then she launched a new (albeit smaller, less frequent) show on OWN.

On 12/24/2022 at 12:04 AM, AnimeMania said:

Miles is a genius just for creating solid Hydrogen you can carry around in your pocket.

I think the movie said he backed it/bought it, not that he invented it himself.

14 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

It would have been impossible for the people who work in the company not to know that Andi was the genius and that Miles was an idiot.

It is late December 2022 and there are some tech-ish people who still think Elon Musk is a genius. <shrug>

6 hours ago, peridot said:

When everyone was breaking the sculptures at the end, I was cringing because I was expecting for someone to slice up their foot.

I was expecting some of those sculptures to have been made out of Klear, but I guess even Miles wasn't that reckless.

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I told myself that's basically what all the props were and everything else was CGI.

The puzzle box was at least partially CGI. There's just no way a wooden disc that big is absolutely seamless once it unfolds.

I enjoyed it a lot but I only really laughed when Blanc solved the Gillian Flynn murder mystery in 0 seconds flat. "Did the game start? OK, here's the answer and how I figured it out, plus also there was that hedge maze 'B'."

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, arc said:

I only really laughed when Blanc solved the Gillian Flynn murder mystery in 0 seconds flat

Blanc casually ruining the obscenely expensive murder mystery party vacation with his insta-solve was a delicious bit and showed us this was not going to be the tried-and-true (and worn out) murder mystery.

Did the original Sherlock Holmes or Poirot ever do insta-solves to ruin murder “games”?

Adrian Monk solved some game charades in 0 seconds, similarly annoying both the killer and the guests.

Jessica Fletcher’s schtick was noticing clues that the real, male detective missed, making it look like she thought it was the male detective’s idea so she wouldn’t bruise his ego and so her ideas would be taken seriously; the audience was in on her game as a quasi feminist commentary. We were supposed to be amused.

But Blanc ruining the murder game of the self-important, sex-entitled for quid pro quo Elon Miles was more satisfying.

 

7 hours ago, peridot said:

People called Hugh Grant's character Benoit's husband, but I didn't catch that.  I thought he was a housekeeper or something.

I too glossed over that Hugh Grant's character was not a housekeeper; I just thought it was a feminist take on housekeeping. Silly me.

Edited December 25, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Shorty186]

4 hours ago, arc said:

I was expecting some of those sculptures to have been made out of Klear, but I guess even Miles wasn't that reckless.

But weren't they? I thought that was why Helen was breaking them all over the place (as well as letting out her anger). They were the gasoline she needed to start the initial fire?

[MsNewsradio]

11 hours ago, Shorty186 said:

But weren't they? I thought that was why Helen was breaking them all over the place (as well as letting out her anger). They were the gasoline she needed to start the initial fire?

The statues were just statues. The initial fire was fueled from when she destroyed the bar and lit the liquor on the floor on fire, which carried up and lit the rest of the bar remnants. 

 

[Irlandesa]

I was looking forward to this a lot but I do not agree with the reviews that thought this was better than the first. 

First, the positive.  I loved the cameos.  They were fun.  And I loved Benoit being so bored that he needed a mystery.  I also thought Janelle Monae was great in her dual role.  Just like Ana de Armas in the first, she propelled so much of the narrative in a fun way.  And I loved that Edward Norton's character, Miles, ended up being an indictment of Elon Musk long before Elon Musk exposed himself. 

Some of the negatives included the villain being so obvious. And Edward Norton felt like he was just playing the same character he played in The Italian Job.  I also felt disappointed in the location.  I was very excited that it was going to take place in Greece but I felt they barely used the landscape since all of the action basically took place in the mansion which could have been almost anywhere.  I think much of my disappointment is compared to The White Lotus which used Italy so well in its last season. 

Overall, I liked the movie but I didn't love it. 

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I think much of my disappointment is compared to The White Lotus which used Italy so well in its last season. 

Now that you mention it, both White Lotus and Knives Out did have/were:

• Openings with people arriving by boat to enjoy luxury 
• 2nd outings following a 1st outing rather quickly compared to a lot of other shows/movies delayed by pandemic fallout
• Released on subscription streaming services during the 2022 winter holidays 
• Murder mysteries with dark comedic bits
• At least some well-known actors 

But White Lotus 2 focused more on interpersonal relationships against a background of socioeconomic issues, whereas Knives Out 2 focused almost exclusively on socioeconomic issues. 

A streamable movie Knives Out 2 reminds me of is Don’t Look Up, which was perhaps not executed as well as Knives Out 2.

Edited December 26, 2022 by shapeshifter

[arc]

4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

but I felt they barely used the landscape since all of the action basically took place in the mansion which could have been almost anywhere. 

The tone of the sunlight was certainly something you wouldn't get from a New England fall or winter.

I'm actually not at all familiar with Agatha Christie mysteries that so inspire Johnson. Are they typically fairly self-contained the way the two Knives Out movies have been? I think it'd be interesting if the next movie has a little more chaos for Blanc to manage.

[shrewd.buddha]

As a murder mystery it was disappointing. The plot relied on an identical twin sister no one knew about, a high-profile suicide that went unreported, someone carrying a bottle of Tabasco sauce, a woman carrying a book in the breast pocket of a jacket and a very accurate shot through a glass wall.
An Agatha Christie detective character would never hand over the equivalent of stick of dynamite to another character to extract revenge. 

I'm not a fan of celebrity schmooze-fest shenanigan movies, so the appeal of that was lost on me. 

The few things that seemed mysterious were:
How was the original victim, Andie, such a poor judge of character regarding Miles?
What tech-savvy person lives alone with no doorbell camera or security system in the year 2020?
Who would think these these rich assholes would tolerate there being no staff to prepare their food, drinks and attend to their every want and whim? 

Edited December 26, 2022 by shrewd.buddha
spelling

[Chyromaniac]

In White Onion (or is it Glass Lotus?), an adorkable assistant is dragged into mortal danger at a vacation spot by her wealthy aging idiot boss.

2 hours ago, arc said:

I'm actually not at all familiar with Agatha Christie mysteries that so inspire Johnson. Are they typically fairly self-contained the way the two Knives Out movies have been? I think it'd be interesting if the next movie has a little more chaos for Blanc to manage.

I’m not as familiar with Christie as some, but yes - for the most part her mysteries are pretty boxed in- a boat, a train, a manor house, etc..  That way she could focus the story on a specific group of characters.  Probably the most sprawling story of hers that I’ve read is Death on the Nile, with does include a number of locations- but still, it’s the same dozen or so characters involved in each event.  And, they all end up back on the boat.  Otherwise, another good Christie influenced film from this year was See How they Run, which ironically also features an adorkable assistant…

 

[SlovakPrincess]

This was fun in parts but I didn’t love it.  The characters were so one dimensional to me, except for Blanc and Helen.  
 

At least in Agatha Christie whodunnits the dialogue is more sly and interesting and you get some fun romantic entanglements along the way.  Here, every character was just broadcasting their awfulness constantly— like, we get it, you represent this annoying type of influencer, etc.  Which is not to say Kate Hudson didn’t have some funny scenes but it was the same joke over and over.

Also I get why the end of the movie is Helen destroying everything in sight, but that doesn’t make ten straight minutes of smashing and burning stuff that interesting to watch. 
 

I’ll give it another viewing on Netflix because I feel like I must be missing something, but I expected to like this a lot more.  I would watch another movie with Blanc, though — Craig is fun in this role, and so different from 007 that it highlights his talent as a versatile actor.

[ursula]

On 12/24/2022 at 8:34 PM, shapeshifter said:

But it also briefly bothered me a bit because it could be taken to be a dismissal of of vaccines——even though I'm sure that was not the intent.

I thought the idea was that Miles was so rich he’d got access to some high quality vaccine before it was made available to the public.

[overtherainbow]

I'm getting awfully tired of the "rich white guy is evil and has a creepy futuristic lair" plot. Knives Out was so much better.

[Milburn Stone]

The kind of movie Knives Out 1 was, was better, but Rian Johnson could not make that kind of movie again, so, given that he had to do something fundamentally different this time, I think he succeeded like gangbusters. Tons of fun.

[Kiss my mutt]

I’m about to nope out about thirty minutes in and I loved the first one. Even the cameos are kind of ho hum. 

[Bastet]

I didn't much care for the whodunit of the first one, but LOVED its social commentary.  As this one got started, I thought I wasn't going to be as tickled by the social commentary, but, boy, was I wrong.  Nailed it again!  And on more fronts this time.  The whodunit?  Once again okay, even a little better.  And the performances were every bit as strong.  So this was quite enjoyable -- just plain fun.  And with so many great little touches, like Birdie Jay's mask (when they're all arriving to the dock) being wide-open mesh. 

[SlovakPrincess]

(Spoiler tagging some of this because it's still fairly new on Netflix)

Gave it a second watch and I appreciate more that this wasn't really meant to be a whodunnit, but more a commentary on

Spoiler

the extremes you'd have to go to to stop someone like Miles.  And that what brings him down eventually is his sycophants finally seeing no personal benefit in sucking up to him anymore.

 

However.  It was still kind of unsatisfying for me.  The entire second half of the movie is exposition and flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks!).   Come to think of it, the first half is also too much explaining and too little showing through character development or action.  Building a certain character up to be this odious and not having them be the victim certainly subverts this kind of murder mystery set up -- but, again, really unsatisfying, because I was so looking forward to them getting killed lol.  

Whether one enjoys this kind of social commentary may depend on how much escapism you want from your movies.  This is kind of the same issue I had with Don't Look Up ... I agree the things / people being parodied / satirized deserve it, but I'm still spending over two hours being beaten over the head with their awfulness.  Eh.  
 

ETA:  It’s still pretty fun, I would recommend it for light viewing.  I just think there were a lot of missed opportunities here.

Edited December 27, 2022 by SlovakPrincess

[Fukui San]

I love this movie so much. Saw it last night, started rewatching it again already. So many fun details.  

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Fukui San said:

I love this movie so much. Saw it last night, started rewatching it again already. So many fun details.  

I enjoyed it too (see above).
If/when you have time, please post a couple of particular things that you liked.

[SeanC]

On 12/26/2022 at 10:04 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

a high-profile suicide that went unreported

That was explained as being delayed by Blanc, who is well-connected.

[BlackberryJam]

I loved it. This movie was so much fun. I don't need these mysteries or characters to be super de duper ala Peter T. Hooper believable. Poirot, Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Tom Barnaby, these characters aren't believable. I'm not looking to watch another "gritty, heart-pounding, based on a true story thriller!" Ugh. You take a bunch of pretty people, put them in fancy clothes in a country house and have one of them die, hopefully in a manner not too gruesome, or if gruesome it happens off screen and you've got me hooked. 

I like my detectives going from character to character having conversations, picking up clues. In fact, I love it. I might not like Johnson's technique of showing the events from two different POVs, one in the first half, one in the second, but still, these are fun.

Janelle Monae is amazing and gorgeous and she looked incredible in the clothes. Kate Hudson was delightfully vapid. Daniel Craig is having a fantastic time and it shows. I have loved Ed Norton since he said the words, "There never was an Aaron," in Primal Fear. He was perfect. All the characters, all the cameos, loved it. I could watch 100 Benoit Blanc movies.

I will take these over superhero films, misery porn, horror, coming of age films, biopics and CGI fests. I felt light and joyful after seeing this. Even remembering it makes me smile.

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by BlackberryJam

[dovegrey]

On 12/26/2022 at 11:59 PM, SlovakPrincess said:

The entire second half of the movie is exposition and flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks!).   Come to think of it, the first half is also too much explaining and too little showing through character development or action. 

This. But I felt like 95% of the movie was set-up and exposition, including the expository flashback scenes to explain everything in the first half, so when the "big reveal" happened, it felt like a let down. At the end, I sat there thinking, "Wait, that was the movie?" I was still waiting for the mystery to start. 😅

As a general comment related to that, I saw Miles hand Duke the drink and thought that Duke's death was strongly telegraphed long ahead of time, and I saw the phone in Miles' back pocket... I didn't buy the retcon that Duke took Miles' drink; I saw what I saw, and so that was the infallible giveaway that Miles Did It. I didn't see the Helen/Andi twist coming, which was initially fun. But, every character except Helen, Benoit, and Miles were useless background noise (often literally; I can't with the high pitched screeching), and so the "turn off the lights and put a missing gun on the table" thing was a wasted opportunity to let these characters meaningfully interact and tear into each other. All in all, I thought another twist had to have been coming, like Helen was actually Andi/Helen was the one who'd been killed, and Andi was there to kill everyone.

Looks like the cast had fun, though. That's cool. I'd watch it again as a fluffy thing to have on in the background.

Edited December 28, 2022 by dovegrey

[Cress]

On 12/24/2022 at 9:18 PM, peridot said:

People called Hugh Grant's character Benoit's husband, but I didn't catch that.  I thought he was a housekeeper or something.

The movie itself doesn't state their relationship. But when the movie was first shown to critics, somebody asked Rian Johnson about the cameo, and he said that yeah, Blanc is gay, and Hugh is meant to be his partner. But because this is a spoiler, some reports were rather quiet about it. Here's an article mentioning it.

The movie had some funny moments, such as Blanc getting into the pool with his entire outfit on, and him standing behind a naked statue to eavesdrop.

On 12/26/2022 at 8:04 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

An Agatha Christie detective character would never hand over the equivalent of stick of dynamite to another character to extract revenge.

Well, Poirot never handed over a weapon, but he does approve of vigilante justice. (If you don't know the endings of Murder on the Orient Express or Curtain, look there for examples of Poirot doing things outside of the law.) I thought of another one in Dead Man's Folly, but I just now remembered that the book ended differently than the TV adaptation.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Cress

[Kel Varnsen]

On 12/24/2022 at 6:09 PM, MissAlmond said:

Ha! IMO, not only would a real-life board choose Miles to lead the company, some would gaslight Andi she was responsible for his mistakes.  Who honestly believes a Black woman could get away with half the crap Elon Musk - a fool who was once declared a "genius" - currently is?  Glass Onion got it right.  

That was sort of my take away. Miles was stupid but he was probably a world class bullshitter who probably started out with a bunch of money and family connections. I know people saw a lot of connections to Musk but I also saw a lot of connections to a certain real estate developer/former reality show host. 

Monae and Craig were great but I really liked how Kate Hudson wasn't afraid to play a washed up former model who was still acting/dressing like she was a super model. Considering that while Hudson is still an actor she is no where near the level she was 20 years ago. The scene where she is sitting by the pool and Whiskey shows up was really funny.

 

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Monae and Craig were great but I really liked how Kate Hudson wasn't afraid to play a washed up former model who was still acting/dressing like she was a super model. Considering that while Hudson is still an actor she is no where near the level she was 20 years ago. The scene where she is sitting by the pool and Whiskey shows up was really funny.

I liked it as well. Hell, it even mirrors her own life a bit because after Kate Hudson's movie career faded she started her own workout clothing brand. Anyway seeing that glimpse of Birdie dropping the act of forever 20-something when the actual 20-something showed up was hilarious.

[Milburn Stone]

4 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Considering that while Hudson is still an actor she is no where near the level she was 20 years ago.

Related to this, I was taken aback by her special billing in the end credits. AND Kate Hudson, or something like that, which in Hollywood credit-ese always means "big get." I'm like, really, she's a star? Guess she's got a really great agent.

(I do think she was super-funny in the movie.)

[Cementhead]

1 minute ago, Milburn Stone said:

Related to this, I was taken aback by her special billing in the end credits. AND Kate Hudson, or something like that, which in Hollywood credit-ese always means "big get." I'm like, really, she's a star? Guess she's got a really great agent.

(I do think she was super-funny in the movie.)

Yes!  That was a major eye roll moment for me, too.  I mean, really.  It's Kate Hudson, let's calm down. 

I was annoyed to hear that she was going to be in this when the cast was first announced because (a) she usually annoys the hell out of me and (b) she is almost always the weakest link.  I am happy to say that I was wrong on both counts.  She was charming as hell in this and I loved the way she just leaned into this character and owned it; nor was she a weak link.

[DearEvette]

12 hours ago, Cress said:

The movie had some funny moments, such as Blanc getting into the pool with his entire outfit on, and him standing behind a naked statue to eavesdrop.

Not only was the statue naked, it was the naked big butt of the statue.  The sight gag of Blanc standing there between two big bronze butt cheeks was great.

I also got a tickle out of Blanc asking what they win when they solve it.  Daniel Craig's corn-pone wide-eyed faux geniality during that even part, down to suggesting an Ipad was good comedy.  Followed by the entire scene of him popping Bron's self important balloon when he unceremoniously reveals the entire murder plot before it even started and then Bron's crestfallen face all topped by the arrow hitting him and the fake blood spurting.  Start to finish I found that part quite funny.  I rewound immediately to re-watch.

 

6 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Monae and Craig were great but I really liked how Kate Hudson wasn't afraid to play a washed up former model who was still acting/dressing like she was a super model

Not only this but I think she did a great job as dim Birdie.  She made me LOL at least twice.  Once where she moaned/screamed "What even is reality?' when Blanc was explaining everything and later when Blanc and Helen  revealed that "Andi" was really Helen she said something like "oh yeah you told me about your sister" and then the dim light finally goes on and she gasps "..oh wait!' 

[Spartan Girl]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Not only this but I think she did a great job as dim Birdie.  She made me LOL at least twice.  Once where she moaned/screamed "What even is reality?' when Blanc was explaining everything and later when Blanc and Helen  revealed that "Andi" was really Helen she said something like "oh yeah you told me about your sister" and then the dim light finally goes on and she gasps "..oh wait!' 

There was another good part with Birdie: when she first sees Blanc she immediately starts flirting with him and keeps coming into him right up til the part at the pool when he tells her “I ADORE Sweetiepants” and she immediately pulls back, realizing that he is indeed gay—her one moment of perceptiveness in the entire movie. And while she may be a dim and racist bulb, the tactful way she pulled back without loudly announcing her realization shows she had a modicum of class.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Related to this, I was taken aback by her special billing in the end credits. AND Kate Hudson, or something like that, which in Hollywood credit-ese always means "big get." I'm like, really, she's a star? Guess she's got a really great agent.

(I do think she was super-funny in the movie.)

4 hours ago, Cementhead said:

Yes!  That was a major eye roll moment for me, too.  I mean, really.  It's Kate Hudson, let's calm down. 

I was annoyed to hear that she was going to be in this when the cast was first announced because (a) she usually annoys the hell out of me and (b) she is almost always the weakest link.  I am happy to say that I was wrong on both counts.  She was charming as hell in this and I loved the way she just leaned into this character and owned it; nor was she a weak link.

Sometimes a little nepotism will get a person far if they work hard (mother Goldie Hawn, step-dad since she was a toddler was Kurt Russell). 

 

[shrewd.buddha]

On 12/28/2022 at 6:16 PM, dovegrey said:

I saw Miles hand Duke the drink and thought that Duke's death was strongly telegraphed long ahead of time, and I saw the phone in Miles' back pocket...

Guess who else saw all of that?: Detective Benoit Blanc.  He also knew that Miles took the gun off of Duke.  But for some reason Blanc decided not to mention any of that until after Helen was shot and it was time for the final confrontation.  
Benoit Blanc also "solved" an off-screen murder based solely on hearsay accounts from a group of notorious liars.
As a parody of a murder mystery, it works.  But it was not not a clever or well-crafted whodunit. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by shrewd.buddha
grammar

[DearEvette]

When Miles is starting his spin that Duke picked up the wrong glass,  LeBlanc is staring at the couch/table as if he is recreating the scene in his head and you can tell he does remember seeing  Miles give Duke the drink.  But he doesn't have time to say anything because that is when the lights go out. 

But, I don't think he was aware of the gun being missing until Lionel mentioned it.  Leblanc sounded pissed at himself because he said something like "we were so used to seeing it it became invisible" or something like that and then he becomes visibly alarmed and reiterates that they must find Andi.  The first thing he asks Andi when he does find  her was if she took the gun.

 

[Fukui San]

Upon rewatch, the line that tickled me the most was when Blanc was talking to Helen about the motives of the suspects in their planning phase. He says "Miles is a smart man, so surely he wouldn't murder Andi so soon after the trial". From his point of view this whole episode is him going in expecting a smart adversary, whomever the murderer was going to be, and having to come to realize that no, actually, it's just a total idiot. 

[Chaos Theory]

I actually liked this better then the first one.  I liked the first one fine but this one really made me laugh at parts.   I love the idea of a rich "Elon Musk" type inviting his inner circle to his private island to unveil his dangerous new project during a murder mystery party only to have a police detective peel away at all the secrets including the one that this beautiful mind is really an idiot who literally stole his one great idea and then got the rest of his friends to turn on the real genius with bribery.    I love the idea of the detective expecting a group of smart people but once he peeled away the onion everyone (except Andi) was an idiot.  

From Andi's Journals it was vague but it looked like Miles was just a guy with connections who knew someone who knew someone and once Andi introduced him to the gang things started to happen and the group stopped being "failed this and that" and they started making small steps due to Miles introducing them to this and that person.     The journals also made it sound like Andi didn't have Miles as part of the company but once he brought in new investors and she turned him down he instead said it was his idea and  took her to court and since Miles was able to bribe all the "disrupters" into siding with him Andi looked like a liar.    The only proof she had was the napkin with the name of the bar on it which disappeared.  

[MissAlmond]

On 12/24/2022 at 9:34 PM, shapeshifter said:

Oh, I wondered about that spray from the beginning because it all seemed so Goop-y. 
But it was an excellent way to convey to the audience that this was a group of easy marks who would go along with almost anything if it seemed "on brand" for their public images.
But it also briefly bothered me a bit because it could be taken to be a dismissal of of vaccines——even though I'm sure that was not the intent.

I figured the spray worked but was cost-prohibitive to produce on a mass scale. 

On 12/25/2022 at 4:48 AM, shapeshifter said:

I too glossed over that Hugh Grant's character was not a housekeeper; I just thought it was a feminist take on housekeeping.

Kareem relating his conversation with Philip on how Blanc won't leave the bathtub, coupled with Philip's later retort ("You aren't in the bath again!") told me for sure, this was a couple. LOL.

[Captain Carrot]

On 12/29/2022 at 8:02 AM, Kel Varnsen said:

That was sort of my take away. Miles was stupid but he was probably a world class bullshitter who probably started out with a bunch of money and family connections.

Based on Helen's story it seems like Andi had ideas, but knew that she wouldn't be taken seriously, so she found someone that looked and sounded like an eccentric genius to be the face of their endeavor. However, she was always the one behind the scenes making things work.

That's probably why she underestimated him. Miles wasn't smart, but he knew how to use money to get his way (like he did when he forced her out of the company) and he was willing to kill to get what he wanted.

His money is also why Helen needed to destroy the Mona Lisa as only something that big would be enough to overcome the power his money gave him. As an example, the way he killed Duke WAS stupid as an autopsy would show the cause of death was due to an allergic reaction and who would try to kill Miles with something that Duke was allergic to? However, I'm sure that some palms would have been greased and the manner of death would have been changed. (This makes me wonder about Andi's death being ruled a suicide when their was plenty of evidence that it was a murder).

Finally, I like to think that after this ended Whiskey and Pam (as the only two halfway decent people among the suspects) separate themselves from the 'Disrupters' with Peg working for Whiskey.

[Bastet]

I think the point of Blanc and the others who saw Miles hand Duke the drink - but didn't consciously register it as a memory because it was meaningless at the time - not realizing until later what they really saw was the whole "are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?" thing where, shortly after the incident, they heard Miles freak out and "realize" Duke had taken his drink, so that's how the narrative formed in their heads.  Blanc addresses this when he asks them to think back, separate from what Miles said, and remember what, if anything, they actually saw.

I love all the stuff about how Blanc is brilliant at a complicated mystery, but sucks at dumb ones.  So, the mystery Gillian Flynn wrote for the game he cottons to right away, but the actual crime he doesn't; Miles is so dumb, Blanc doesn't put things together right away -- he can't fathom he'd be so stupid as to have killed Andi himself, dismissing that and trying instead to figure out who did it for him.  He does piece together in short order that Blanc killed Helen, because that had some thought and panache to it -- being lifted, of course, from what Blanc had told Miles.

9 minutes ago, Captain Carrot said:

His money is also why Helen needed to destroy the Mona Lisa as only something that big would be enough to overcome the power his money gave him.

That was two-fold, and I love it -- to have his brilliant power source of the future destroy the world's most famous painting, something no amount of money can buy his way out of, and to make a wicked twist on his life's goal come true, as he indeed will now always be remembered in the same breath as the Mona Lisa.

I love them racing for Chekhov's override switch, with her shrugging off his flimsy tackle and hitting it; it could only have been better if she'd Heisman stiff-armed him.

[kiddo82]

"The Disruptors" is such a dumb name too.  First of all, choosing your own nickname is seldom, if ever, a good idea.  Nicknames are generally cooler when they are bestowed upon you.  Not so much when they are self appointed.  It usually makes you seem like a dork.  But the name itself reminded me of what a group of petulant, suburban, high school kids might call themselves when the most rebellious thing they ended up doing was wearing sneakers to the prom back before it became fashionable in suburbia.  Because of that, it's an absolutely perfect name for this group of shit heads.  

Edited December 31, 2022 by kiddo82

[shapeshifter]

12 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

As a parody of a murder mystery, it works.  But it was not not a clever or well-crafted whodunit. 

Exactly.
But it is a well-crafted parody that seems magically prescient in its selection of the real-life villain who is the primary subject of the parody.

Edited December 31, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Giuseppe]

I wasn't going to watch this because I thought Knives Out was a confusing, unfunny mess. But I was looking for something to watch tonight and I figured why not, so I turned it on. Can't say that I loved it or anything, but I thought it was a lot better than Knives Out. Parts of it I thought were unnecessary, like Birdie's assistant character (seriously, was she important in some way that I missed?) and also the random dude who was staying at the house. Also, as much as I love him, Daniel Craig's southern accent still needs...some work, lol.

Now I admit to being a bit distracted during the first part of the movie, but am I the only one not clear on what Alpha was? Or was it meant to be vague? Or was it the solid hydrogen Klear thing because I thought that was something outside of Alpha? I tried pausing to read the napkin sketch but that got me nowhere.

[shapeshifter]

41 minutes ago, Giuseppe said:

Parts of it I thought were unnecessary, like Birdie's assistant character (seriously, was she important in some way that I missed?) and also the random dude who was staying at the house

Maybe just red herrings? 
I mean, a murder mystery parody has got to have one-too many red herrings, right?

 
 

41 minutes ago, Giuseppe said:

Now I admit to being a bit distracted during the first part of the movie, but am I the only one not clear on what Alpha was? Or was it meant to be vague? Or was it the solid hydrogen Klear thing because I thought that was something outside of Alpha? I tried pausing to read the napkin sketch but that got me nowhere

Wasn’t Alpha ≈ Meta? 
Or at least a similar name to a parent company that reflects the giant ego of the owner by virtue of his having amassed a fortune he did very little to earn or deserve? 

Edited December 31, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Bastet]

49 minutes ago, Giuseppe said:

Parts of it I thought were unnecessary, like Birdie's assistant character (seriously, was she important in some way that I missed?)

She's there to be the only normal people in the midst of this group of shitheads (because she's hired help, not a member), and specifically to highlight just how delusional Birdie is.  She's the quintessential celebrity assistant, always in the background, loaded down with luggage, literally putting out a fire in one instance (the hilarious shot at Birdie's "no, it's okay, they're all in my pod" party when she gets the box) and putting out figurative fires whenever her boss posts some offensive "truth bomb" she has to come with a PR strategy for.

My favorite scene with her is when Birdie coughs up her secret phone and reveals the "Sounds perfect, thanks" email about the sweatshop, and Peg realizes, OMG, she thinks sweatshops are where sweatpants are made.

49 minutes ago, Giuseppe said:

and also the random dude who was staying at the house.

He's just meant to be random comic relief, and I could definitely have done without him - this film has much better comedy to offer and much more sly examples of Miles's weird-ass island existence - but it didn't bother me because he only appeared a few times.  I even laughed a little when he called after Helen, asking if she wanted to hang out.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Bastet