Who knew that a “whodunit” film would be one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of 2019?
Knives Out marked yet another high-point in Rian Johnson’s genre-bending filmography, which features the coveted final episode of Breaking Bad, his 2005 independent break-out Brick, the 2012 sci-fi smash Looper, and more. Publicity and discourse surrounding the filmmaker ramped up back in 2017, when Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released, which he wrote and directed. The movie wasn’t controversial; the backlash was. Following most die-hard fans ripping the film apart, mainly targeting Johnson’s human portrayal of Luke Skywalker and a more progressive take on storytelling, the filmmaker had more attention than ever before. This can be a pivotal moment for an artist. Do you divert back to what you’re comfortable with? Do you go even further? Rather than let pseudo-critiques get to him, Johnson left the Disney stage for a gothic mansion in Massachusetts to tell a story that he’d been wanting to tell for almost a decade.
2019’s Knives Out is both written and directed by Rian Johnson (which has become a common theme for him). It follows renowned Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) investigating the merry-go-round of suspects within the Thronby family, whose patriarchal breadwinner Harlan (Christopher Plummer) has been murdered, or so it seems. Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) is, or was, Harlan’s caretaker and had a closer relationship with him than most of his family; she was family to him. But as distrust and greed grows from within the family, Marta learns that she will be inheriting Harlan’s wealth through a sit-down reading of his Will. Marta and Detective Blanc cross paths and investigate together to track down the financially-motivated murderer.
Blanc initially lurks in the film’s exposition, shrouded in mystery, just tempting the audience to find out more about him. This charismatic caricature is a perfectly-tinkered one through both the virtue of Johnson’s writing and directing and Craig’s performance. A parodic Southern-accent matched with off-kilter quips and undeniably ingenious detective work seems to be the kind of archetypal cornerstone that could provide a whole mini-series worth of adventures.
But it’s never just popcorn entertainment for the writer/director, no matter the scale, as he proved with The Last Jedi. The fallible wealth that consumes the all-too privileged Thronby family, the belittling and racially-motivated microaggressions towards Marta, and the hierarchical power dynamic within the family are all breeding-grounds for thematic touchstones. But he doesn’t let the compelling elements of the story take the backseat whenever a thematic moment approaches.
Seeing Johnson go from shooting in space with Star Wars to a very grounded, comparatively lower-budget film like Knives Out is surprising, going from the largest of scales to a more self-contained one. Even more surprising was hearing of a Knives Out sequel with Johnson and Craig returning. The surprises kept coming, as Netflix beat out Apple and Amazon and bought the rights to both the sequel and a third film for a deal worth above $400 million, according to Deadline. In one of the largest streaming-deals in history, Rian Johnson seeks to take home north of $100 million whilst maintaining full creative control on the project, according to THR.
The second film is already in production, currently filming in Greece and co-starring Dave Bautista, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, and a handful of other A-list names. I get a sense that people truly want to be in Johnson’s films, as though there is a wait list of other A-listers waiting their turn to work with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker. More so, it feels like the roller coaster is ascending back up for Rian Johnson, whose focus on developing Benoit Blanc so heavily in the first film proved to be a worthwhile one.
His filmography is about as diverse as one can get, from an independent start to creating sci-fi blockbusters. It suggests that there is an omnipotent power behind the camera, as Johnson’s ideas manifest on-screen in his signature way no matter the film’s thematic or budgetary scope. Adapting to genres often seems more like trudging through unmarked territory for some directors. But after Knives Out, I knew Rian Johnson wouldn’t be a part of this camp, despite all the orbiting hurdles thrown at him.
When Knives Out was first shown at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2019, I got the chance to sit-down with Rian Johnson along with a few other college journalists, an interview previously premiered on The Radio DePaul Podcast.
I opened the floor with a question that allowed Johnson to reflect on all of his cinematic contributions leading up to the film’s release two years ago.
JC: Starting with smaller films like Brick, going to much bigger projects like Star Wars, and then going back to making your own story with Knives Out. What was that process like of finishing Star Wars and then going on to making this?
RJ: I had a pretty blessed experience with Star Wars in that it didn’t feel any less personal than my other movies. It didn’t feel like I was ‘doing one for them.’ I got very lucky with the people I worked with where it felt as personal as anything else I do. The size was obviously different. If you look at it as ascending sizes, once you hit a Star Wars movie, there’s no where to go but smaller. The truth is this was just the next thing I had in my head that I wanted to do. It wasn’t a calculation in terms of wanting to do a small thing, this was just the next thing I had ready to go. I’d been thinking about this for ten years, that’s when I got the initial idea. It just had kinda’ been in the back of my head and I wrote it really quickly; sat down last January [to write it] and we had wrapped the movie by that Christmas.
It’s crazy, I know: start-to-finish in less than a year. However, he had the idea in his head for more than a decade, as many creatives similarly claim. The difference here is that Johnson kept proving himself time and time again to the industry, and when he wanted to do his own thing after Star Wars, he did. There is not a bigger franchise to be the creative lead of than the one in a galaxy far, far away, and I appreciate his honesty in that aspect. Johnson was perceptive of the descending size, not over-complicating things, and exuding immense gratitude for his cast and crew. He even later said that the cast of Knives Out would just hang out in the mansion’s basement in-between takes, as opposed to returning to their trailers. Is that the work of a great cast or a great director? In this case, it’s clearly both, but there’s always an aura of mystic power surrounding a filmmaker who creates with autonomy, but never loses sight of the story’s purpose.
The agitational social commentary proved to be the glue that held the actors and Johnson together to convey this tale, yet never spell out the message; it’s infused within it. He touches on the MAGA-politics of blatant racism disguised as good intentions, along with the socioeconomic privileges that spill out of each of the Thronby family members. It’s the kind of satire that is conveyed through the dramatic irony of these blissfully unaware characters, and it works so well. But where can he go with this in a sequel? Do you have to shape the story within a contemporary theme, or vice versa?
Thankfully, Johnson seems to have it all planned out.
JC: On the social commentary, it was so refreshing to see it be so innately a part of the characters and the story, and not feel like a one-off message. It felt naturally conveyed through the story that you were telling. Seeing this gothic, seclusive setting and forcing people with different ideologies was interesting because, as college students, we are one of the only people that get to discuss this in a setting like that. When did you know that you wanted to make this a part of the story and how did you go about that?
RJ: I knew very early and for me, that’s another thing that’s integral. I can’t start writing until I have two elements: a conceptual plot or genre element that I’m excited about, and a theme — or something that it’s about, that I’m angry about — that I want to explore. It’s only when these two elements lock together like two gears that they genuinely work. Looper was a similar thing for me; what you’re aiming for is something where what you’re trying to explore thematically is expressed in the bones of the thing itself, the story itself, as opposed to something hanging on it like ornaments. So that’s very much the case with this and that’s when it got really exciting for me. It’s when I realized the stuff that we all have on our minds right now, it could work really well expressing it by using this kind of story. But that’s always the goal and it’s not about hiding a message, it’s about using a story to explore stuff that’s genuinely interesting.
Rian Johnson’s confidence as an artist shines through the screen as much as it does during a conversation with him. Even the quantifiable means of conducting his writing process has a sensible cadence to it: he has an idea and he makes sure that it works. He makes sure that the film stands for something, but doesn’t shift itself to fit the mold of a thematic idea. They work interchangeably, and if The Last Jedi’s bombastic fan reactions were a sign of anything, it’s that they understood what he was trying to do. They just didn’t like what he was exploring.
Knives Out 2 plans to hit Netflix and theaters at some point in 2022 with a third film announced, but not currently in production. They aren’t shooting these back-to-back, and I’m grateful for that. It gives Johnson some time to find something to get angry about, and explore it even further.
