100 new york | november11–24, 2019
thequestion“WhatifTheStingstarred
theThreeStooges?”His third film,Looper,
zaggedagain,tellinga sleektaleofcynical,
time-travelinghitmenthat drawsmore
fromMacbethandWitnessthanfromTe r -
minator,allwhilechannelingtheexisten-
tialcooloftheFr enchNewWave.
KnivesOutfollowsa spoiled,oddball
familywhosepatriarch,thehugelysuccess-
fulandcrotchety mysterywriterHarlan
Thrombrey(ChristopherPlummer),has
just been murdered. The family—an
uptightpatriciandaughter(JamieLee
Curtis)andherne’er-do-well husband
(DonJohnson);theirrakishjackassson
(ChrisEvans);a fecklessheirchargedwith
custodyoftheliteraryempire (Michael
Shannon);a daughter-in-lawwho’s a dippy
wellnessguru(ToniColette)—assemblesin
a largeVictorianhousefullofspooky props
torecalltheeventsofHarlan’sbirthday
party, heldonthenighthedied.Everyone
hada motive,ofcourse(theinheritance),
andasrequired,a supersleuthappears:
DanielCraigasBenoitBlanc,chewing
through a juicysouthern drawllike a
bloodhoundworkinga rubbertoy.
Asa kidgrowingupinSanClemente,
California,whereJohnsonlivedfromthe
sixthgradeon(thehighschoolinBrickis
thesameonehewentto),hehadplenty
oftimetofallinlovewithwhodunits,
alongwithallkindsofgenres:sciencefic-
tion,thriller,classicHollywood,noir, even
themoviemusical.(He’s a bigmusicalfan
whosneakstoNewYorktoseenotable
Broadwayshows,andhe’sanavowed
devoteeoftheNormanJewisonJesus
ChristSuperstar.)
Thisfilmisa whodunitbutonethat
relieslessonwhothanonwhy.“Ifunda-
mentallyagreewithHitchcock’sassess-
mentofthewhodunit,”saysJohnson.“If
it’ s just a bigbuilduptoonebigsurprise
attheend—ifthepleasure ofthefilmis
‘OhmyGod,I nevercouldhaveguessed
that’—that’sonecheapcoinat theendof
a verylongride.” He hasdesignedthe
re vealtosurpriseyou,butmost ofthe
film’s pleasureslieintheexactingcharac-
ter portraits he lays out along theway.
after looper, Johnson hadintended
this Agatha Christie–esque projecttobe
his next film. But he put it asidetomake
The Last Jedi, which came outin 20 17.
Returning to the idea, he wrotethescript
over the first six months of 2018,“which
is incredibly quickly for me,” hesays.He
wanted Craig to star—the actorbeing
both a highly marketable international
commodity (i.e., James Bond) anda per-
former who’s willing, even eager,toven-
ture outside his comfort zone (e.g.,Logan
Lucky)—butCraigwasn’t available,until
suddenlyhewas.“TheJamesBondmovie
waspushedbacka fewmonths,sowehad
a littlewindow,” saysJohnson.“Andwe
jumpedonit.”
Thespur-of-the-moment nature of
KnivesOutmadepullingtogethertheall-
starcast easier:“It wasnotlike goingtoa
bunchofactorsandsaying,‘Hey,we’re
puttingthistogether,we’rekindofaiming
forfallina yearfromnow.’ It wasliterally
‘Are youavailablerightnow?Doyouwant
tocomeuptoBostonandhavesome
fun?’” Assemblingthecast, “I hadtomake
verycleartoeverybodythat we’renot
doingClue,” Johnsonsays.“It’snotanarch
parody.It’sgoingtobefunandit’s going
tobefunny, butthegoalhere istodo
somethingthat hastheactualpleasuresof
thegenre.”As forhisoverallapproachto
re vivingit,“Youhavetotap,inthepurest
wayyoucan,intowhat youloveaboutthestuff youlove”—whichisascloseashe
mightcometoanartisticmanifesto.
KnivesOutdebutedinSeptembertoan
eagerresponse,andsincethenJohnson
hasbeenactiveonTwitterdroppingcali-
bratedhintsandpromotingnewtrailers.
If youknowhishistory withtheplatform,
it’ s a littlesurprisingtoseehimstillthere.
TwostarsofTheLastJedi,DaisyRidley
and Kelly Marie Tran, quit socialmedia
because of all the abuse theyendured
from trolls, and Johnson has beenthetar-
get of angry Star Wars fans whodeclare
hiscontributiontobeborderlinesacrile-
gious. “I get leagues more positivestuff
from Twitter than negative stuff,”hesays
about his fan interactions online.“Andin
terms of experiencing some of thedarker
stuff, anyone who’s online in 2019who
does anything—it’s just part of theculture
now.” As for that darker stuff,if you
Google “Rian Johnson petition,”you’ll
find the following at change.org:“FireRian Johnson from writing and directing
the new Star Wars trilogy”; a petition
“demanding a remake of episode 8”; and
a petition that simply aims, by some
leverage as yet unclear, to force Johnson
“to admit that The Last Jedi is awful.”
Other creators who’ve tangled with
fans online tend either to resort to blan-
ket exoneration (#NotAllFans) or to claim
a disingenuous naïveté. (Online? What is
this “online”?) But Johnson is thoughtful
about the whole episode, has been com-
plimentary to the fan base as a whole, and
soundskindoflikeyouorI might sound
if thousands of strangers suddenly
decided to tell us loudly and publicly that
we’d taken a dump on their childhoods.
“When I was on social media in the begin-
ning, I was like, Oh my God, I’m plugging
into the world—this is what the whole
world is thinking!,” he says. “But the
more you’re on it, the more youstart to
see patterns of how it behaves as an
organism and the more predictable those
patterns become. I think it’s been a very
healthy thing for me to unplug from the
notion that I’m putting my ear to the
earth and hearing the sound of the world
when I check my Twitter feed. Instead,
I’m thinking, No, I’m getting a very spe-
cific slice of a very specific culture.”
He’s still in talks to write and direct
three (!) more Star Wars films,and he
recently started a new production com-
pany, T-Street, with his longtime pro-
ducer Ram Bergman. But perhaps what’s
most exciting about Johnson right now—
and, I suspect, what’s most exciting to
Johnson right now—is that he has accom-
plished the exact thing that so many film-
makers promise to do when they’re drawn
into the gravitational pull of a mega-
franchise but that so few actuallypull off:
He has used the bump in profile and clout
from Star Wars to get back to doing
exactly what he wants, such as making a
drawing-room whodunit. In other words,
he’ll continue to create the kind of
unlikely films that got people so enthusi-
astic about him in the first place.
When we meet in Toronto, reaction to
the premiere is still rolling in, so I decide
to read him some tweets. He visibly winces
at this stuntlike proposition—less, I imag-
ine, at the corniness of it (though partly
at the corniness of it) and more because
he’s not inclined to publicly bathe in praise.
I start with a typical one about Knives Out:
“Come for the grand cast, stay fora classi-
cal whodunit ... Hilarity and sheeringenu-
ity ... Goodness, what a delight.”
“I’ll take that,” he says, warming to the
exercise. “After the past few years, this
feels good.” ■The CULTURE PAGES
“I had to make
very clear
to everybody
that we’re not
doing Clue.”