Rian Johnson purposely left Knives Out’s Benoit Blanc a little blank
Johnson and actor Daniel Craig were looking for a little wiggle room in the layers of their Glass Onion
Aux News Knives Out
Much to the occasional dismay of his audience, Rian Johnson loves to toy with viewers. But at least he plays fair: He likes toying with his actors a little too. For Glass Onion, the sequel to Johnson’s surprise hit Knives Out, the director wanted to leave things a little open-ended for the return of his lead detective, Benoit Blanc. There would be no origin story for a mustache here. Rather, he wanted to give Daniel Craig a little breathing room to make the character his own, per EW. So he “underwrote the character”
“I tried to keep any big, obvious quirks out [so] that the character would fill out with the actor,” said Johnson.
Too much focus on Blanc would no doubt back them into a corner, especially considering, as Johnson points out, the detective is rarely the main character in a mystery. “It’s a mistake of the genre to think that your detective is your main character,” said Johnson. “Benoit Blanc is the constant North Star of all of these movies. But you have to think of him as the detective, not as the central character. The story has to function in terms of the suspects, the murder, and the victim. Benoit is weaving his way through that, but the dramatic stakes are never his.”
This is certainly true in Knives Out. Blanc is an observer who escorts Ana de Armas’ Marta to the conclusion and fills everyone in on one at happened. Blanc is an outsider, catching up with the movie’s characters and plot in time with the audience. He’s a very well-informed audience surrogate, giving the whodunits a participatory atmosphere.
Of course, this looseness of character gave them the leeway to declare the Blanc as “obviously” queer, which feels a bit like J.K. Rowling declaring Dumbledore gay but not including it in the books. However, we are sorry for even bringing her up at all. Neither Johnson nor Craig deserve those comparisons, and we regretted making them.
All this is done to keep the audience on their heels, signaling to them that each Knives Out Mystery would “be a very different animal.”
Each one of them must have its own reason for being and its own theme. It’s not just repeating a formula, but using this genre to create a whole new formula every time. Sometimes with series or sequels, it can become weird, stratified, fossilized from the previous movies. The fun thing to me is genuinely creating something fresh and new.
A detective movie where the detective’s mustache isn’t 90% of the character is already starting at an advantage. Glass Onion opens in select theaters on November 23 and gets dumped into Netflix’s algorithm on December 23.
51 Comments
“It’s a mistake of the genre to think that your detective is your main character,” said Johnson.
Someone please explain this to Kenneth Branagh.
It feels a bit like that’s what Johnson is doing!
it’s so funny how impressed he is by this stupid character and bad performance!
Rian Johnson haters are so weird.
yeah it’s so weird to hate an annoying guy who makes shitty movies
It’s really weird to spend time reading and commenting on stories about “an annoying guy who makes shitty movies”. Normal behaviour would be to avoid things one doesn’t like.
At the A.V. Club we ourselves are both strange any unusual. Anyway, here’s why this thing isn’t appreciated the exact right amount by people I despise…
You guys try too hard.
Meh
However, we are sorry for even bringing her up at all.So why did you then? There was no need to at all.
I don’t think he’s sorry.
Hey, I came here to say the same thing!Obviously, as a G/O Media writer, Schlibbowitz Sipowicz Schimkowitz believes if he can find something to be snarky about, his job’s done.
The backspace key on his keyboard must be broken. He had no choice but to leave it in once he typed it.
“She Who Must Not Be Named” suffices.
Because they’ve all got performance targets to fit at least one snarky Rowling/Depp/Chapelle/Whoever snarky comment in per day and this was his best chance?
He took the risk of triggering because sometimes you can get SEO bump out of it.
“fills everyone in on one at happened”“On what had happened” maybe? Jesus wept, you lazy bastards, just type.
the JKR comparison is toothless and unwarranted, especially when by all reports
**SECONDHAND SPOILERS FOR GLASS ONION**…
the movie literally fucking depicts Blanc living romantically with another man
Find inspiration
I’m going to go out on a limb here so bear with me but I think it’s possible that Rian Johnson might just be a bit overrated.
Hoe so? He makes great movies.
The Last Jedi was one of the most aggressively mediocre films I’ve ever seen which ironically stole a large part from Battlestar Galactica crossed with a preschooler’s understanding of Lord of War without the excuse of being a preschooler and Knives Out was the worst of thirty or so films I saw in a year I also saw Dark Fate *and* Dark Phoenix. It still makes me mad to think about it.Looper was fine, though.(Insert ThatsJustLikeYourOpinionMan.jpg here.)
one of the most aggressively mediocre films I’ve ever seenNothing “aggressively” mediocre invokes this much weird hostility to his movies that you guys who can never resist commenting on him have.
Absolutely, Knives Out is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart movie is.
That’s uncanny, I’ve used that exact analogy in the past myself!
Well, it’s really fitting! I still don’t get the praise it got or the hype surrounding the sequel now. It’s definitely nothing “fresh and new.”
This exchange is just two pretentious guys jerking each other off.
It’s almost like it’s on a list of talking points or something
It may well be but I came up with it independently myself!
Sure you did.
While that comment is apparently a stupid person’s idea of what an analogy is.
What’s the smart person’s idea of a smart movie?
Seriously you guys have the weirdest hostility to Johnson and his good movies.
At any point does it pretend to be smart?It’s a farce from beginning to end – it’s stupid people who seem to think it’s trying to be smart.
Well, there can be intelligently done farce, or perhaps you think that’s not the case? I remember how, to my own puzzlement, when it came out Knives Out was praised by some critics as being witty and clever, even cunning, which it definitely isn’t. Even seen as a farce (which I disagree that it is, I’d rather call it a fraud), Knives Out can’t stand the slightest scrutiny because whatever farcical elements it might contain are really heavy-handed and as unoriginal as the genre conventions it allegedly is spoofing. Calling it a “farce” to divert criticism is a bit like when Tommy Wiseau went on to call The Room a “black comedy” once he realized everyone was laughing at him and his film. I’m really glad you liked it, I truly am, but please don’t tell me that it’s not a silly film that is pretending to be smarter than it is by (failing at) subverting a particular genre of storytelling.
I’m starting to think you didn’t actually watch the movie.
Ah yes, that high art twist “she pukes when she lies except when she doesn’t sometimes!”Brick was good. Looper was okay. They go down from there.
high art twist Again, you guys are weird.
But she does puke. She just holds it in.
lmao you seem really stupid.
i wouldn’t go that far, but now that you mention it …
Nah
Oh
I coincidentally went to school with someone named David Anderson and in our first year of high school, he wrote something called “The Bond Age”.As we know, Daniel Craig also played James Bond. It’s such a small world.
i watched it and honestly can’t see what the whole social jam is about. doesn’t the BBC do this once a week, every week (and equally unimpressively)?
Of course, this looseness of character gave them the leeway to declare the Blanc as “obviously” queer, which feels a bit like J.K. Rowling declaring Dumbledore gay but not including it in the books. However, we are sorry for even bringing her up at all. Neither Johnson nor Craig deserve those comparisons, and we regretted making them. No you’re not, and the comparison is bullshit too because he’s literally seen living with his lover in the film (the identity of whom you spoiled yesterday).You just wanted to bring her up because you know it’ll increase the engagement with the article – which is a shitty way of treating your trans audience.
“Of course, this looseness of character gave them theleeway to declare the Blanc as “obviously” queer, which feels a bit like J.K. Rowling declaring Dumbledore gay but not including it in the books.”maybe you should watch the fucking movie before making a stupid comment like this??????
Of course, this looseness of character gave them the leeway to declare the Blanc as “obviously” queer, which feels a bit like J.K. Rowling declaring Dumbledore gay but not including it in the books. However, we are sorry for even bringing her up at all. Neither Johnson nor Craig deserve those comparisons, and we regretted making them.My guy just plant her name for the SEO pop and increased engagement, don’t give me your horseshit insincere ironic apology. What the fuck are you going to do next, apologize for Don’t Worry Darling and Kanye coverage, the only things that bring some fucking clicks here besides the times you push a review onto Barsanti and he embarrasses himself?
I still think that Craig should use a different accent in each movie and no one comments on it.
Why would anyone comment on it? He’s a stranger to everyone in the movies.
Because this article was not an AV Club movie review it DID include where and when we can find and watch the movie.