I was really hoping it wasn’t him. I would have felt cheated.
Sidenote: years ago, a sales person showed up at my business on a cold call. Another person and I are talking to him and he hands us each a business card. We look at the card, then look at each other, then look over at him as he says “yes, Kato’s my brother”.
FWIW I didn’t think “butler”, “lover”, “partner”, “roommate”, “relative”, or “concerned friend” staying with him during lockdown”. The nature of the relationship was not something that crossed my mind in the least. I barely registered “hey that’s Hugh Grant, isn’t it?”
I honestly in real life don’t see two men in the same apartment and assume “gay” or “not gay” … or two people of opposite or indeterminate or fluid genders as romantically partnered or not … not near the top of my curiosity list. There are lots of living arrangements and stories that could be made up. I guess if I personally was gay and was looking for gay in movies and aware of how they are being represented maybe? I thought his manner of dress was more playing to stereotype of southern dandy but here I am learning it is playing to gay stereotypes? I like that less honestly.
But this isn’t real life. It’s a movie and such situations aren’t as haphazard in fiction as they are in real life. The filmmaker wants you to make an assumption.
I sort of wish he hadn’t been played by someone from the first movie ( Noah Segan) but perhaps it was meant to be another misdirect.
Okay, I missed that completely.
We haven’t seen Knives Out since it was in theaters. We were talking about watching it again, since this was A Knives Out Mystery, but when I checked the cast list I didn’t see any characters in common other than Benoit Blanc, so we assumed we wouldn’t have to remember anything from Knives Out.
Guess I didn’t look closely enough.
He’s been in most of the director’s movies. I think Johnson thinks of him as a mascot.
Probably they did but it flew past me as anything to care about … nothing that seemed plot relevant. It seemed to me they wanted to have Hugh Grant have a cameo. I didn’t think any more about it than that.
Sure, okay. I guess I’m weird for seeing a character in a movie and wondering who they are or how they relate to the other characters in a film. My bad for assuming this was how other people approached fiction.
Hey, just so you know, the big bald guy and the blonde lady in the movie were also supposed to be in a relationship.
Fwiw, my husband thought it was very funny that i didn’t immediately recognize that they were partners.
I was getting Odd Couple vibes, that’s about it.
What are you suggesting about Felix and Oscar?
I mean, I don’t think anybody is saying you’re weird for doing that in the case of a fleeting cameo appearance, just that it’s not necessarily weird if somebody else doesn’t do that.
There’s also the so-called “minoritized-group alertness differential”. In the same way that I, as a woman, am more likely than my male friends to notice even a fleeting movie scene in which a woman is matter-of-factly presented as doing a conventionally “male” job, you as a gay man may be more likely to notice a brief matter-of-fact depiction of a gay male couple than straight viewers are.
It’s not impossible, of course, that straight viewers’ lower alertness level about such situations is also compounded by societal traditions of “gay erasure”, where anything that might be read as a same-sex relationship is given a veneer of plausible deniability. “Oh, they’re just friends.” “Oh, she’s just the star’s devoted maid.” “Oh, they’re old Army buddies and roommates.”
Naturally it can be somewhat irritating when decades of effort to achieve even the most minimal levels of gay representation in movies end up still being grayed out by unconscious assumptions of gay erasure. But I don’t think there’s any need for anybody to call anybody else “weird” or make fun of them for watching movies wrong.
In my defense, i tend to miss a lot of the minor stuff going on in movies. Still, i feel dumb.
Well for one their friendship has not evolved romantically like Bert and Ernie.
We picked up on the Agatha Christie vibes and we picked on the Poe vibes, but did anyone else get a Columbo vibe from this? Not just the cigar smoking, but the fact that the whole case was ultimately about giving a rich asshole their come-uppance. I love a good revenge story.
Believe me, I know first hand how privilege can fuck up your perceptions of things. And, hell, I’ve missed way more obvious stuff in books and movies than Benoit Blanc’s relationship just out of temporary cluelessness. But there’s a difference between, “I can’t believe I missed that!” and “Well, it was ambiguous. Maybe that was his live in butler.” Or “Well, I don’t see race relationships!” Or “Who cares?”
I don’t think you are “weird” for speculating about the full stories of brief walk on star cameo appearances. Yeah I think it is a bit much though to be assuming that everyone else does.
The character was on for what? Less than minute?
Blonde lady? First scene she in with big bald guy? I made no speculations and gave it no thought. I guess I assume she worked for him. As she became a main character it was made clear they were an item as well because it was plot relevant.
My main problem with the movie is that our star detective was not very smart. And the idiot billionaire? Actually was smart and ruthless enough to improvise a murder by anaphylaxis on the spot and sell it, then smart enough to destroy the evidence. The “solution” should have killed everyone in addition to destroying a masterpiece? I was not impressed.
But it was fun anyway!
Blanc was smart, he was just overthinking the whole mystery and assumed there had to be some mastermind behind it, because that’s what he’s used to seeing. And Bron only destroyed the evidence when asked why he hadn’t. He was ruthless and cunning, but dumb.
That was sarcasm.
But for the record, the “full story” was literally just, “Oh, two middle aged men living together. They’re probably a couple.” I’m not over here creating elaborate fanfics, I’m just… paying attention to what’s happening on the screen.
FWIW, I’m a straight guy who lived with another straight guy for about seven years in the nineties. And it wasn’t just a split the rent situation. We’d hang out together, go to bars, throw parties, etc. There were even rumors that we were a gay couple.
But I’m pretty sure Blanc and Philip (?) were a couple.