I had to look them all up-I thought I recognized Kareem but that was it.
It was a “fuck everything” move that really didn’t seem consistent with Benoit Blanc’s character.
Actually, it kind of felt like they’d run out of time when writing the script.
And of course it’s just so common for private investigators living in apartments to have BUTLERS.
Whoever lived in that apartment could afford live-in help. Did you see the balcony?
Sondheim and Lansbury both died before the movie came out. If Jeremy Renner doesn’t recover from his injuries, we could be talking about a curse on Glass Onion cameos. Look out, Jared Leto!
My thought when I saw them was “Wow, Kareem better not buy any green bananas…”
I took the very James Bond-like ending (evil genius’ lair explodes) as a reference to Craig’s turn as Bond.
It was a nice place, but butlers aren’t help consistent with “a nice place.”
Really, which conclusion is likelier?
In the early part on the island, where Blanc is pretending to be completely befuddled by the whole situation, I turned to my wife and said “I’m getting a Columbo vibe here”.
Referring back to an earlier post about unreliable narrators, but don’t the flashback bits indicate that he DIDN’T accept it out of boredom, but because he was aware that there was a “real” mystery afoot?
Yes. We have a mysterious death - and a prime suspect will be on the island, so that’s the place to go
Wait, when were there cameos from Jeremy Renner, Jared Leto, and/or Yo Yo Ma?
Yo-Yo Ma identified the fugue during the puzzle scene (in Birdy’s pod)
I don’t know why you think it’s about being “smug.” They were just fun little cameos. Why do you have to make it negative?
There were a lot of “awwwws” from the audience I saw it with when Sondheim & Lansbury were shown.
Not a cameo from Renner or Leto, but Renner made the hot sauce and Leto the kombucha.
Also, an explicit theme of this series of movies is, “Rich people suck.” And having live-in domestic servants is about the height of privileged wealth. Both films draw clear class distinctions between the wealthy and the middle and working classes, and wealth always backs wealth, regardless of other political or social lines: in the first movie, the entire family puts aside their personal squabbles to unite against the maid when their inheritance is threatened. In this film, all of Andi’s friends immediately turn on her when Bron threatens their wealth and status. Giving Blanc a live-in butler puts him on the other side of that line, and having him consistently champion underdogs would undercut the central theme of the films.
I’m not sure it’s ‘rich people suck’, more like ‘greed makes people do bad things’. The Christopher Plummer character in the first film was rich but appeared to be a decent guy on the face of it.
Speaking of the balcony; where was that? New Orleans?
I thought New York but I don’t know why.
For some reason New Orleans was my thought as well, but that may have just been Blanc’s accent influencing me.
The guy is a boyfriend, because of his familiar attitude, because of the way he dressed, and yes, because that fits the character of Blanc better. But given the style of the show (Agatha Christie site about the wealthy) i don’t think it’s crazy to think “butler”.
Probably this could be an IMHO offshoot discussion but I don’t think that is “negative” per se. I see it as a recognition of why we enjoy certain jokes, and even puzzles, that part of the enjoyment is based on being part of the group that gets the reference and knowing that others do not, just like a puzzle you’ve solved is not as fun if everyone else solves it just as easily as you do. Recognizing the cameo, like understanding an Easter Egg, are forms of “in jokes” which can only exist with knowledge that some are “out”. IMHO.
Personally my read (and my made up backstory for Blanc) is very different. I do not read Blanc as “working” or even “middle” class. I read him as wealth, old money family wealth, wealth enough that he doesn’t care about money or broadcasting status, but the sort that has disgust for others of wealth who feel that such makes them better than anyone else, or put others down. I did not read “butler”, again (appreciating the intent was to signal gay partnership) I read nothing other than shoving Hugh Grant in, but I could definitely imagine Blanc having a butler/manservant and having a relationship with him of causal to familial familiarity.