The ‘Book Club’ Spends Its ‘Next Chapter’ in Italy: Shall We Join Them?

May 7, 2023

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Good Reads (CREDIT: © 2023 FIFTH SEASON, LLC)

Starring: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy García, Don Johnson, Craig T. Nelson, Giancarlo Giannini

Director: Bill Holderman

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Saucy Puns

Release Date: May 12, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: They’re not reading anything as spicy as Fifty Shades of Grey this time, but Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) are still keeping their book club going. And they’re not going to let a little thing like a pandemic get in their way. Yes, indeed, the opening of Book Club: The Next Chapter is a COVID-19 period piece, as the ladies Zoom out their thoughts about the likes of Normal People, Untamed, and The Woman in the Window. When they’re finally able to reunite in person, they quickly decide that there’s simply no better time for an Italian vacation. Along the way, old flames are rekindled, the local authorities get snippy, and the wine flows freely. So not much in the way of reading, but I guess all book clubs need to close the back covers eventually.

What Made an Impression?: Before the days of easily accessible commercial plane flights, there were plenty of travelogue films showing off various corners of the world to viewers who would never actually see them in person. Travel documentaries still exist today, of course, as do their close fictional counterparts like Book Club: The Next Chapter. The difference nowadays is that if you have a few spare benjamins lying around, you can hop across the Atlantic without too much trouble. I’m not saying that this movie is just an extended commercial for Italy’s tourism board, but I’m also not not saying that.

As for the actual people romping around Italy, they know why we love them and they’re here to deliver. If you want the offbeat fashion, Diane Keaton is rocking them. If you want someone who can slay hearts at any age, Jane Fonda is here. If you want the deadly zingers, Candice Bergen is going to deliver them. And if you want a warm and vulnerable conversation, there’s not many who can do that much better than Mary Steenburgen. This is basically like the European leg of their greatest hits tour, and it’s also kind of just an excuse for them to go on vacation together. And hey, if Adam Sandler can build a huge chunk of his career out of that strategy, then why can’t this quartet of septuagenarian and octogenarian legends do the same?

Book Club: The Next Chapter is Recommended If You Like: An overabundance of food-based sexual metaphors

Grade: 3 out of 5 Wedding Dresses

Movie Reviews: With ‘Knives Out,’ Rian Johnson Can Add the Whodunit to His Collection of Filmmaking Merit Badges

November 25, 2019

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

CREDIT: Claire Folger © 2018 MRC II Distribution

Starring: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer, Noah Segan, Edi Patterson, Riki Lindhome, K Callan, Frank Oz, Raúl Castillo, M. Emmet Walsh

Director: Rian Johnson

Running Time: 130 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for A Few Explosions, Possible Poisonings, and (Attempted?) Stabbings

Release Date: November 27, 2019

If you’d like to dust off a musty old genre and guide it to unexpected new depths, then you might just want to call Rian Johnson. He’s already shown what new joys await in a neo-noir mystery, a time-travelling actioner, and the biggest franchise of all time, and now with Knives Out, he moves on to the whodunit, and the answer to that question is, “By golly, Rian Johnson has done it once again!”

Since every whodunit needs a murder victim and a set of suspects, Knives Out has a bounty of them. The recently dead man is super-wealthy mystery novelist (wink, wink?) Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), and the folks who might be responsible or maybe know something consist of his mother Wanetta (K Collins), his daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), Linda’s husband Richard (Don Johnson), their son Hugh Ransom (Chris Evans), Harlan’s son Walt (Michael Shannon), Walt’s wife Donna (Riki Lindhome), their son Jacob (Jaeden Martell), Harlan’s daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette), her daughter Meg (Katherine Langford), Harlan’s housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson), and his nurse Marta (Ana de Armas). While his employees generally get along with him, his family members all have reason to resent him (and they also keep mixing up which South or Central American country Marta is from). Naturally enough, there are also a couple of police detectives on hand (Lakeith Stanfield and Noah Segan) and an idiosyncratic private investigator named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who has been hired under mysterious circumstances.

CREDIT: Claire Folger

The trick that Knives Out pulls is that within twenty minutes, it reveals everything (or nearly everything) that happened in thorough detail. Harlan’s death is initially ruled a suicide, and we are shown pretty much unmistakably that he sliced his own throat, and everyone’s presence at that moment is accounted for. Done deal, then? Well, there’s still nearly two more hours of running time left. The script keeps itself honest thanks to one particularly telling character quirk: Marta’s “regurgitative reaction to mistruthing.” That is to say, whenever she lies, or merely even considers lying, she spews chunks. Thus, there is no other option than for the truth to similarly spill out, and there is no room for contrivances to keep the audience in the dark. But that having been said, information can be obscured and unknown unknowns can take some time to make themselves known. Ergo, Rian Johnson gives us the simultaneous joy of being let in on a little secret while also playing the guessing game.

CREDIT: Claire Folger

In addition to Knives Out‘s masterful mystery machinations, it additionally offers plenty of keen observations of human nature. There is the ever-timely message of the tension that emerges when the haves and have-nots bump against each other, as well as the chaos that can reign when fortunes swing wildly. Furthermore, there is an astute understanding of the difference between truth and honesty, and how the latter can help you survive when the former is hidden. All of this is to say, motivation matters a great deal in cinema, and in life.

Knives Out is Recommended If You Like: Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot, Logan Lucky

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Colorful Sweaters