The deke is a basic part of offense in hockey. The idea is to lead the defender into overcommiting to the wrong direction, trying to get him to get ahead of you and then switching it up while he's too overreached to recover. You deke defensemen, you deke goalies, and The Usual Suspects also dekes goalies. IT IS EXTREMELY RUDE FOR A MOVIE TO DEKE THE GOALIE.
Goddamn do I hate getting deked.
Lacy showed me a comment that said I needed to watch this movie again. She agrees. I feel like I agree, too. I don't know if it was the pain or the codeine or the lack of pizza or any other number of excuses, but this movie put me off my game in every way. There wasn't stuff there to react to that didn't just make me ask more questions about the exact same things. I was hugely frustrated by this movie, right to the very end, and when I thought I had finally guessed it I was very very wrong, wasn't I?
The detective mentioned at one point in the film the idea that Keyser Soze (thanks Rachel) could be some kind of "badge or hex," the Lock Ness Monster of crime that's more of a spook story than an actual guy. I thought for sure that I'd landed that one - that Verbal was in there to catch Cooyan with the idea that the devil himself played them and that sure, why not, of course it was Keaton because that way you're satisfied and the whole story was actually a lie.
Was it the codeine? Was it the lack of pizza? I'm really hoping that I didn't give the character a pass because of my own situation right now, because what would that say about me? All I know is that I never once suspected him and I feel completely taken for a ride. Maybe that's how I'm supposed to feel. Maybe you're supposed to come off the ass end of the movie feeling like a prize donkey. To feel like "Oh shit well I should watch that again now that I know," because people definitely think I should.
For me, though, I didn't know what was going on or what I was being asked to care about by the movie. I found it really distracting and frustrating. The ending - was it the biggest twist they could have gone with? Quite probably. Was it the best ending they could have gone with? I don't know. Again, maybe I'm slow. Maybe I was supposed to put it together faster. But whatever the reason, I didn't feel like this magic trick had played out in front of me at the end; I felt cheated, like I'd been taken for a ride on a shell game.
It's a bold and audacious move to spend the whole movie leading up to telling the audience they're chumps. I might watch it again and love it now that the onus (great word) of finding the central plot isn't on my shoulders. There were a lot of things that were good in this movie - the actors are all great; Keaton in particular I expect to see in a lot more movies down the line. The score was different, and with the story they ended up telling it worked very well. When everything does come together, as furious as it made me that I'd been had so very hard, it's pulled off very very well with all the flashbacks and clips of him talking.
The sort of setup where an ending scenario is given to me at the beginning takes away from my ability to get into the action and feel the tension just because I've got a sense of who not to worry about. Take that away and I need something else to stay involved, and instead of that I just got a really frustrating runaround where I was spending more time coming up with ideas than trying to put the pieces of the movie together. Lacy thinks it might just be a problem of me not having experienced a movie like this before, something so that I could get into the right mindset. She's probably right. But goddamn was I ever frustrated at the end. If I go back and watch, I'll probably find it impressive. First impressions, though? No. Just no.
I'm sure a lot of you will disagree. Remember, I'm not saying it's a bad movie. I'm saying that it's not the movie I was in a place to watch at that point. I'm saying it might not be a movie for me. I overthink some things and underthink others. If I'd gotten a warmup on the sort of film this was, things might have been different, but I just came from a whole lot of action, fantasy and sci-fi movies with a couple of comedies thrown in. I was not in a place to watch this movie.
Now that you mention it, I saw this one by myself in the theater the first week it came out. There wasn't much advertising for it, nor any mention of any huge twist. I went into it with pretty much about as much info as you did, save for having seen a trailer and a few ads. And when I walked out of the theater, I didn't like it then, either.
ReplyDeleteI forget exactly what got me to watch it a second time, a year or two later, but I found it much more satisfying at that point.
I'm starting to think we should have had you watch a few traditional heist movies first so that you could become aquainted with the typical heist movie structure. Something like Ocean's Eleven would allow to appreciate how the usual suspects subverts standard heist tropes.
ReplyDeleteI never liked The Usual Suspects, and I think it's a weird choice for a relatively uninitiated media watcher. You should have been told to watch Heat, it's a heist movie that came out the same year and is just as culturally relevant. It is a much, much better movie.
ReplyDeleteYour "handlers", so to speak, need to do a better job of choosing movies for you to watch, if you're not choosing yourself. This one's really out of line with what has followed previously.
One of the big ones I think needs to be added to your list IMMEDIATELY is the 50s-60s Twilight Zone series. It doesn't get much more relevant than that.
Also, I'm amazed at your perceptiveness sometimes. You said in the first impression of Empire Strikes Back that you felt like they cast Lando just to force some "diversity". Well, they did, people complained and they cast Billy Dee to play Lando and had a bunch of black actors as extras on Bespin. Which I don't think is a bad thing, even 'forced' diversity is better than none.
DeleteHowever, originally George Lucas wanted Glynn Turman to play Han Solo but it was ultimately decided against because Lucas is a dick and didn't think a black guy being romantically involved with Princess Leia would play well with audiences.
I have to tell you that this is my favorite blog right now. I'm out there handing out the link like I'm Johnny Bloggyseed and you're read delicious. Everyone has their opinions on what you should watch next (and I admit I have certain hopes), but I am content to simply ride the wave of humor and unspoiled excitement. I'm even glad that you hit a rough spot once in a while, such as with Usual Suspects. Not all great movies are great to all, and exploring the corners is what being a geek is all about. (Now please do the Goonies, please do the Goonies...)
ReplyDeleteyeah, twilight zone needs to follow star trek.
ReplyDelete"It's a bold and audacious move to spend the whole movie leading up to telling the audience they're chumps."
ReplyDeleteSometimes art gives you wonder. Sometimes art gives you excitement. Other times sadness or creeps or laughs. Occasionally it kicks your ass and takes your pocket money. This last type is very precious because it's rare to see done well.
-Anonyman
I think this is a great and valid reason to be in this mindspace and not connect with a movie. I myself am a great movie fan and one of my biggest regrets is having watched Donnie Darko while going through a mentally very rough patch and the whole time during the movie rather than being caught up in it I was all just OH GOD NO. To this day I haven't gone back and watched it because it just reminds me of this very dark time. That's okay. There's a time and place for everything and indeed there's probably times we're in the "wrong" headspace psychologically / emotionally to deal with certain movies. Totally valid. I feel like if you DIDN'T connect negatively with some movies then you wouldn't be as deep or good a critical writer as you are. Keep at it and so glad to hear your injuries are improving!
ReplyDeleteMovies that "deke the goalie" are the BEST movies...especially ones so dense and layered that you can go back and watch it multiple times and glean a new experience each time. Me personally, I enjoy seeing the craft and skill it takes to pull one over on me, especially after the second viewing. That's what makes movies like The Usual Suspects, (title omitted) and (title omitted) so GOOD. Oh yeah...don't want to ruin it for you. :P
ReplyDeleteThe key to a good twist is that the signs have to be there. When the twist comes, even if there's no way you could have known, you have to have had some nagging little suspicion that *something* just isn't as it seems, even if you don't know what. So that when the twist comes, everything falls in to place, and make you say "OH! THAT'S WHY". And then you go back and watch it again, and all the little things add up, and you don't think "wow I was an idiot for not figuring this out", you think "wow, that was *tight*".
ReplyDeleteI remember thinking that The Usual Suspects pulled that off, although it's been a while since I saw it. It's hard to recommend other twist movies without giving something away...
It's like a magic trick. I love magic, even though I know I'm going to be wrong about where the coin is. Being completely bamboozled is fun.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that lots of people forget, though, is that in the end, Keyser Soze loses. He sets everything up to kill the last man who can identify him, but he survives long enough to let the cops know exactly who he is and what he looks like.
I'd agree it works best when you have a solid grounding in traditional heist movies, though
ReplyDeleteYou like D&D type stuff, you want to see a movie with Gabriel Byrne (Keaton)...you, good sir, should watch "Excalibur." It's pretty darn good.
ReplyDeleteExcalibur does come with a minor Eye Gore warning.
DeleteSome less overstuffed Heist films to consider, all excellent examples of form: The Italian Job and Heat. Heat is a slow boiler, but excellent despite the length.
ReplyDeleteYou could also try a good comedic Heist film, like A Fish Called Wanda, or one of Guy Ritchie's Brit-Heists, such as Snatch.
If you eventually watch Die Hard, there is definitely more to get out of it by understanding the tropes of a heist, even though the film isn't really a heist film at its heart.
Inception is a great film that is fundamentally a heist, but is doing enough other mindbending things that it probably isn't a good "first heist film".
For a good square heist movie, plus a raft of fascinating actors you'll want to follow up on, I recommend "Sneakers".
ReplyDeleteOh and if what you were expecting from the title was a romantic comedy that references old movies, why not try on "Play It Again Sam" for size? You don't seem to care for aggressively nerdy characters like Louis from "Ghostbusters' or Ned from "Groundhog Day", but Woody Allen is a key figure in film.
DeleteFor what it's worth, I don't think of "The Usual Suspects" as just trying to fake out the audience. I think it's attempting something considerably more disciplined: it's carefully presenting the story as seen *from the cops' point of view*. The roller coaster of what's real, who is Keyser Soze, what really happened -- all of that is the way the cops are finding things out, hearing things, believing the misdirections, etc.
ReplyDeleteThere's a famous mystery novel by a terribly famous writer [I won't say which unless you want the spoilers] that is much more nakedly about faking out the *reader*, and it's been roundly criticised over the years for that, with the feeling that it's basically an uncool and unfair thing to do -- and I agree on that front. "The Usual Suspect" isn't playing unfair; it's just bringing the story in the way that really brings home what it's like for those people trying to figure it out in-story.
IMHO. :)