Post by Scott on Aug 17, 2017 15:10:19 GMT
You know what Cracked was, right? Long ago, it was a blatant Mad magazine rip-off. Now it's a website where they have lists of things, mostly pop culture stuff I've never heard of.
A recent one was "6 Once-Popular Movies Genres Hollywood Doesn't Make Anymore".
Number six: "We Haven't Had A Good Whodunnit Since 2001". I've censored it for indecency and italicized the movie titles:
A recent one was "6 Once-Popular Movies Genres Hollywood Doesn't Make Anymore".
Number six: "We Haven't Had A Good Whodunnit Since 2001". I've censored it for indecency and italicized the movie titles:
What We Used To Have:
Clue, Rear Window, Ten Little Indians, Gosford Park ... f*** it, let's count Murder At 1600.
What We Have Now:
That new Murder On The Orient Express ... provided it doesn't [turn out not to be very good].
I should be clear about what I mean by "whodunnit," because the murder mystery genre can encompass a lot of things. At its purest, it takes place in a small location, preferably with characters who are unable to leave. There should be at least one mustache. Also, it's important to have an interesting cast of suspects, and enough evidence for the audience to at least feel like they can solve the mystery in question on their own. The last iteration of this formula that I recall has to be 2003's Identity, and the last non-garbage one is likely 2001's Gosford Park, which featured actors like Michael Gambon, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, and Charles Dance in a Downton Abbey-like mansion where a fancy-pants murder has taken place.
Don't be mistaken, since this genre has dwindled, there are a lot of detective thrillers you might confuse for the same thing. Movies and TV shows like Se7en, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, True Detective, and The Killing are all wonderful, but often conclude with the killer being some background Waldo from a single scene we long forgot about. Other times, we get movies like Shutter Island, which start promising but end up betraying their genre for some crazy Fight Club ending.
See, the classic whodunnit, while having some twists and turns, doesn't need an outlandish narrative u-turn to be enjoyable. The appeal lies in the characters and tension of the environment. But as filmmakers kept making these movies, there was a weird pressure to force various third-act gimmicks to keep the premise fresh...
Even when we broaden our scope to the detective or murder mystery genre, there seems to be a real struggle to maintain momentum. Shows like True Detective and The Killing can't produce a good mystery beyond one season, despite having a formula that couldn't be more repeatable and entertaining. It's as if the writers are afraid that we'll get bored of simply having to solve a different mystery each time, and then psych themselves into steering the show off the rails and into whatever genre you'd call watching Vince Vaughn slowly die in the desert. Comedy, I guess?
And speaking of rails, there's hope in the form of the aforementioned new adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express, provided that the film doesn't end with the revelation that they're all in a dream or aliens or that the killer is secretly Kenneth Branagh's mustache.
Clue, Rear Window, Ten Little Indians, Gosford Park ... f*** it, let's count Murder At 1600.
What We Have Now:
That new Murder On The Orient Express ... provided it doesn't [turn out not to be very good].
I should be clear about what I mean by "whodunnit," because the murder mystery genre can encompass a lot of things. At its purest, it takes place in a small location, preferably with characters who are unable to leave. There should be at least one mustache. Also, it's important to have an interesting cast of suspects, and enough evidence for the audience to at least feel like they can solve the mystery in question on their own. The last iteration of this formula that I recall has to be 2003's Identity, and the last non-garbage one is likely 2001's Gosford Park, which featured actors like Michael Gambon, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, and Charles Dance in a Downton Abbey-like mansion where a fancy-pants murder has taken place.
Don't be mistaken, since this genre has dwindled, there are a lot of detective thrillers you might confuse for the same thing. Movies and TV shows like Se7en, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, True Detective, and The Killing are all wonderful, but often conclude with the killer being some background Waldo from a single scene we long forgot about. Other times, we get movies like Shutter Island, which start promising but end up betraying their genre for some crazy Fight Club ending.
See, the classic whodunnit, while having some twists and turns, doesn't need an outlandish narrative u-turn to be enjoyable. The appeal lies in the characters and tension of the environment. But as filmmakers kept making these movies, there was a weird pressure to force various third-act gimmicks to keep the premise fresh...
Even when we broaden our scope to the detective or murder mystery genre, there seems to be a real struggle to maintain momentum. Shows like True Detective and The Killing can't produce a good mystery beyond one season, despite having a formula that couldn't be more repeatable and entertaining. It's as if the writers are afraid that we'll get bored of simply having to solve a different mystery each time, and then psych themselves into steering the show off the rails and into whatever genre you'd call watching Vince Vaughn slowly die in the desert. Comedy, I guess?
And speaking of rails, there's hope in the form of the aforementioned new adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express, provided that the film doesn't end with the revelation that they're all in a dream or aliens or that the killer is secretly Kenneth Branagh's mustache.
