Deadly Decisions
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
All the Old Knives (Janus Metz) rated R 103 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): In my 2 previous postings (April 7, 2022, April 14, 2022) I noted how I consciously ignored what would turn out to be the domestic (U.S.-Canada) weekly-box-office-champs (Morbius [Daniel Espinosa], Sonic the Hedgehog 2 [Jeff Fowler]) for more-esoteric-fare, which I deemed to be much more satisfying to my tastes (one of those, Everything Everywhere All at Once [Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert] has now come to enough theaters [2,220] that it ranked as #4 last weekend, now having taken in $17.7 million [$18 million globally], so I’m glad to see it’s getting some traction). This week I continue my snubbing of the top grosser, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (David Yates)—which far and away dominated ticket sales with $45.8 million (worldwide $196.5 million, although it’s being passed off as a “soft opening” as interest in this pre-Harry Potter series may well be on the wane)—for something you can find in theaters (apparently not very many of them, however, as it’s not even on the Box Office Mojo chart, although I know it’s playing at a few venues in my San Francisco Bay area) but it’s much more available (for free, if you’re a subscriber) at Amazon Prime Video, my choice for weekend-home-leisurely-viewing.
This is somewhat a spy-thriller but it's ultimately more of an interpersonal-drama about an airline hijacking tragedy in 2012 Vienna where the local CIA station was unable to prevent the terrorists—frustrated because their demands were not being met for Germany to release some comrades—from killing themselves and roughly 120 victims on the plane. It’s now 2020 with the CIA having captured the mastermind of the destruction who tells them they had a mole in their Vienna office who helped bring about the tragedy, so a there-then/still-current agent (Chris Pine) is tasked with finding out who it was, focused largely on 2 now-retirees, the former second-in-command of that group (Jonathan Pryce) and the agent’s ex-lover (Thandiwe Newton), but there’s more intrigue going on here than I can discuss without getting into Spoiler territory; this isn’t a great film, although it’s consistently intriguing, well worth your time if you’ve got Prime access, maybe not so much if you have to pay for it: choose carefully. Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: (The plot [screenplay by Olen Steinhauer, from his 2015 novel of the same name] constantly shifts between present day 2020 and events of 2012, so for clarity I’ll present this summary in chronological fashion; just know it’s a lot more interesting to watch when you see it in its actual intercut-mode rather than in this linear account.) Some years ago CIA agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) was stationed in Moscow where he had a Chechen informant, Ilyas Shushani (Orli Shuka). At some point, in exchange for the Russians suffering a terrorist attack, they demanded human payment from the U.S. (not sure why), for which Henry’s superiors, against his pleas, chose Ilyas, leading to him being tortured. Later he was able to escape to Iran where his daughter died from lack of needed medicine, due to the U.S. embargo. Then we come to 2012 where Henry’s in the Vienna CIA station, headed by Vick Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne), with second-in-command Bill Compton (Jonathan Pryce) and Henry’s passionate lover, agent Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton). A crisis comes when Ilyas wants revenge on the U.S. in general, Henry in particular (whom he blames for his misfortunes, but I’m not clear he realizes Henry wasn’t responsible for the miseries he’s endured), so Ilyas arranges for a small Islamic terrorist group to hijack a Turkish airline on the ground at the Vienna airport with about 120 aboard, demanding the release from German prisons of some of their comrades. This CIA group desperately wants to intervene somehow, although they can’t get cooperation from Austria and Germany so they consider a quick rescue effort on their own, aided by texts from one of their operatives, Ahmed—by chance on the plane—who recommends entry through the undercarriage, then says to abort that because the terrorists have a camera on the underbelly, although Celia suspects complications in the situation due to changes in formats of earlier and later texts. Bill has to rush home for a family emergency leaving Celia with access to his office where she finds a call to Iran in his phone records, throwing immediate suspicion on him as working with the terrorists. She seeks out help from one of her own contacts, is led to a meeting with Mohammed Dudayev (Nasser Memarzia), but he seems to have nothing of use for her.
When Celia’s back at the office the situation becomes more intense as the terrorists execute Ahmed, throwing him off the plane, then in their frustration at no prisoner exchange they kill themselves and all their hostages, leading Celia to run from the office, breaking off contact with Henry in the process. Skip ahead to 2020 where the CIA has captured Ilyas who tells them they had a mole in their group back in 2012 so Vick puts Henry in charge of finding out who it was, with his suspicion centered on Bill and Celia, so he begins by questioning Bill in London, then moves to Carmel-by-the-Sea in northern CA where Celia’s now married, has children. They agree to meet for dinner at an upscale restaurant where, curiously, there are few staff, almost no other diners. ⇒In the process of their tense conversation (constantly interspersed with those flashbacks noted above, providing us with all I’ve previously recounted) we find Celia returned to their apartment with Henry for a while on that horrid day in 2012, noted while he was in the shower he was getting a phone call from the Iranian number she’d found in Bill’s office so she knew even then Henry was the mole but said nothing, just left behind everything about that life after the mass killing occurred; further, she tells him she was warned by Bill that Henry was on his way to try to stick her with responsibility for the airline crisis, so she worked with Austrian agent Karl Stein (Corey Johnson) and Vick to set up the restaurant ruse where Henry would be poisoned with the wine he continued to drink into the evening as he and Celia talked. It was only after he knew he was dying he let her know, yes, he provided the terrorists with the news about Ahmed and the considered-attack on the plane but only because Ilyas contacted him that day, told him Mohammed would harm Celia if Henry didn’t cooperate. Celia’s now devastated she’s killed Henry when his actions long ago were on her behalf, but it’s too late to help him. She leaves the restaurant where Henry’s accomplice, code-name-Treble (Michael Shaeffer), calls to ask if he should shoot Celia, but Henry dies before he can answer. (What would you do if you had the option of killing the person who had just set you up for death?)⇐
So What? Due to how far into this narrative we have to go before we learn the full truth about both Henry and Celia, the build-up in the present day (2020) is slow, especially when contrasted to the constant turmoil in the 2012 scenes where the CIA crew is desperately trying to find a strategy to overcome the terrorists, especially with Henry and Celia trying all sorts of contingencies, racing around Vienna hoping any undercover contacts they have might be able to provide some sort of assistance. When it all comes clear, though, what happened and why, the whole plot mostly falls nicely together, though the ultimate situation leaves room for individual interpretations after the facts.
⇒Sorry, but I’ve got to go into Spoiler mode again to muse over what was motivating Henry and Celia as they moved toward their fatal, final meeting. Henry clearly knew he was the mole he was intended to find, so was he, in fact, trying to put together enough circumstantial evidence to somehow lay the blame on either Bill or Celia? Celia knew for years Henry was the inside-man but didn’t know his motivation was to protect her; presumably, she just couldn’t be with him any further, even to talk about why he did what he did, so she tried to leave him as far behind as she could, yet she worked with Karl and Vick to set up the poisoning so maybe Ilyas confessed to them about Henry, putting the assassination plot in motion as the CIA wanted to cover up as much as possible what happened back then to minimize a credibility-crisis for the U.S. and its external spy agency. We get no clarity (at least that I’m aware of) on what exactly was going on in the story’s 2012 events with Henry and Celia, only the revelation he was willing to sacrifice at least Ahmed—we’re not sure he knew everyone else on the plane would also die that night—to protect his lover, so even there his motive, while personally noble, was questionable in the mode of the old conundrum-question about what would you do if you had to make a split-second-decision about a runaway train in terms of killing someone who's close to you or saving that person while condemning many others to death, depending on how you switched the tracks at the crucial juncture (you can also find a chilling version of this problem in the finale of Fail Safe [Sidney Lumet, 1964] as the U.S. President has a personal option to weigh while trying to prevent a deadly-all-out-nuclear-war with Russia [sound familiar?]).⇐
It’s probably clear I'm finding it difficult to talk much about this film, let alone give you enough information as to whether you want to seek it out or not, when so much of what matters here has to be discussed in the Spoiler material so even when I’d like to enhance what I’ve presented with this link (claims to be 8:00 but runs only about 6:05), which gives you a nice illustrated version of the plot’s contents, you still have to confront spoilers if you want this analysis to make any sense. If you don’t want to go down the spoiler route, maybe you can decide for yourself from a sample of other reviews if this material might hold your interest. According to Kevin Maher of The Times (U.K.): “Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton together generate all the erotic heat of a nuclear winter in this, sigh, smouldering thriller about a hijacking that went bad in Vienna, and the two CIA agents (Pine and Newton) who were left to pick up the pieces.” If that dismissal’s enough to put you off you probably shouldn’t bother; on the other hand, if you’re willing to invest less than 2 hours in an intriguingly-plotted-thriller (even with the clarity-considerations I’ve raised just above) you might be satisfied enough with this back-handed-compliment from K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone: “All the Old Knives is brief enough, politely suspenseful enough, for its stars to carry without much hassle. The story’s gentle chipping away at world politics is bland enough for Celia and Henry’s fate to overpower, in terms of our interest. Love, politics, what’s the difference? The movie isn’t up to much. It pulls off the little that it sets out to do.” So, now if you may be interested enough to search around for a theater or just stream on Amazon Prime I’ll finish up this aspect of my posting with a much-more-enthusiastic-response (19:11) from someone I don’t know anything about, but he's certainly satisfied with what he saw so maybe he’ll convince you to feel the same way about … Knives; but, of course, you’ll have to wrestle with those spoilers again in order to fully understand his explorations.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Overall, I’m just a bit more supportive of All the Old Knives than the CCAL (yet not quite as pumped-up as the guy in that long video just above but reasonably supportive despite my minor concern that certain key elements of the final result require more personal-decision-making than is usually necessary in dramas of this sort) where the Rotten Tomatoes critics offer 63% positive reviews while those at Metacritic give it a 62% average score (very rare for these critics’-accumulation-groups to be this much in sync, but do understand that Metacritic score is only marginally-supportive as they need to be in at least the lower-70s to be considered somewhat-impressed, based on what I see of them on a weekly basis; more details on both groups’ responses in the Related Links section much farther below). Of those who did find it more useful than the weak praise of Collins (cited just above) one measure of its worth comes from Ty Burr, formerly of The Boston Globe, now with his Internet-based Ty Burr’s Watchlist: “ ‘All The Old Knives’ proceeds to a conclusion in which you might have guessed the Who but probably not the Why, and the series of revelations, handed out like bonus desserts cap the meal and the movie with a gratifying and even moving sense of closure, after which everyone gets to go home or … elsewhere. It’s the kind of film that’s just right for streaming – not quite “big” enough for theaters and not a throwaway for in-flight viewing – and another sign that midrange moviemaking for adults has been booted off the big screen to make a home on VOD.” Even more impressed is David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter: “The film’s prevailing solemnity ultimately makes its shards of paranoia and disclosures about the compromises of counterterrorism agents more unsettling, and the brutal finality of its outcome more chilling. […] Which ultimately makes this a character study about the type of people drawn into the intelligence agency business, the qualities it requires of them to stick with that career and the ways in which the work shapes their identities.” I’ll be in agreement.
I was steered toward … Knives through comments by Bay Area critic Tim Sika (podcast, Celluloid Dreams; he's also a weekly guest on KGO-AM), who was quite supportive; I initially considered seeing it in Berkeley at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas but instead chose the ease of Amazon Prime Video, probably your most likely option of finding this low-key-yet-fascinating-film, assuming you do or are willing to subscribe to Prime. (Not cheap on an annual basis, now $139, but you can get a month’s worth for $14.99 so you could see 30 days worth of cinema for the price of about 1 ticket at a theater, not that I’m trying to help put them out of business but given the emerging options as more art-oriented-film-theaters face closures these various streaming services do help keep some aspects of alternative-cinema available to us—although I doubt Amazon really anticipated making much off of All the Old Knives on the big-screen, as they were willing to simultaneously release it via streaming.)
Anyway, I found this film to be enjoyable enough on a weekend and surrounding nights where most of my time was spent with relatives at Easter dinner (great meal, gained 5 pounds, need treadmill), along with watching NBA playoffs with our local Golden State Warriors (up 2-0 over Denver as I go to “press”) and home-opening-week for our Oakland Athletics’ baseballers, so far doing a bit better than expected (8-6 but were supposed to be much worse after the skinflint-team-owner [billionaire John Fisher, also runs The Gap], as usual, traded away most of the top players before their salaries could increase [2022 payroll is about $32.5 million, #29 of 30 teams, down from about $75 million last year]), so even though it’s the only one I’m reviewing (but did see the marvelous Winter’s Bone [Debra Granik, 2010] again at my brother-in-law’s fabulous home-theater, just didn’t attempt to work in any level of review of it here), All the Old Knives is quite enjoyable in my opinion, with my encouragement to check it out. I’ll wrap up as usual with a Musical Metaphor, which in this case will be a true oldie, “Tragedy” by The Fleetwoods (on their 1961 album Softly) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=C4wkVrak1Oc because while it’s “merely” about a love gone cold (“Wind and storm / Gone’s the sun / From the stars / My dark has come”) as happens to so many of us (at least until things finally go right, as with my all-I-could-ever-hope-for-35 years with my wife, Nina Kindblad, after decades of dead ends), but it takes on ever deeper meaning for Henry and Celia in this film (“Our dreams / Have all gone […] All that’s left is the dark / Below”) as tragedy befalls not only them but also all those innocent people gone forever on flight 127 back in 2012. It's truly a “Tragedy,” indeed.
SHORT TAKES
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are for U.S. Pacific zone so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
(Yes, I know, I get more carried away with some of these descriptions than I do with others but, trust me, they’re all well worth your consideration, for those various reasons that I’ve noted or elaborated.)
Friday April 22, 2022
7:00 PM The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) Maybe it’s because this film reminds me of my more nostalgic aspects of those many years in Texas, but I think it’s just a marvelously-done adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s semi-autobiographical novel of growing up in an early 1950s version of the Lone Star State (filmed in Archer City, standing in for fictional Anarene) about interpersonal-interactions among strong characters played by Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Cybil Shepherd; Johnson and Leachman won Supporting Acting Oscars. On this same TCM day we get 2 more marvelous films from Bogdanovich: Paper Moon (1973) at 5:00 PM and What’s Up, Doc? (1972) at 9:15 PM; these are the best of his career, in my opinion.
Sunday April 24, 2022
4:45 AM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939) Likely seems hopelessly optimistic now yet still inspirational about lost causes being the only ones worth fighting for in a government rife with corruption; James Stewart’s an idealistic but naïve Senator, faces defeat from a political machine, gets inspiration from Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell. Won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story (Lewis R. Foster); Stewart deserved to win for Best Actor, got it for The Philadelphia Story (1940).
5:00 PM Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974) Hilarious combination of parody of the western genre and biting satire on racism in both the Old West and modern-day society as a Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) is sent to a town a corrupt politician (Harvey Korman) wants emptied so he can give the land to the railroad, but the newcomer wins over the citizens with help from a gunslinger (Gene Wilder)—Madeline Kahn’s there too as a version of Marlene Dietrich; intention use of racial slurs stretches the limits of satire, though. Includes the famous beans-for-dinner-flatulence-scene (gross as it “sounds”).
Tuesday April 26, 2022
9:00 PM Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982) Biography of famous nonviolent-activist Mahatma Gandhi whose protests for rights for Asian Indians led to legal victories against the British Empire in South Africa and India, later contributes to his home-country’s freedom from the Empire; marvelous lead by Ben Kingsley. Won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Kingsley), Original Screenplay (John Briley), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Editing (nominated for 3 more).
Wednesday April 27, 2022
A mini-marathon of some "classic" (or at least cult-favorite) 1950s sci-fi movies: 3:00 AM The Thing from Another World (Christian Myby, 1951)—murderous alien plant-being attacks an Arctic outpost—4:45 AM The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953)—big dinosaur—6:15 AM Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954)—mutant giant ants—8:00 AM Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)—best of the lot, very Freudian, stars Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Robby the Robot—9:45 AM Indestructible Man (Jack Pollexfen, 1956)—electrocuted convict comes back to life, stars Lon Chaney Jr—11:00 AM Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (Nathan Hertz, 1958); 12:15 PM The Fly (Kurt Neumann, 1958)—matter transport gone wrong, stars Vincent Price—2:00 PM Queen of Outer Space (Edward Bernds, 1958)—Zsa Zsa Gabor in an extraterrestrial society of Amazons—3:45 PM The Killer Shrews (Ray Kellogg). In most cases, watch these at your own risk of laughing to death.
If you’d like your own PDF of rating/summary of this week's review, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Extra items you might like: (1) Hopefully, the last item on the Will Smith Oscar slap: Is his wife angry with him for doing it in her 'honor"?; (2) Netflix losing massive numbers of subscribers; (3) Netflix woes imply problems for other streaming services also. As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about All the Old Knives:
https://www.alltheoldknivesmovie.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhaTAHBblW0 (7:55 interview with actors Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_old_knives
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/all-the-old-knives
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/
wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes/wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" (19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this well). But, while I’m at it, I’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna."
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