Rian Johnson Redefined The Same Movie Genre Twice In Just 14 Years

Rian Johnson is an inventive storyteller and filmmaker, as seen with his ability to redefine a genre more than once. Johnson announced himself as a filmmaker to watch with his inventive directorial debut, Brick. However, since then, the filmmaker has been very effective in switching up his types of movies.

His underrated time-travel thriller Looper was another clever genre film. It also led to him stepping into the Star Wars franchise with The Last Jedi. Since then, Johnson has been immersed in another franchise of his own making with the Knives Out movies, starring Daniel Craig as the brilliant sleuth Benoit Blanc.

He returns to that series with the upcoming Wake Up ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man, which serves as a perfect reminder that Johnson has actually played around in this genre before, putting his own mark on it in two very distinct ways.

Rian Johnson’s Brick Redefined Detective Noir For The 2000s

Johnson Made His Directorial Debut In Brick

Rian Johnson’s love of detective movies is evident, and it’s actually how his directing career began with the incredible Brick. Johnson’s confident and smart directorial debut takes the formula, character archetypes, and even style of dialogue of classic detective noir movies and transplants them into a modern high school setting.

These types of detective movies had long grown out of fashion. However, Johnson found a way to bring this style back while also making it work in the 21st century.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in the movie as Brendan, an isolated high school student who begins looking into the shady aspects of his town and high school community when his ex-girlfriend goes missing. Though a young outcast teen, Brendan fits the mold of noir detective characters like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, including the whip-sharp dialogue.

These types of detective movies had long grown out of fashion. However, Johnson found a way to bring this style back while also making it work in the 21st century. Such an approach could have easily felt like a gimmick, but Johnson grounds it just enough while also allowing it to feel somewhat surreal.

The result is something completely different in how detective movies felt in the 2000s. While Brick was a small movie, it served as a reminder of how timeless these kinds of movies can be and also showed Johnson’s original voice as a filmmaker.

Rian Johnson Redefined Detective Movies Once Again With Knives Out In 2019

Knives Out Is An Homage And A Subversion Of Classic Mysteries

It is impressive enough that Rian Johnson found a way to put his own mark on the detective genre, but even more impressive that he found a way to do it again. Johnson clearly admires the expansiveness of the detective genre, not only loving the noir mysteries it offers, but also those parlor mysteries with an intriguing sleuth at the center.

Heavily inspired by author Agatha Christie and her Hercule Poirot mystery novels, Johnson wrote Knives Out to be a similar style, following eccentric private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he investigates the death of a wealthy patriarch and a family of suspects. However, as with Brick, it is not enough that Johnson wanted to pay homage to these stories.

Brick and Knives Out are so different that it is easy to forget that they are in the same genre.

Knives Out uses the tropes of the genre and the expectations of the modern audience to turn the genre on its head. Knives Out seems designed to stump those viewers who would be watching for every clue and trying to solve the mystery first. Johnson tricks them by seemingly giving them the answer in the first act.

Brick and Knives Out are so different that it is easy to forget that they are in the same genre. Brick is a somber and dark detective story, while Knives Out works as much as a comedy as it does as a detective story. Yet the similarities in the way Johnson approaches both of these movies are unmistakable.

In both Brick and Knives Out, the fact that Johnson is such a fan of these types of movies means that he is able to use the tropes of the genre to build something that is familiar to audiences, but then knows how to subvert expectations. Johnson even returned to the genre on the small screen with Poker Face.

Rian Johnson has certainly found a pᴀssion within the detective genre that has worked out well for him. As much as it is fun to see how versatile he can be with his storytelling, it would also be a lot of fun to see if he has any other new takes on detective stories to give us.