The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen McCaff, and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest, The Donut Inside the Donut Hole

edition. It's Wednesday, December 4th, 2019. On today's show, the I'm Stephen McCaff and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest, The Donut Inside the Donut Hole Edition.

It's Wednesday, December 4th, 2019.

On today's show, the hit movie Knives Out combines an old-timey-whodunit with some newfangled politics.

It's the latest from writer-director Ryan Johnson, he of Looper, and The Last Jedi fame.

And then the new HBO adaptation of the legendary comics graphic novel, whatever you want to call it, Watchmen, is also quite forward-thinking in its politics, having turned the venerable IP into a very contemporary racial allegory. We'll be joined for that segment by Slate alumnus and Times columnist Jamel Bowie. And finally, a titan of letters has died. We discussed the life and legacy of the great, I mean, the truly great, Clive James, with the New Yorker writer, Adam Gopnik. Joining me today is Julia Turner, who is Deputy Managing Editor at the LA Times. Hey, Julia. Hello, hello. And of course, Dana Stevens is the film critic for Slate. Hey, Dana.

Hey. Shall we dig in?

Knives Out is a cracking murder mystery from writer-director Ryan Johnson. It has all the venerable elements of an Agatha Christie, a BBC who done it, or a game of clue. There's a manor house, a deviously infighting family, a contested will, and an idiot, savant detective with a funny accent. But it has mixed them into a very au corin allegory about race and class in the Trump era. An agent crime novelist Harlan Thwambly, is that his name? Thwambly. Do I have it right? Thrombie. Thromby. Thromby. Okay. An aging

crime novel. How dare you? Disrespect the thrombly. I kept thinking of Sye Twombly and it got all mixed up in my mind. Anyways, an agent crime novelist Harlan with some last name played by Christopher Plummer gathers his children to the family estate for his 85th birthday, only to be discovered dead the next morning, possibly by suicide, but famed detective Benoit Blanc, played with a hammy deliciousness by Daniel Craig, believes he may have been murdered. The all-star cast includes, yes, it's true, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Michael Shan, and Tony Colette, and I think I'm missing at least a couple.

But the story centers itself narratively and morally on Marta, Harlan's nurse, the daughter of an undocumented immigrant, and as we come to see, Harlan's one true ally and friend in the world.

She's played beautifully by Anna Da Armis. Let's listen to a clip.

Mr. Blanc, I know who you are.

I read your profile in the New Yorker.

I found it delightful.

I just buried my 85-year-old father who committed suicide.

Why are you here?

I'm here at the behest of a client.

Who?

I cannot say, but let me assure you this.

My presence will be ornamental.

You will find me a respectful, quiet, passive observer of the truth.

...