Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  This is the third of three short films that Shannon has listed on his Wikipedia page. I’ve already had a look at 'Zamboni Man' and 'Mullitt' and my views of these can be found elsewhere in this blog. This one came a bit later in Shannon’s career, by which time he was an established actor. Of the three this is probably the least appealing owing to the subject matter and you have to wonder why they bothered with this grubby project. The 14 minute film follows a day in the life of the titular Herbert. He works in forestry and much of the film is taken up with shots of him bringing down trees in his timber cutting machine. We see him go out with his family and he tells his wife that he needs to stop at the side of the road for a pee. He heads into the woods and starts to pleasure himself. When he returns his wife asks if we was taking a dump as he was away for so long. He gets home and returns calls made by his father and the relationship is clearly fractured...

  This is an enjoyable murder mystery that was the first of a franchise which now stands at two films, with a third to be released in 2025. The thread through the films is Daniel Craig’s detective character Benoit Blanc who uses deduction and a funny accent to unravel cavernous crimes. The film opens with a death. Best selling author Harlan Thromby (a fun Christopher Plummer, seen mostly in flashback) is found with a seemingly self inflicted cut to the throat. The police determine the death to be self inflicted and the family gather to have the funeral and for the will reading. Clearly that’s not a film, so Benoit shows up, having been hired anonymously to have a look into the matter. The film’s indulgent cast all get their introductions as the police investigate the four family members who would benefit from the death – Don Johnston, Toni Collette, Jamie Lee Curtis and our man Mr Shannon as the author’s youngest son and business manager. For your money you also get turns ...