Line #15 Creator/RianJohnson


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4	Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American film and television director, producer, and writer.
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6	[[ProductionPosse He seems to often cast]] Creator/JosephGordonLevitt and Creator/NoahSegan for roles, even if it is just for [[Film/TheBrothersBloom a]] [[TheCameo cameo appearance]]. He is also known for directing ''Film/{{Looper}}'' and a trio of ''Series/BreakingBad'' episodes -- one of them being "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E14Ozymandias Ozymandias]]", which has been hailed by critics and audiences as one of the greatest episodes of television ever made.
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8	He is JustForFun/OneOfUs, since apparently he likes ''Series/GameOfThrones'', and is interested in working on ''Series/DoctorWho''. He is also known for directing ''[[Film/TheLastJedi Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi]]'' and for his acclaimed [[MysteryAndDetectiveFilms mystery films]] ''Film/{{Brick}}'', ''Film/KnivesOut'', and ''Film/GlassOnion''.
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10	Also may or may not be [[WebVideo/RedLetterMedia Mr. Plinkett's disgraceful son]], though he certainly [[JustForFun/OneOfUs loves]] [[https://i.redd.it/cwbh4ui1jcjz.png but fears the]] [[WebVideo/HalfInTheBag repairmen fixing his VCR]].
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12	!!Works:
13	[[index]]
14	* ''Film/{{Brick}}'' (2005)
15	* ''Film/TheBrothersBloom'' (2008)
16	* ''Series/BreakingBad'' (2010, "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E10Fly Fly]]"; 2012, "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E4FiftyOne Fifty-One]]"; 2013, "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E14Ozymandias Ozymandias]]")
17	* ''Film/{{Looper}}'' (2012)
18	* ''[[Film/TheLastJedi Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi]]'' (2017)
19	* ''Benoit Blanc Mysteries''
20	** ''Film/KnivesOut'' (2019)
21	** ''[[Film/GlassOnion Glass Onion]]'' (2022)
22	* ''Series/PokerFace'' (Creator/{{Peacock}} TV series; 2023)
23	[[/index]]
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25	!!Tropes applying to his works include:
26	* AmbiguousEnding: Most of his films leave their main characters facing an uncertain fate, often with a question of what a young person is going to do with a newfound and revolutionary power. This can lean from hopeful (Broom Boy and the Resistance in ''The Last Jedi''), to wavering between good and evil (Cid in ''Looper''), to vengeful (''Knives Out'' and ''Glass Onion'').
27	* AnachronismStew: ''Brick'', ''The Brothers Bloom'', ''Looper'' and ''Knives Out'' all feature this to varying degrees, bordering on AmbiguousTimePeriod. In the first it's part of the FilmNoir homage. In the second it's to give the film the feel of a timeless tale. In the third it's to establish how impoverished the characters in the future are. In the last it’s because he’s setting an Creator/AgathaChristie-[=style=] mystery in the PresentDay.
28	* TheCameo: In ''Film/RogueOne'', as a Death Star technician working on the superlaser during the single-reaction ignition sequence. ''Rogue One'' director Creator/GarethEdwards, meanwhile, had a cameo as a Resistance soldier on Crait in Johnson's ''The Last Jedi''.
29	* {{Deconstruction}}:
30	** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' is a ''massive'' deconstruction of several ''Franchise/StarWars'' tropes and characters, most prominently the idea that just because you're fighting bad people doesn't make you unambiguously heroic, the fact that as long as there are Jedi, there are going to be Dark Side users opposing them (thus making things worse), the idea that you have to be special to learn and use the Force and the whole idea of Luke Skywalker being a wise and nearly flawless hero thirty years after leading the Rebellion to victory after the Battle of Endor.
31	** He ''really'' does not like the JerkWithAHeartOfGold archetype. In ''The Last Jedi'' and ''Knives Out'', he plays with audience expectations and teases that certain characters might have [[HiddenHeartOfGold redeeming qualities]] that could excuse or make up for their negative qualities, only to then subvert that completely. Illustrating that [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk jerks]] would realistically have something [[TheSociopath very seriously wrong]] with them to have those kinds of behavior patterns.
32	* GenreBusting:
33	** ''{{Film/Brick}}'' is a DeconstructiveParody of classic FilmNoir while also being a teen movie.
34	** ''Film/TheBrothersBloom'' combines romance and comedy with a caper plot.
35	** ''Film/KnivesOut'' takes the classic whodunit scenario and makes it a political thriller comedy film where [[spoiler: the main protagonist has to cover up her tracks]].
36	* GenreDeconstruction: ''Film/{{Brick}}'' and ''Film/KnivesOut'' specifically.
37	* GenreRoulette: Johnson likes to tackle a bunch of different genres.
38	** ''Film/{{Brick}}'' is a FilmNoir teen movie.
39	** ''Film/TheBrothersBloom'' is a caper comedy.
40	** ''Film/{{Looper}}'' is a science-fiction action thriller
41	** ''Film/StarWarsTheLastJedi'' is a space opera and a {{Deconstruction}} of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise in general.
42	** ''Film/KnivesOut'' is a murder mystery crime comedy thriller.
43	* TheHeart: Amidst a cast ranging from flawed to selfish to malicious, there is usually at least one character who is truly loving and compassionate, like Rose in ''The Last Jedi'', Marta in ''Knives Out'', and Helen in ''Glass Onion''. Oftentimes they're distinguished by being a WorkingClassHero unlike the others in positions of privilege, and despite their kindly personality they aren't above [[GoodIsNotSoft breaking the law and getting destructive]] in order to bring down the villains.
44	* MetaFiction: His genre stories often feature characters who are aware of the conventions of the setting they’re in and try to break them or exploit them.
45	** In ''The Last Jedi'', the cyclical war of the Dark Side versus the Light has become so recurring that the galaxy views it as inevitable. The rich war profiteers at Canto Bight benefit from the predictable wars by selling weapons to both sides. Inversely, Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker both attempt to break the cycle, Luke by refusing to train more Jedi and Kylo by killing anyone trying to shape his fate. The protagonist Rey, aware of her growing significance in these grand cosmic wars, presumes this means she must have [[TheChosenOne some kind of noble parentage]], in an attempt to convince herself that [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou her harsh abandonment on Jakku was for a reason]]. She also argues with Luke on whether the Jedi Order had a positive or negative effect on the galaxy, in a manner that mirrors actual fan debates about the Jedi's actions in the previous films.
46	** In ''Knives Out'', the victim Harlan was an author of murder mystery novels, and his housekeeper Fran was a big fan of the genre. [[spoiler:Both of them get into trouble by trying to take advantage of mystery tropes, Harlan by creating an unnecessarily complicated coverup that would’ve been fine if he had just dialed the hospital, and Fran by trying to play the part of the intrepid detective only to fall as well to the murderer.]]
47	** In ''Glass Onion'', Miles Bron hosts a murder mystery party, and is eager to play along famed detective Benoit Blanc, who has no patience for such games and worries someone might try to take advantage of the TenLittleMurderVictims setup to commit a real murder. [[spoiler:Warning Miles turns out to give Bron the idea to do exactly that himself. And try as Benoit might to treat this murder case not as a fiction but as reality, he couldn’t resist the trap of presuming a complex scheme and motive when real murder plots tend to be far less complicated.]]
48	* ProductionPosse:
49	** Creator/JosephGordonLevitt and Creator/NoahSegan regularly appear in Johnson's films. (Most of the lead cast of ''Brick'' manages a cameo during the party scene in ''The Brothers Bloom''[[note]]besides Gordon-Levitt, who appears via voiceover later[[/note]], a trick Johnson laments he could only pull off once). Gordon-Levitt is notably absent from ''Knives Out'', however, apart from a brief voice cameo.
50	** Steve Yeldin has served as cinematographer on each of Johnson's films. Nathan Johnson, Rian's cousin, has composed each of his films besides ''The Last Jedi''[[note]]Music/JohnWilliams, obviously.[[/note]]. Bob Ducsay has edited all of Johnson's films besides ''Brick'' and ''The Brothers Bloom''.
51	* SignatureStyle: He loves subverting audience's expectations, using a quirky directing/editing style, which involves off-kilter camera angles/composition, fast-paced dynamic camerawork, rapid-fire editing, and quick pans. LOTS of quick pans. He even used this style in ''The Last Jedi''.
52	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: His films range all over the place.
53	** ''Film/{{Brick}}'' and ''Film/{{Looper}}'' lean closer to the cynical side.
54	** ''Film/TheBrothersBloom'' has its foot planted on the idealistic side.
55	** ''Film/StarWarsTheLastJedi'' leans to the idealistic side but falls more toward the middle compared to other ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies.
56	** His ''Benoit Blanc mysteries'' lean in different directions. ''Film/KnivesOut'' is overall idealistic while ''Film/GlassOnion'' is a bit more on the cynical side.
57	* SubvertedTrope: Johnson is obsessed with subverting audience's expectations. When talking about ''The Last Jedi'', he admitted himself wanting to subvert the audience's expectations regarding the followup to many things Creator/JJAbrams set up in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', such as Luke being full of HeroicSelfDeprecation and the BrokenPedestal when Rey meets him instead of a more classic OldMaster who's ready to keep the MasterApprenticeChain up (however, this could be thought of as following through with Abrams's set-up of Luke disappearing to an island in the middle of nowhere). Then there were the ''massive'' expectations regarding Rey's MysteriousPast... [[spoiler:and it's revealed she's the daughter of nobodies -- or at least that's what [[UnreliableNarrator Kylo Ren]] said. It's pretty safe to say the following developments in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' had no input from Johnson.]]
58	* TrollingCreator: In July 2016, when finalizing ''The Last Jedi'', Johnson tweeted a photo of himself holding a sign saying "Your Snoke theories suck", alluding to the abundant [[invoked]]{{Fanon}} that followed the release of ''The Force Awakens''. [[spoiler:Snoke gets killed off in ''The Last Jedi'' without anything to explain his backstory whatsoever.]]

Context Creator / RianJohnson