MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017) -- ain't no rest for the mustached.

Cinema of Cruelty (Movies for Masochists)

On this week's annotated deep dive, The Cultists present Kenneth Branagh's 'Murder on the Orient Express' (2017). The technically ambitious 65 mm adaptation of Agatha Christie's murder mystery classic, MoOE tells the tale of the magnificently mustachioed Hercule Poirot -- the world's greatest detective (also known as the man who thinks and thus suffers). Yearning for a vacation, Poirot boards the famed Orient Express, the sparkling sleeper train that historically made its trek from Paris to Istanbul, and finds himself in an opulent flick of murder, mystery, mayhem, and downright astounding production design. Say what you will about Branagh's ability to cast himself as his own star and chew up a scene; from historical flourishes to insider Easter eggs, this movie is meticulous in it's details. (And we are all about the details...).

Deep Dives include: the stunning beauty of 65 mm cinematography; the surprisingly practical set builds, next level rotoscoping with 3,000 screens; comparisons to Christie's 1934 novel; the SVU style "borrowing" of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping; the transnational-nationalism paradox of the belle epoch; the history, food, and legacy of the famed Orient Express; and how, overall, we have one of the most enduring and endearing forms of transportation all because a dude named Georges Lambert Casimir Nagelmackers once wanted to bang his cousin.