All movies are many moving parts coming together (i’m pretty sure I covered this recently but bear with me for a minute). Directors need to direct the actors where to act while they wear the costumes from the costumers. The lighting needs to be perfect as does the post production items such as special effects, score/soundtrack. That doesn’t get into the behind the scenes stuff such as stunts, rigging and the best boys being at their absolute best while filming is ongoing. That is to say that each facet of a movie’s production needs to work together if the finished product is going to truly shine. I bring this up because this week sees the release of Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man, and in particular because it has an ensemble cast which we will now explore.

Similar to Russian nesting dolls an ensemble cast in a movie which is already filled with tons of moving parts coming together and ensemble cast also requires a ton of moving parts within the moving parts… um coming together… Very recently in an interview Daniel Craig described ensemble casts as herding cats and I can understand why. By definition once a cast has been elevated to ‘ensemble’ status everyone involved is very busy and they each have their own needs, egos, contract requirements, availability, staff, egos, and probably about 6 or 7 other points that I did not mention but needs to be considered by whoever is running the show. Big stars can mean big egos, and big demands and that is not even getting into such weirdness as M&M bowls with the brown ones removed. But like most things the administrative and what must be a complete scheduling hellscape can be worth it when the impact of all those actor’s is seen on screen (otherwise why would they keep doing it?).Seeing so many big names on screen just gives off the vibes that you are watching something special, like you are part of some kind of event and often the payoffs are right there (often both figuratively and literally speaking).

Once I get the preramble out of the way the prompt is easy, What is your favourite ensemble cast movie (or conversely movie cast)? These can go back quite a ways and have persisted over the years so there is a lot to choose from. Too much for me, I will tap out and watch the comments flood in on this one.