Case File: Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes

To wrap up our one-year anniversary month, we indulged in gin and “Sherlock Holmes,” (2009) dir. Guy Ritchie. It was Marisa’s first introduction to the Holmes and Watson, and reviewers have described it as either “disturbingly bad” or a “fresh reinvention” of an old classic. This steampunk roller coaster ride of a film raises some interesting questions about how we value adaptations of stories we understand to be enshrined in a literary canon. We talk about its versions of these iconic characters, why it’s mean to bisexuals, what it gets right and wrong about occultism in the Victorian era, and the enduring appeal of queer subtext in blockbusters even when we really should know better.

Content warning: The movie itself contains some cartoonishly grisly deaths, most notably by hanging. And heed the "explicit" note on this episode - it's cocktail hour and we talk like it. Contains a lot more cursing than usual, and objectification of the bisexual kind. We love and respect you for your work, Ms. McAdams, really we promise. 

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