REVIEW: "Knives Out"

“Oh, my god! I read a tweet about a New Yorker article about you!”

Do rich people deserve rights? Let’s be honest here. Do they really? That seems to be the foundational question of Rian Johnson’s latest feature Knives Out. Hot off the heals of the controversial Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Johnson turns his attention to the ‘whodunit’ mystery genre.

Set in the fall of 2019, and Knives Out very much wants you to know that it is set in the moment culturally, the large extended family of famous mystery author Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer) gathers in their family home after the patriarch’s apparent suicide. However, Private Eye Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) suspects foul play and has eliminated no suspects. What follows is a tense two hour game of cat and mouse with the killer as Blanc tries to figure out who killed Thromby.

I mean, hell, any one of them could have done it.

Knives Out was one of my most enjoyable film experiences of year. It’s a tight, fast moving narrative that’s gorgeously shot and fantastically edited. Johnson’s writing is a real standout. He constructs a story that never stalls and characters that elevate every scene their in. It’s also extremely funny, which is due in part to the fantastic performances from the members of the family. Jamie Lee Curtis as the iron-willed eldest sister, Chris Evans as the family wild child, Toni Collette as the slightly unstable sister-in-law, Michael Shannon as the stubborn youngest son - it’s a fantastic cast made better by the writing.

Behind the scenes of Knives Out

Evans is a notable casting here. Knives Out is his first film post Captain America and he plays just the worst person you could ever possibly meet.

The actors switch from comedic to sinister in a heart beat, which keeps things entertaining and unpredictable. The first act establishes the fact that just about anyone could have killed Thromby, and that works to the film’s advantage. There’s no obvious killer.

And yet, the twist makes perfect sense.

I want to be careful of spoilers here, even the smallest ones as that can damage what a viewer will feel during a first viewing, but I do want to comment briefly on the twist in a non-spoiler fashion. Johnson is a careful writer. Every little think somehow comes back in the finale, which makes the narrative as a whole deeply satisfying. Every small detail, off hand comments, they all come together.

Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is a thoroughly enjoyable lead. His rant about doughnut holes in the last act is some of the funniest lines in any film. It’s up there with the fish scene in The Irishman.

However, the best actor in Knives Out, a film already filmed with great actors, is Ana De Armas. The Cuban actress, although not new to the film scene, had her english language breakout in Blade Runner 2049 (2017) as K’s (Ryan Gosling) love interest. De Armas shines in Knives Out. Although Craig was billed as the lead, De Armas steals the show with her fantastic and heartbreaking performance as Marta, Harlan Thromby’s nurse. Marta and her arc separate the film from being just a murder mystery to one of great meaning and emotional depth. She both humanizes the victim of the crime, tells her own important story, and is the lynch pin on which the point of Knives Out rests. She shoulders the emotional weight of the entire film.

Marta is also in one of the film’s best jokes. Her country of origin is referred to four different times, each by a different member of the family. In order to show how out-of-touch the Thromby clan is, they each share a different answer.

De Armas is reuniting with Craig next year with No Time to Die, the twenty-fifth James Bond film, and it looks as if she has a bright career ahead of her in Hollywood.

Johnson is dedicated to reconstructing the atmosphere and premise of a classic Agatha Christi style murder mystery. An home in the country, a large family of unique characters, dubious motives, a seemingly impossible crime, an investigator with a french name - Knives Out could pass on a surface level as the next Poirot novel. And probably a very good Poirot novel. Except, there’s one big difference. Poirot is set in the 1920s. Knives Out is set in 2019. And it wears that like a badge of honour.

The family engages in heated arguments surrounding immigration, border control, and the ethics of the Trump presidency, and hot-button words like “alt-right”, “SJW”, “Nazi”, and “neo-Marxist” are thrown like rocks by the youngest characters at each other. These terms come of as cheap when they first get introduced. Johnson seems to be shoehorning in politics just to feel “relevant”. He wants to show the family as dysfunctional so he makes it political arguments. It seems stupid on the surface. However, these political comments are far more important to the meaning of the film.

About half way through, the family’s wealth and inheritance comes under threat. And that’s when these petty arguments stop, and a tense unity is formed, although each is still very much a suspect in the ongoing investigation. Johnson is making a statement about class. When the wealth of the powerful comes under fire, they will always unify against the common enemy. The world is ultimately the ultra rich vs. everyone else. It’s a critique of contemporary North American liberalism and the contradiction that it is.

Of course, as we wrap up, Rian Johnson’s skills as a filmmaker must be addressed. Johnson has a The Last Jedi, Star Wars gives you excellent opportunities to make some gorgeous shots, the cinematography is more than competent. It’s creative and dynamic in keeping with the energy in the writing and in the editing. And that final shot? Glorious.
great handle on not only the basics of constructing a good film, but taking those elements to the next level. He’s a great director and is excellent with capturing great performances from his actors. He’s a great visual stylist and makes striking images. Although the film doesn’t have the same visual awe as

Johnson is not only showing strength as a filmmaker, but improvements upon his previous work. He’s a promising figure in Hollywood and I’m thoroughly excited for whatever he does next. It’s nice to see someone dedicated to producing original and unique films and still getting some solid return on them.

Knives Out is as good as the sweaters worn by the characters, and the sweaters are amazing. It’s rock solid in story supported by excellent writing and some of the most entertaining performances of the year. It’s an engaging and entertaining use of two hours and it’s extremely difficult to be bored while watching. There’s just so much energy there. Check out Knives Out! And while you’re at it, maybe bring the family too.

Lastly, Hannah Baker hits a juul five minutes in.

Score: 4.5/5


Knives Out Quick Facts
Written and directed by Rian Johnson
Starring Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, and Christopher Plummer
Released November 27, 2019
130 minutes