Knives Out (2019)
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Knives Out Movie Review
Knives Out is a 2019 detective mystery film directed by Rian Johnson and starring the ensemble cast that includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Toni Collette among others. It’s such a fun flick.
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“This might be the best thing
that has ever happened to you.
My mother, ladies and gentlemen“
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When a crime novelist dies just after his 85th birthday, an inquisitive detective arrives at his estate to investigate. He soon sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind the writer’s untimely demise. This is very much simultaneously a classic murder mystery and a subversive approach at this old-fashioned genre.
When it comes to the first element, the movie is exceedingly charming, wonderfully old-fashioned in its crime, mystery and detective elements and also benefiting from such an intriguing house setting, meticulous details and traditional elements such as an eccentric detective, a rich, money-hungry family and a will.
But where the film differs significantly is in its political commentary. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie and other famous mystery works, this movie is so much more than just a passable genre entertainment for better and for worse.
On the one hand, I liked those themes and I found them all very timely. But on the other hand, the movie is incredibly on-the-nose and aggressive in its commentary, sometimes even extremely unsubtle. It’s obvious very early on that this is an anti-Trump, anti-immigration policies movie with a strong emphasis on class and ethnic divide as well as political correctness. That made the film very modern, but it’s also its only smaller issue as simply it never, ever was at all subtle in its approach.
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But I did love the fact that the mystery is somewhat solved very early on, that made the film very different and unique. And the eventual twist, though somewhat easy to predict, made sense at the end of the day, and watching the film and realizing on your own what happened and how is what distinguishes this film from many other detective flicks where you never know what the hell is going on.
Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc is an instantly memorable, very funny character. His droll line-delivery and a very funny accent made him very amusing, and once again Craig shows how great he can be in comedic roles. Chris Evans himself is excellent in a more villainous role, and I always found it odd that Hollywood continues to push him in positive roles when he so clearly fits the opposite much better.
Jamie Lee Curtis is very memorable per usual, Michael Shannon is solid as well, Lakeith Stanfield is wasted himself whereas Christopher Plummer is very likable playing this energetic, but wise old man. Toni Collette is very amusing. Of course, the standout is Ana de Armas who plays such an infinitely sweet, wonderful person easy to root for. Though the good and the bad sides are sometimes too much lacking in nuance here, I still loved that she ended up being an emphasis, and stealing the show from all of these other much more famous actors with her powerhouse performance.
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Knives Out is above all else a hilarious comedy in its own right. Many one-liners here are so funny and the film flies by how hugely entertaining it is. The humor is both clever and modern. The direction from Rian Johnson is one of the year’s finest while the script is incredibly well crafted and highly original, constantly engaging and fresh. The dialogue and score are both terrific as are the costumes, attention to detail and production design.
Knives Out is as subtle as an earthquake in its very clearly drawn anti-immigration policies themes, but the movie is one of the most entertaining of the year thanks to great dialogue, truly fantastic humor and a plethora of very memorable characters all so well performed with the standouts being Anna de Armas and Daniel Craig. The costumes, the sets, the score and the attention to detail are all stellar as well. It’s both an endearingly traditional and a refreshingly modern take on the detective mystery genre with plenty of style and fun to offer.
