Knives Out

Knives Out is Rian Johnson's original whodunit murder mystery surrounding the Thrombey family. The death of head Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) ropes a private detective named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) into the picture to find any potential foul play out. What unfolds after is a series of riveting investigation and counteractions that lead directly into a satisfying finale!

Said feature has, hands down, one of the best ensemble casts ever pulled off in cinema! Everywhere you turn is an A-lister after an A-lister after an A-lister! Performances adequately fit what the film needs and the way each of these characters are introduced to us organically through the detectives inquiring them is amazing! Speaking of inquiry, Daniel Craig is simply wonderful as Benoit Blanc! His exaggerated accent to quirky piano taps is hard not to admire! Toni Collette's fantastic as well as Ana de Armas and Chris Evans. Christopher Plummer shines in the little moments he's in too.

By far, the best aspect of Knives Out is the writer-director's air-tight screenplay! It moves at a jet-speed pace, constantly instigating curiosity as it goes! You might think the script lets you know too much info on the actual culprit very early on, but trust Rian Johnson to bring you to the finale and wrapping it up in a way only he could have! The fact that he chooses to tell us that Marta (Ana de Armas) is the accidental murderer, is in itself a red herring! We care so much about this sweet little girl that we do not want her to get caught. Whenever clues leading to her arrest arise, we feel the immense tense! Wrong morphine dosage scene is incredibly arresting! Events happened on that night is narrated beautifully with superb voiceover response. The tension builds even higher as Harlan gives Marta his entire will and an unknown blackmailer arrives in the shadows! While it may seem hardwired / forced that Marta ends up teaming up with Ransom (Chris Evans) out of nowhere so that the desired climax could happen, it isn't too bad as per the narrative. And the actual revelation of what exactly transpired could have been visually told in a better way rather than just Benoit spelling it out for us from start to finish, including the obvious plot points.

Humor works for the most parts, with Marta's puke-if-lie ability used really well for comedy and crucial storytelling. While Benoit's donut monologue, Ransom's play knife stabbing and Nana's (K Callan) sudden appearance at the window are hilarious, family quarrel prior to the will reading and 'CSI KFC' aren't funny at all. Knives Out almost feels like it's taking place in a universe of its own, as how original films based on no real events should be. The vintage colour, typography, score, setting and classic camerawork suitably set the tone and mood; landing right in the middle of thriller and comedy. If Johnson had only avoided using real world terminology / references such as Netflix, SJW, Insta, Google, Baby Driver, the end product wouldn't have break immersion every so often. But who knows if it's intentionally done, as the movie's title itself seems like a spoof of the 2016 horror film Lights Out.