Film Review - Knives Out (2019)

Knives Out is written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daniel Craig as Private Inspector Benoit Blanc who is hired to investigate the supposed suicide of famous author Harlan Thromby (Christopher Plummer) and his family (Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, Michael Shannon among others) and his nurse (Ana De Armas) are I say I say possible suspects for he suspects fowl play and the game’s afoot boy.

Knives Out is for me a very welcome return to form for Mr Johnson for while his Star Wars film The Last Jedi had its moments it was for me a big mess script wise and increasingly I feel that he should not have directed that film as here he gets to properly do his own thing as a filmmaker and like Looper in 2012 the results are highly enjoyable and I had a great time watching this movie.

And like Looper this movie gets to show what a clever storyteller he can be when left to his own devices and not be handed the one character above all others in modern culture who represents the heroes journey and like any great whodunnit murder mystery you watch for the suspects to come into focus, give their statements and then the detective I say again boy try to solve the case and everyone has a motive boy be it the spoilt brat, the heir to the publishing empire or the adopted daughter cause well I say again the game’s afoot son.

And speaking of Mr Craig he is so much fun to watch here as the quirky investigator who talks like Foghorn Leghorn from the Looney Tunes and I’ve found myself imitating that voice ever since as well as laughing afterwards as this movie is also filled with terrific comedy moments that had me and the audience I saw it with laughing quite a bit, I’m very torn on humour in movies nowadays but this one makes it work very well.

And also to go back to the overall storytelling for a moment this feels like it was written by someone who really understands how these types of stories work, you have your detective, your suspects, possible motives and the situation for the murder and then you turn all of those elements loose and when they work well like it does here your sitting there watching or reading what happens next and you might have your suspicions but you also don’t want to go too far ahead of the game as to ruin the surprises that might come your way and there are plenty to be found in this movie.

As for the rest of the cast well Mr Evans finally gets to cut loose with a less wholesome role and is clearly having a blast swearing his head off in one scene as well as in the rest of the film, Ms Curtis and Ms Langford were pretty good while Mr Johnson and Mr Shannon do what they can with their roles though they don’t have a big amount of screen time while Ms Collette sadly didn’t do a lot for me as the lifestyle guru her voice bothered me like a little bit after a while.

But lastly I have to talk about Ms De Armas in this movie for while she didn’t do much in Blade Runner 2049 she gets a meaty role to work with here and she is very good and shows a lot of promise as an actress going forward, I hope she will also be as good in No Time to Die next year.

And so that was Knives Out and like Edgar Wright I just want Rian Johnson to do his own thing movie wise from now on as his voice and vision are so much him and his own that when someone like that makes a big franchise film that voice can feel muddied a little and our movie going consciousness would be better for it as we get movies like this and Looper that are so good and so well made that you want to recommend them far and wide, 4 out of 5.