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Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery comedy film written, produced, and directed by Rian Johnson. Described as a modern take on the whodunit, the film follows a family gathering gone awry, after the family patriarch's death leads a master detective to investigate.
Plot
' Knives Out ' is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, the second single released from their fifth album, Amnesiac (2001). It features lyrics about cannibalism and guitars influenced by the Smiths. It reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. Knives Out is the Windows version of this popular shooter inspired by the great Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. You know the drill: up to 100 players can battle it out on an enormous island full of weapons and vehicles. And only one can make it out alive. The gameplay in Knives Out is very similar to other titles from the genre.
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.
Why It Rocks
- It subverts clichés in the mystery genre to deliver an original whodunit storyline with a perfectly convoluted narrative inspired by Agatha Christie novels.
- It perfectly blends comedy and suspense together, causing it to be delightfully entertaining as it is.
- The performances of the ensemble are well-done, especially from actors like Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, and Ana De Armas.
- Daniel Craig manages to pull off a thick Southern accent.
- Rian Johnson perfectly directs the movie, even after Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
- The set designs are rather beautiful, especially considering the story mostly takes place in a crime novelist's house.
- Flattering cinematography, that resembles a 1960 polaroid snapshot, causing everything to look gorgeous.
- The dialogue is well-written and very funny. First, they're polite, then, they're testy, then tarty, and then energetic. It's not fast talk but mood swingy.
- All of the plot twists are well pulled off for a thriller.
- It's soundtrack by Nathan Johnson is great.
Bad Qualities
- Marta “vomiting when lying” could gross some viewers out and doesn't have any sense, because 'vomiting when lying' isn't something real.
- It seems really unlikable from Harlan's part that he wanted to leave Megan and Joni penniless because Megan didn't do anything bad towards him and Joni was the one abusing Harlan's kindness, so her daughter should not be punished for her actions. That said, Harlan may have had his own reasons to not leave anything for Megan on his will or that Megan isn't as good she seems to be, but that's pure speculation.
- The slipcover of the Blu-ray version of the film spoils to you that Ransom is the culprit by having the knive display pointing at him, essentially ruining the mystery.
Reception
Knives Out received universal acclaim by critics and audiences, particularly for its screenplay, Nathan Johnson's score, direction, and acting and has been considered one of the best murder mystery movies in a long time. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 326 reviews, with an average rating of 8.34/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: 'Knives Out sharpens old murder-mystery tropes with a keenly assembled suspense outing that makes brilliant use of writer-director Rian Johnson's stellar ensemble.' Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 82 out of 100, based on reviews from 49 critics, indicating 'universal acclaim'. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of 'A–' on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 4.5 out of 5 stars, with 67% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Videos
External Links
- Knives Out at the Internet Movie Database
- Knives Out on Rotten Tomatoes
Comments
Mudkipmaster69
EijiZeBoi
RIan johnSON's MoViEs aRE sHit beCaUSE Of ThE laSt JEDi!!!
Me: Bruh, have you seen his other films, such as Knives Out and Looper?Stephenfisher2001
EijiZeBoi
Yes.
Plus, Rian Johnson isn't that bad of a director. His films are great.Stephenfisher2001
EijiZeBoi
Knives Out 2
Knives Out Trailer
Stephenfisher2001
The Dog
The Dog
Funny
Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is a wildly successful mystery writer and he’s dead. His housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson) finds him with a slit throat and the knife still in his hand. It looks like suicide, but there are some questions. After all, who really slits their own throat? A couple of cops (the wonderful pair of LaKeith Stanfield and Noah Segan) come to the Thrombey estate do a small investigation, just to make sure they’re not missing anything, and the film opens with their conversations with each of the Thrombey family members. Daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a successful businesswoman with a shit husband named Richard (Don Johnson) and an awful son named Ransom (Chris Evans). Son Walt (Michael Shannon) runs the publishing side, but he’s been fighting a lot with dear old dad. Daughter-in-law Joni (Toni Collette) is deep into self-help but has been helping herself by ripping off the old man. Finally, there’s Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), the real heroine of “Knives Out” and Harlan’s most trusted confidante. Can she help solve the case?
The case may have just been closed if not for the arrival of the famous detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, who spins a southern drawl and oversized ego into something instantly memorable. Blanc was delivered a news story about the suicide and envelope of money. So someone thinks this is fishy. Why? And who? The question of who brought in Blanc drives the narrative as much as who killed Harlan. Johnson is constantly presenting viewers with the familiar, especially fans of the mystery movie—the single palatial setting, the family of monsters, the exaggerated detective—but then he subverts them every so slightly, and it feels fresh. So while Blanc feels like a Poirot riff, Johnson and Craig avoid turning it into a caricature of something we’ve seen before.
Craig is delightful—I love the excitement in his voice when he figures things out late in the film—but some of the cast gets lost. It’s inevitable with one this big, but if you’re going to “Knives Out” for a specific actor or actress, be aware that it’s a large ensemble piece and your fave may get short shrift. Unless your favorite is Ana de Armas, who is really the heart of the movie, allowing Johnson to imbue “Knives Out” with some wonderful political commentary. The Thrombeys claim to love Marta, even if they can’t remember which South American country she comes from, and Don Johnson gets a few razor sharp scenes as the kind of guy who rants about immigration before quoting “Hamilton.” It’s not embedded in the entire piece as much as “Get Out,” but this “Out” is similar in the way it uses genre structure to say something about wealth and social inequality. And in terms of performance, the often-promising de Armas has never been handed a role this big, and she totally delivers.