For Harambe.
Rian Johnson is very good at subverting expectations, and putting a clever spin on a well-known genre, whether it’s Brick (noir), Looper (sci-fi), or Star Wars: The Last Jedi (an exercise in pissing off half the world’s population and pleasing the other half).
With Knives Out, and the murder mystery genre, the results won’t be so divided. This is a cast that has something for everyone, from James Bond doing his best KFC commercial audition to Captain America being an absolute jerk.
Among too many other stars to name, the real stand-out here is Ana de Armas. I’ve been waiting for another film to showcase her strengths since 2017’s masterpiece Blade Runner 2049, and Knives Out is truly her time to shine as an outsider we’re rooting for.
Everyone else, of course, is great, and the beginning of the film is especially awesome as we get introduced to each zany, insanely rich character. The script does the characters justice, giving us some truly hilarious moments and conversations. Every actor in the film feels like they’re having a great time, allowed to really ham it up and have fun with it. This is what elevates Knives Out beyond the occasionally boring tropes we’ve come to expect from a murder mystery – I mean, come on, the stuttering kid from It plays a neo-Nazi in this.
And then we get to Rian Johnson’s clever twist. While successfully throwing the viewer for a loop early in the film, this deflates a lot of tension, and the inherent “whodunnit” fun that’s set up in the film’s first act. And despite all of Knives Out‘s cleverness and subversion, its conclusion is surprisingly conventional, with the expected exposition dump and reveal that comes with the murder mystery genre. Johnson also attempts to include a timely political message in the back half of Knives Out that comes across as overly obvious and forced, and just generally unnecessary.
Still, this is one of the funnier, and more entertaining films to be found in the year. At the end of the day, despite its flaws, Knives Out is something I would absolutely watch again and have just as much fun with.
The Cast: Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, Christopher Plummer, Don Johnson
The Elevator Pitch: “Mo money, mo murder” – The Notorious B.I.G.
The Score: 8.75/10
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