Review by Zach Dennis
A sentiment that seems to placate any real conversation around a movie is the statement: “They don’t make them like they used to.”
Generally reserved for those only visiting the multiplex for the latest blockbuster fare, it could also be related to the mid-budget multiplex movies that seem to come and go as Marvel or Disney hits completely dominate the market. So please forgive me when I say that Knives Out falls within a large category of movies we need more of.
Among the onslaught of superhero properties, Knives Out is full of reasons to make the trek to the movie theater: recognizable movie stars (Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans) playing it up, a clever script that never really gives itself away, and a premise that is simple enough to contain itself within one narrative (not feeling a need to expand into a multiverse) with a satisfying conclusion.
This is no outlier for writer/director Rian Johnson, who has made a knack of doing that even before Star Wars: The Last Jedi with The Brothers Bloom and Looper. His latest feels like a breath of fresh air among the shuffle of big-budget blasters and awards-fare dress-ups; a reminder that the moviegoing experience should be communal and also be one that keeps you on your toes with the goal of surprising you.
The death of patriarch and famed mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) brings his entitled – oops, typo – entire family together. Leading the pack is his daughter, Linda (Curtis) and her husband (Don Johnson). But they’re fighting off her younger brother Walt (Michael Shannon), who runs Harlan’s book empire, and Joni (Toni Collette), who was married to their deceased brother but latches onto the family like a tumor.
Various other faces include Ransom (Evans), the child of Linda, and a medley of other off-spring. There for the death are two detectives (LaKeith Stanfield and Noah Segan), and the decorated investigator Benoit Blanc (Craig).
Blanc is not entirely sure why he is there, but he feels like something is stirring within this family dynamic that may lead to the reason Harlan is dead, and not many believe it was a suicide. Stuck in the middle of the chaos is Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan’s caretaker with a habit of unloading her lunch at the hint of a lie.
It’s easy to compare Knives Out to an Agatha Christie novel and be done with it, but Johnson modernizes it enough to not simply be “a statement on 2019” and more of a natural accumulation of current qualities that one would be led to by people of this financial stature.
It also plays into the natural inclination that we, as movie-viewers, have with wanting to solve the mystery. This doesn’t only to a mystery narrative, but the desire to problem-solve through cinematic narrative often drives the most satisfying films, and when done on a large-scale, movies that indulge it can become our most treasured viewings.
Knives Out holds that trait and is yet another reminder of what makes movies of this ilk so fun to watch. It isn’t doing anything particularly new — this could easily have been a product of Lubitsch, Wilder, Hawkes or even Sturges if it were in the early days — but it is a welcome update that affirms how to make a winning piece of entertainment.