Some genres are just inherently fun. At the top of the list is a murder mystery: they revolve around fascinating characters, there’s all sorts of plot twists, and there’s a monologue filled reveal at the end that’s almost always captivating. Rian Johnson, fresh back from a galaxy far far away, is always looking for new ways to tell stories in whatever genre, usually making the movie 10-20% more exciting. Knives Out is Johnson’s take on the murder mystery, which means its totally fun, beginning to end, and also just a tad different, and a tad fresher.
Lt. Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield) arrives at the Thrombey estate. The patriarch of the family, Harlan (Christopher Plummer) has died of an apparent suicide. Elliott is not the only person investigating the crime though: Beniot Blanc (Daniel Craig), the world’s best private investigator, is also summoned to the scene, suspecting foul play. Everyone in the family is a suspect as well as Harlan’s nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), because Harlan died on the night of his birthday party, when every family member was in attendance, and as expected, had a beef to settle with the owner of the family fortune.
And who’s playing members of the Thrombey family? Jamie Lee Curtis. Michael Shannon. Don Johnson. Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Toni Collette, and Cap’n Murica himself, Chris Evans. That’s hilariously overqualified for a murder mystery cast. In the hands of a great writer like Rian Johnson, each character is gonna get moments to shine, and the dialogue is gonna pop. By letting newcomer de Armas play the audience conduit, Johnson frees all these people up to do something special, and boy do most of them! de Armas acquits herself admirably as the story’s focal point, holding her own in scenes across from all these talented actors. But no one’s having more fun and loving it than Daniel Craig. Sporting a Brad Pitt from Snatch like indechiperable American accent, Craig chews scenery and spits out lines with the confidence of James Bond. Craig obviously gets the great revelation monologue you know is coming, but even before that, he’ll pull laughs from you just listening to a song on an iPhone. When Knives Out ends, you’ll be hoping for a chance to say to all your friends “I suspect foul play” thanks to Craig’s delivery.
With all the actors dominating the screen, that frees Rian Johnson to do his thing, and find a murder mystery plot Agatha Christie would have been proud of. Watching films like Brick, or Looper, or The Last Jedi, it’s clear Johnson has affection for these genres of movies, or else he couldn’t have made them so detailed and clever. Johnson clearly loves these types of stories too, as he immediately puts his stamp on the whodunit. Johnson smartly works within the formula, delivering the necessary beats (the reveal monologue, red herrings) for the genre fans. Without revealing anything, the biggest change he makes is diverging from the natural order of events in these stories. This divergence gives the secrets and machinations unexpected emotions in the story, and gives Knives Out a forward momentum it never loses. So when Daniel Craig is delivering his hypothesis, we’re not only laughing, we’re emotionally invested in what he has to say.
Someone recently told me “I only wanna watch movies for entertainment.” Knives Out is pure, unfiltered, entertainment, through and through. Let the Star Wars diehards run Johnson out of town. There’s plenty of other genres of movies he can make and actually get the fans to like the movie he made for them.