Knives Out (Film Review)
2019 Lionsgate
Written and Directed by: Rian Johnson
Starring: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 130 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10
EDITOR'S NOTE 8/23/22: I talk about Star Wars at the end of this review. A lot of my feelings have changed in that regard since the time this review was written. Specifically, I now see that some of the choices Johnson made in The Last Jedi are more questionable than I thought on first viewings, particularly as pertains to Luke Skywalker, as well as the concerns I brought up in the below review, three long years ago. I hate The Last Jedi now. I also mention below that I don't like the prequels. I love the prequels now, and maybe I even did in 2019, considering the fact that I ponder in the review how many times I've been able to watch them versus The Last Jedi. The prequels aren't great movies, but I love them. Regardless of my about face of opinions, I will leave the below review exactly as I wrote it on December 3, 2019. If anything, this review was the moment my positive thoughts on Rian Johnson and The Last Jedi began to unravel.
On the morning after his 85th birthday party, mystery novelist, Harlan Thrombey, is found dead in the upstairs room of his mansion, throat slit. There's a knife in his hand, and the police are fine to call it suicide. However, someone has anonymously hired the renowned private detective, Benoit Blanc, to investigate the case, and Blanc isn't so sure Harlan wasn't murdered. After all...the mansion on that fateful night was just teeming with possible, motivated suspects: Harlan's family.
2019's Knives Out is writer/director Rian Johnson's attempt to revive the whodunit/murder-mystery genre. While films in this genre certainly aren't expensive to produce, and would seem to turn an easy profit, theater's haven't exactly been inundated with this type of film lately. As Johnson's enveloping, creepy, yet fun old house/sprawling countryside atmosphere rolls across viewers' dopamine-receptors, it's tough to understand why. Our brains are hard-wired to enjoy such thrills, grinding into overdrive in an attempt to solve the mystery before Daniel Craig's super Southern Detective Blanc does. Likewise, Johnson's colorful cast, embodied by a handful of well-known and likable actors, give the brain not just a rogue's gallery of suspects to sort through, but a cornucopia of visual stimuli, Johnson's well-known visual artistry popping in every frame. There's even Johnson's wry sense of humor, an unfathomable bonus accentuating every moment in a honey glaze. But then, there Johnson goes, just when everything feels comfortable, subverting the genre he's playing around with yet again...
I enjoyed most of Knives Out. Johnson was accused of politicizing Star Wars with his entry, The Last Jedi. Whatever the case, Johnson seems to have taken those criticisms to heart, and come out the other side with an "I'll show you political" attitude. Then again, the whodunit isn't nearly the sacred cow that Star Wars is...and speaking of Star Wars:
I'm beginning to notice a pattern in Johnson's films, of which I'm a bit ambivalent: the use of subversion and genre-deconstruction as a storytelling device. I enjoy these devices in the moments they're deployed. I enjoyed Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Knives Out immensely on first viewings. I even enjoyed The Last Jedi to a higher degree on the second viewing. However, I've watched all of the Star Wars films dozens of times. Even the prequels, which I don't even like. Even The Force Awakens, which most consider simply a retread of A New Hope. My third viewing of The Last Jedi, which was punctuated by a nap, as well as several disinterested Twitter checks, was my last. And I wonder...
Does all of this subversion take out the want for or joy of repeated viewings? I loved the way Johnson swept aside the mysteries of The Force Awakens. I loved the shocking twist and subsequent action-scene-fallout of the "Throne Room Scene." However, when you know those twists and subversions are coming, what's left? After all, when characters spend so much time building up to a moment, only for the film to tell the viewer, "Nope, that moment's not going to happen, this other thing is," what came before is rendered worthless on following viewings. If you already know the characters are working to no end, then there's now no reason to see them do so again, and the thrill of the twist after the first couple of viewings is fleeting. I wouldn't mind watching Knives Out again to see if there's anything I missed, but now that I know what happens, I don't know if the visual stylings and enjoyable performances are enough to bring me back...
2019's Knives Out is writer/director Rian Johnson's attempt to revive the whodunit/murder-mystery genre. While films in this genre certainly aren't expensive to produce, and would seem to turn an easy profit, theater's haven't exactly been inundated with this type of film lately. As Johnson's enveloping, creepy, yet fun old house/sprawling countryside atmosphere rolls across viewers' dopamine-receptors, it's tough to understand why. Our brains are hard-wired to enjoy such thrills, grinding into overdrive in an attempt to solve the mystery before Daniel Craig's super Southern Detective Blanc does. Likewise, Johnson's colorful cast, embodied by a handful of well-known and likable actors, give the brain not just a rogue's gallery of suspects to sort through, but a cornucopia of visual stimuli, Johnson's well-known visual artistry popping in every frame. There's even Johnson's wry sense of humor, an unfathomable bonus accentuating every moment in a honey glaze. But then, there Johnson goes, just when everything feels comfortable, subverting the genre he's playing around with yet again...
I enjoyed most of Knives Out. Johnson was accused of politicizing Star Wars with his entry, The Last Jedi. Whatever the case, Johnson seems to have taken those criticisms to heart, and come out the other side with an "I'll show you political" attitude. Then again, the whodunit isn't nearly the sacred cow that Star Wars is...and speaking of Star Wars:
I'm beginning to notice a pattern in Johnson's films, of which I'm a bit ambivalent: the use of subversion and genre-deconstruction as a storytelling device. I enjoy these devices in the moments they're deployed. I enjoyed Brick, Looper, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Knives Out immensely on first viewings. I even enjoyed The Last Jedi to a higher degree on the second viewing. However, I've watched all of the Star Wars films dozens of times. Even the prequels, which I don't even like. Even The Force Awakens, which most consider simply a retread of A New Hope. My third viewing of The Last Jedi, which was punctuated by a nap, as well as several disinterested Twitter checks, was my last. And I wonder...
Does all of this subversion take out the want for or joy of repeated viewings? I loved the way Johnson swept aside the mysteries of The Force Awakens. I loved the shocking twist and subsequent action-scene-fallout of the "Throne Room Scene." However, when you know those twists and subversions are coming, what's left? After all, when characters spend so much time building up to a moment, only for the film to tell the viewer, "Nope, that moment's not going to happen, this other thing is," what came before is rendered worthless on following viewings. If you already know the characters are working to no end, then there's now no reason to see them do so again, and the thrill of the twist after the first couple of viewings is fleeting. I wouldn't mind watching Knives Out again to see if there's anything I missed, but now that I know what happens, I don't know if the visual stylings and enjoyable performances are enough to bring me back...
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