Knives Out

Knives Out (2019)

97% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 333 reviews)

Runtime: 130 minutes

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Starring: A tremendous cast, although who was the standout surprised me

From: Lionsgate

I saw this Sunday afternoon and thankfully this screening came off w/ no complications... just barely: 

This movie did in fact... subvert my expectations.

I suspect I'll discuss this further after I view Episode IX but as of late I have made allusions to The Last Jedi and how it seems like every time I think about it, my opinion of the film drops; if I viewed it tomorrow, I have a feeling my rating would be one that is below average... maybe much below so. This was why I was apprehensive about viewing Knives Out, even with the great cast. As mentioned the previous weekend, I tried to see this before, but the AMC I went to had a power outage. I did go back to that place to see it yesterday, as the power going out couldn't possibly happen two weekends in a row... right?

I will not reveal much about its plot as (at least for me) the story went in directions I was not expecting, and was for certain not revealed by the trailers. Filthy rich author Christopher Plummer passes away and his entire family is incredibly greedy... it don't matter if someone is liberal or “an alt-right troll”, avarice is a trait that they all share. Thus, everyone is a suspect when master sleuth Benoit Blanc-what a name Daniel Craig is given-believes that what looks like a suicide was actually a murder.

I'll be honest here, at times I wasn't sure about the movie while watching it and not all of the humor works; something involving “regurgitation” I was not a fan of... even if this was a send-up of the genre and I can't say that mysteries can't have the piss taken out of them as they can be on the preposterous side. Yet I can't say I did not enjoy this as there still were plenty of amusing moments (it just happened that some of them which made me laugh the most did not do much for the crowd at large), this was well-made w/ a nice score & camerawork, and by the end I realized what the story actually was and overall it was quite enjoyable. It went in unexpected directions without having way too much humor or the story itself making zero logical sense, which is what I'll always first think of when The Last Jedi comes to mind.

I cannot carp about anyone in the cast, no matter how much time they did or did not have on screen. Craig was undoubtedly memorable in his role due to his over the top accent but I was not expecting the highlight to be Ana de Armas. I only knew her from Blade Runner 2049 and she did a good job here, but in Knives Out (where she plays a caretaker and she is a Hispanic of indeterminate origin) she was a real revelation. If it wasn't for her and her performance, I am pretty confident in saying I would not have enjoyed this or rated it so high.

After the early stylized portion of the end credits, I left and went into the men's room, as I always do; what resulted was quite a coda for the late afternoon screening. While looking for an open spot in there... the power went out. It sounds like I am fibbing but I am stone cold serious here. If this had happened during the movie-”irate” wouldn't even begin to describe my attitude. This time, I know for certain it will be a long while before I return there; instead, I will use my AMC A-List app at Disney Springs. It's a blessing that this only happened once the end credits were rolling and I won't worry about being at that location.