Knives Out

Knives Out offers cool stylization and a great ensemble cast, but the final unravelling of the mystery didn’t do much for me. On the one hand, its elements were predictable based on earlier events and, on the other hand, an important character was suspiciously sidelined. Even so, I very much enjoyed the time spent in that company and with such skilful filmmaking. I found it more entertaining than Branagh’s new (overly digitalised) Poirot. (22/01/2020)

I could rate this film with four stars and say it’s a very entertaining, witty and funny detective movie. But Rian Johnson not only directed his film, but also wrote its script. And he wrote it as a homage to Agatha Christie, who conceived her detective stories in a similar spirit. Form the beginning, you have to pay close attention to what is going on in the film. Even the tiniest detail might be of importance in the investigation. If I said anything more, it might be a spoiler, so I’ll just say that if you like Hercule Poirot and his investigations, try to watch this with as little knowledge of the plot as possible, and look forward to Daniel Craig’s performance. Even though everyone’s performances are perfect, listening to Daniel’s ingeniously eccentric English was just divine. I enjoyed this greatly, that’s why I’m giving this five stars. Knives Out are a detective story you don’t get to see today, offering an original plot hardly anyone would write these days (except for book-based films). For me, it was an absolute film orgy. (10/01/2020)

I've always liked Rian Johnson and I like how inventive his films are, and I think the best word to describe Knives Out is ‘cunning’. Johnson manages to lull the audience initially by making the film look more or less like a classic whodunit, with several suspects and a killer hiding among them. But after about twenty minutes, Johnson starts playing with genres, procedures, story and overall directorial delivery. He makes several drastic style changes, manages to poke fun at the audience, the clichés and his own characters, and is one step ahead of everyone in the room the entire time, for just when you think you've got Knives Out figured out, you find that Johnson has once again outsmarted you. And you're going to love it. By the way, I haven't seen a movie in a long time where it's so terribly obvious in all the actors how much they are enjoying their work and characters. (07/01/2020)

A loving pastiche tribute to classic ensemble detective stories displaying contempt for film genre stereotypes and a good old detective story with everything you would expect. The movie really wants to represent all of that. And it surely does. Unfortunately, not in such a way that the individual approaches would complement each other. So each scene has a different approach. In some cases, scenes are conflict with each other. As a result, the individual approaches pull the rug from under each other´s feet and there is a problem with that. The last nails in the coffin are the film's extremely long running time and the really poor acting in the second half . Nevertheless, Blanc's excessive and absurd character has potential, and no matter how unjustified the running time is, you won't be bored. (21/09/2020)

I can't be enthusiastic about it, but for me it's absolutely similar to Murder on the Orient Express. The cast is perfect no doubt about it, Daniel Craig as the detective is decent and Ana de Armas is as always adorable, but it didn't draw me in at all. It's not funny and certainly not entertaining, nothing much actually happens for the two hours, until the final minute twist that saves the whole film to at least average, but by then I was looking forward to getting out of the cinema. Disappointment of the year and Rian Johnson has definitely confirmed that he will never make a film that I will like. 5/10 (19/12/2019)

It's a beautiful film. An imaginative case with a good bunch of interesting characters, some of them played by great actors. Needless to say, even those who were less known or completely unknown to me fit in with them easily. The whole thing is orchestrated by Daniel Craig, who leaves Bond behind completely and kicks things off as a very charismatic detective. The kind with real insight that you trust will crack the case in the end, but you still have to watch him do it. For me, it's basically a perfect show. 5 stars. (11/04/2020)

I have mentioned several times that I am not really fond of classic detective stories that revolve around a sophisticated criminal and an even smarter detective who doesn't need a team of colleagues, and for whom uncovering the culprit is primarily an intellectual feat. As the years go by, my aversion to the world of better people where these stories usually take place only intensifies. Such detective stories represent a stylized spectacle with stereotypical characters, typical settings, and beloved props, and in my opinion, it is too artificial and bourgeois. Therefore, I accepted my daughter's invitation to the movie theater with certain hesitation and assumed that it would be somewhat uninspiring. However, it was a pleasant surprise. Director Johnson, who is also behind the screenplay, does indeed like detective stories, but he is not afraid to play with the rules and turn the genre into a bit of a parody. Light exaggeration is omnipresent, and the cast members clearly enjoy their roles and add a dose of ironic detachment to their performances without turning the film into a blatant parody. The result should satisfy not only fans of the genre but also those who find the classic formula of detective stories somewhat cliché. The choice of Daniel Craig for the role of detective is daring because he would be more suitable for the tough American school or the opposite side of the law, but it works. In addition, the members of the wealthy family are charming in their animosity and shortcomings. Overall impression: 75%. (02/12/2020)

A spectacular modern crime movie that bends the rules of the genre. Johnson is the narrator, so it’s hard for the audience to get lost. The tension could be cut with a knife almost throughout the movie. An incredible acting recital. Craig’s investigator removes all memory of Bond and Ana de Armas carries the heart of the entire story on her shoulders. This movie is like a donut with a hole in which there is another donut…with a hole…with a great climax inside. (07/02/2020)

At times unobtrusively and sophisticatedly funny and cynical, at times thoroughly convoluted and superbly acted. Perhaps only Daniel Craig was irritating with his crazy accent. Apparently they exploit everything that could be exploited from a murder in an opulent mansion. I reckon most of the 40 million-dollar budget went to the cast, because the visuals were very economical, sometimes too much (the car chase). A good one off, but no deal-breaker. (06/04/2020)

The trailer promised an old-school whodunit, and that's what the film is. I was very entertained until about halfway through, liking how completely but utterly everyone was lying and how Daniel Craig's character (who took me a while to get used to, at the time) accepted all the lies with a knowing smile. But somewhere in the second half it all started to get a bit scratchy, I suddenly felt like I was ahead of the investigators when I shouldn't have been, a feeling that was gradually confirmed and confirmed... until it was confirmed. I don't mind too much if the ending of a mystery doesn't shock me or at least surprise me, but I don't like it when it doesn't satisfy me at all and leaves me completely cold because it gives a terribly twisted impression. In a story by Agatha Christie or A. C. Doyle, on whose legacy Knives Out is based, this would never have happened. (08/01/2020)

Fantastic piece of work. Together with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman, this is the only film of the year where the very process of dosing the information and the flashy revealing of the plot was such a joy. And this is not something to watch only once because its charm fades after you know the outcome; I’ve watched it twice already and the second time I enjoyed even more the concept as a whole, the genre references and the jokes, which often come from perfect editing and the clever alternation between the concealed and the contrasting perspectives of the characters being interrogated. Moreover, the dominant narrative element is not the curiosity over the identity of the murderer (ignore these parentheses due to spoilers: which is highlighted by the fact that in the end, nobody committed that murder), but the entertaining way it guides the attention through flashbacks, ironically tuned relationships and the reveal of the backdrop instead of the perpetrator. And also, thanks to the brilliant actors and the smart dialogues, I believe I will have just as much fun in further viewings, or with the likely sequel. 90% (17/02/2020)

Rian Johnson brings a very entertaining and playful homage to the "whodunnit" style of detective thrillers to the table, and with his effective directing skills and cleverly written screenplay, he won over me. The actors are not only cast here as a commercial enticement to spice up a premise that has been seen many times, but they really fit the movie perfectly and embody their characters, thus placing a humorous collection of curiosities into an originally written scheme. Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas, wow. And a Knives Out sequel? Yeah! (11/01/2020)

As a die-hard fan of Agatha Christie's classic whodunits, I was really looking forward to this star-studded genre experiment, and after watching it, I can say that Knives Out is definitely not lost in today's glut of films. Rian Johnson playfully flirts with audience expectations and the rules of the traditional detective novel, and he succeeds really well. On one side, there's a geeky weird pretending to be both omniscient and out of place, and a protagonist with a gag reflex against lying. Against them there’s a bunch of mostly lying family members hungry for an inheritance. And laughing at it all from afar is a freshly deceased and avid go player. The briskly and cleverly written story plays with the viewer for almost the entire running time, so that the two hours pass in a cinema in a flash. Definitely one of the most entertaining films in its genre. (09/01/2020)

"Just look around. This guy literally lives on the Clue board." The dead guy is a wealthy author of successful mystery novels, one of the suspects is so old that no one knows how old she actually is, another one throws up whenever she lies. The rest are a bunch of poor, rich parasites, with no one seemingly having a motive for murder, so translated, everyone. And it's all investigated by a famous detective on the verge of incompetence, whose investigative methods lack perhaps only the method of strenuous squats. Once every five years, I'm regularly delighted to discover that the author of the perfect Looper and especially my beloved Brick is still alive and kickin', without being pigeonholed by Hollywood conventions, despite the fact that he probably had to be kept in chains by studio reps while filming the tired spinoff The Last Jedi. While it's a shame that his typical camera and editing gimmicks are lacking here, and the heroine is basically just the kind of innocent walking pair of eyes you wouldn't otherwise notice at a party of people like Craig, Curtis, Shannon, or Collette, let us be satisfied with the insanely unhinged script with Inspector Trachta at the helm. I'd rank Christopher Plummer's office here, alongside the shag-sub from The Spy Who Loved Me, as one of the coziest spaces I've seen in a film. (07/04/2020)

I originally wanted to rate the film four stars but, recalling the individual scenes to write my review, I realized that I was still chuckling to myself, so I had to give five. The cast was excellent, the dialogue was crafted to perfection, the plot was so incredibly intricate that I didn't know what to expect until the end, and it was great fun. (02/03/2020)

Rian Johnson has created quite an engaging piece of work in terms of the script, the first and last third of which follows the standard whodunit formula. The middle part then transforms, somewhat unexpectedly, into a bourgeois struggle for inheritance, which results in a drastic slowing of the entire narrative. I've long wondered if this is a major flaw or if Johnson in fact brings an imaginative upgrade to the concept of the standard murder mystery with this genre charade. Since I've come to appreciate the "middle class" much more after a second viewing, I consider Knives Out one of the most imaginative murder mysteries of recent years. Plus, the strong moral (perhaps even touching) credit of Craig's character is believable and is pretty damn necessary these days. (24/05/2020)