Brandish your sharp objects and ready your weapons as one of the most hotly-anticipated films of the year is here: Rian Johnson's inspired whodunnit, Knives Out, is as sharp as the blades on parade in this starry ensemble effort.
When wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is discovered dead after his 85th birthday celebration, his spoilt family become suspects in his murder when private detective Benoit Blanc is hired to investigate. 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, Knives Out may feature one of the biggest ensemble casts of the year - but are they put to good use?
Rian Johnson's first feature since setting the internet ablaze with Star Wars: The Last Jedi is an excellently-calibrated mixture of crowd-pleasing genre thrills and deeper thematic musings with smart allegorical undercurrents. Both embracing and satirising the conventions served up by the whodunnit narrative, Johnson's screenplay is consistently one step ahead of you with every twist and turn; just when you sense complacency setting in - a lacklustre car chase or a too-clunkily handled "twist" - Johnson's script knows and has already lined-up the punchline. It's important you trust it knows what it's doing: whodunnits are very much made by their conclusions, and so richly sown together, Johnson lands on something genuinely satisfying. Immensely funny and more importantly fun, Knives Out has one of the smartest, most creative screenplays of the year.
Johnson's direction is similarly impeccable. His camerawork is solid with some wonderful flourishes throughout; without wading into spoiler territory too much, there's one fantastic moment where several characters turn against another after a big revelation, with Johnson switching to shakier, handheld camerawork to represent the turmoil and confusion they are experiencing. It's a small touch, but a clever one. Furthermore, playing with the contradictory opinions and perspectives between characters, Johnson highlights the discrepancies of their recounts, repeating certain scenes but framing them differently to illuminate the inconsistencies of their stories; it's really clever work really, and speaks especially highly of Bob Ducsay's top-tier editing.
Aided by the glorious production design enriched by striking lighting and clever framing, Knives Out thrives on every level: unified in its brilliance, it is calculated for maximum thrills, laughs, enjoyment and - surprisingly - emotion. With a foreboding but playful atmosphere so superbly enhanced by Nathan Johnson's score (easily one of the year's best), Knives Out is a fantastic cinema outing. At a time where the value of a cinema visit is being questioned, this whodunnit is greatly benefited by a trip to the cineplex, where the crowd-pleasing surprises are best experienced in a busy audience.
Knives Out's unwaveringly impressive ensemble are having the time of their lives here - and, in turn, so do we. While too many cooks can sometimes spoil a broth, there's not a weak link amongst the starry cast. Daniel Craig, unbelievably hilarious and endlessly watchable as the eccentric detective, armed with a doughnut gag so ludicrously brilliant that you cannot quite believe it worked, delivers a career-high; Ana De Armas has never been better, so instantly likeable and compelling from first frame to last; and Chris Evans proves that he's more than Captain America, with an against-type-turn that inspires some of the biggest laughs. With a cast as ridiculously rich in talent and skill as this, it's difficult not to wish some of the more supporting characters had a little more to do, but Toni Collette and Jamie Lee Curtis, in particular, make the most of what they have, with some of the best line reading and reactions of the year.
Knives Out is a gleeful experience, one as thoroughly entertaining as it is wholly satisfying, with a shining ensemble and a brilliant screenplay sharpening Rian Johnson's excellent modern take on the whodunnit narrative. Frothy fun but narratively substantial with a sharp thematic undercurrent, this is a feature operating at maximum capacity on every level, resulting in pure, unfiltered filmmaking fun. Just when you think you have it sussed, Knives Out swings again and knocks you off your feet. If you're going to take my advice on any film this year, let it be Knives Out.
9/10
Summary: An immensely satisfying, sharp and creative jigsaw puzzle with many thrilling pieces, Knives Out is a fun, old-fashioned studio movie smartly rooted in the politics of today. Piercing in its satire but so wholly entertaining, it's hard to imagine anybody not loving Knives Out.