{"id":19599,"date":"2019-11-26T15:24:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T23:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=19599"},"modified":"2019-11-26T15:24:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T23:24:15","slug":"knives-out-is-a-cutting-and-sharply-written-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=19599","title":{"rendered":"KNIVES OUT is a Cutting and Sharply Written Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/24_0009_B-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14439\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we all know, murder-mystery films have been something of a staple since the beginnings of cinema. And often, it can be difficult to get all that excited about another one making the rounds. Yet while whodunits are nothing new, <em>Knives Out<\/em> manages to spin these familiar tropes in entertaining new ways and uses crafty dialogue and an exemplary cast to really amuse and charm viewers. It\u2019s a heck of a lot of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Knives-Out-Plummer-birthday-1024x550.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19601\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story revolves around the members of a wealthy and\neccentric American family headed by crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher\nPlummer). When a tragedy occurs in the household, a trio of men are sent to\ninvestigate, including a pair of police detectives (Lakeith Stanfield and Noah\nSegan) and an odd private detective with a southern drawl named Benoit Blanc\n(Daniel Craig). Blanc admits soon after his arrival that he doesn\u2019t even know\nwho has hired him, but together, the group conduct interviews with Harlan\u2019s\nnurse Marta (Ana de Armas), and &nbsp;various members\nof the family (including Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Don\nJohnson and Toni Collette), trying to get to the bottom of what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s difficult to discuss the details of the feature without\ngiving too much away, so I\u2019ll try to keep things general. All of the suspects\nhave something to gain financially from the death and there are a great many\ncomplications that arise when the film cuts between characters being\ninterviewed, as they often give hazy or differing accounts while being asked\nthe identical question. The film comes out of the gates racing and provides\nplenty of chuckles with the defensive, suspicious and ultimately greedy behavior\non display. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Knives-Out-Family-Outside-House-1024x624.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19602\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The screenplay by director Rian Johnson (<em>Brick<\/em>, <em>Looper<\/em>) does a great job of both paying homage to familiar murder mystery concepts and poking fun at them. Many family members are at odds for one reason or another, leading to plenty of biting verbal jabs as the group bickers. Even the investigators are not immune to some snarky barbs from this wealthy and affluent family. The characters have some entertaining ticks as well, including the nurse\u2019s propensity for feeling nauseous whenever she has to lie. And private detective Blanc\u2019s accent is pretty outrageous, but actor Craig manages to somehow play it just right and avoid straight out parody. Instead, his mannerisms add a layer to the role as viewers try to get a handle on whether he truly is clever or if it\u2019s just an act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Knives-Out-Daniel-Craig-cops-evans-arnas-1024x549.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19603\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This movie also benefits from spinning some old ideas in different\ndirections (including an unusual take on a chase). And while the feature is a\nsprightly, energetic and amusing mystery on its own, it earns extra points by\ntaking on some of the conservative views of this aristocratic clan and their\nhypocritical behavior (as well as by proxy, anyone who supports the far right).\nIt might ruffle the feathers of a few sensitive viewers, but there is some\nsharp and biting commentary beneath the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Truthfully, perhaps the only minor criticism this reviewer\ncan raise about the picture is that for all of the red herrings, the final\nexplanation and reveal isn\u2019t quite as complicated as anticipated. Of course,\nthis may have more to do with having seen more murder-mysteries in a lifetime\nthan I can remember and already knowing all of the tricks of the trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Knives-Out-Daniel-Craig-sitting-1024x548.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19604\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, one can\u2019t deny that this picture works better than\nmost and will provide whodunit fans with a great night of entertainment. Thanks\nto the great cast and cutting, sharply written screenplay with more on its mind\nthan simply murder, <em>Knives Out<\/em> is a hoot that should keep audiences\nenraptured for the entirety of its running time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we all know, murder-mystery films have been something of a staple since the beginnings of cinema. And often, it can be difficult to get all that excited about another one making the rounds. Yet while whodunits are nothing new, Knives Out manages to spin these familiar tropes in entertaining new ways and uses crafty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,1329,4301,4383,4660,5133,6063,10275,11854,11855,11856,11858,12044,13832,14399,14523,16609,23076],"class_list":["post-19599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-ana-de-armas","tag-chris-evans","tag-christopher-plummer","tag-comedy","tag-daniel-craig","tag-don-johnson","tag-jamie-lee-curtis","tag-knives-out","tag-knives-out-film-review","tag-knives-out-movie-review","tag-knives-out-review","tag-lakeith-stanfield","tag-michael-shannon","tag-murder","tag-mystery","tag-rain-johnson","tag-toni-collette"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}