Knives Out was written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Katherine Langford, and Michael Shannon.
Johnson is recently coming off of directing Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) which was split between audience and critics. He then went back to the drawing board after receiving heavy criticism and was able to write the plot for this film. Johnson brought together a talented group of actors for the cast and was able to create a fun murder mystery with twists and turns along the way.
The film follows the murder of Harlan Thrombey, played by Christopher Plummer, who owns a big fortune and just recently celebrated his 85th birthday. Benoit Blanc, a detective played by Daniel Craig, expects foul play in the death that was ruled a suicide and everyone in the family and those connected with them are suspects.
Johnson's script is solid with good comedic timing. The pacing of the movie is a little slow as it can drag at some points, but at others it is really entertaining and a good watch. The score also fits really well for the murder mystery as it helps create seamless transitions from scene to scene.
The cast is really what shines as Johnson does a good job of giving everyone enough screen time to make a presence. That being said, Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, and Chris Evans have some of the best lines in the film.
Also something else that needs to be pointed out is that this movie was beautifully shot. From the close ups to the wide shots, Johnson and director of photography Steve Yedlin do excellent work with the environment and sets they had at their disposal.
A few people going into this may be worried because of how The Last Jedi turned out, and I can tell you those worries are not valid in my opinion. This movie has Rian Johnson's footprint in it, but it is a totally different film than Last Jedi. I think the big differences are that the comedy and plot work much better in this film. Yes there are problems like pacing and the ending, as no film is perfect, but I think the good outweighs the bad in this situation.The techniques and shots as stated earlier are done very well because that is what Johnson and Yedlin are good at doing. I also think that Johnson excelled in other areas like the writing of the characters and story development where in Last Jedi he struggled. When watching this film, put judgments and preconceived notions aside and just enjoy a good murder mystery that has enjoyable characters, a solid plot, and is well shot and directed.
Score: 4.0 out of 5