With my sixth pick in the Shelter in Place Alphabet Movie Draft, I will make use of the letter
K to select:
Knives Out (2019):
Director: Rian Johnson
Dir. of Photography: Steve Yedlin
Writer(s): Rian Johnson
Score: Nathan Johnson
Cast: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Toni Colette, Don Johnson
Genre(s): Mystery, crime, comedy
Runtime: 2 hours, 10 minutes
IMDb Entry:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8946378/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
I agonized over which of two films to select for the letter
k. Oddly enough, both of my options were tightly-plotted, twisty, witty whodunnits by strong writer-directors that crackle with intensity and hilarity in equal measure. Ultimately, I allowed recency bias to aid me in the selection of a film that represented my favorite moviegoing experience of last year.
Rian Johnson's
Knives Out is an anachronism of a sort. Traditional "murder mysteries" aren't exactly in fashion in Hollywood these days. But then again,
Knives Out isn't really a traditional murder mystery, though it certainly resembles one. There is a large, distinct mansion. There is a sympathetic victim. There is a conventional murder weapon. There is an enigmatic detective. Johnson is an admitted fan of the works of Agatha Christie, and novels like
Murder on the Orient Express were clearly a huge influence on the plotting of this film. But at every stage of the mystery's unfolding in
Knives Out, an element that at first appears to fit neatly within the confines of a traditional murder mystery is flipped on its head to reveal an utterly subverted trope. This is one of Rian Johnson's gifts as a writer and director. He is a movie magician who keeps the viewer so intently focused on what the left hand is doing that they fail to witness what has occurred with the right.
Knives Out is a bit difficult to discuss because of how engagingly knotted its story actually is. Unfortunately, to dwell on "what it's about" is to venture directly into spoiler territory, and I would rather not f*** up the fun for future first-time viewers. It's not usually my prerogative to fret about such things. Honestly, I am a moviegoer who gravitates toward film experiences that are not overly concerned with plot. I am generally impervious to spoilers myself, because my interests as a lover of film are usually more geared towards form, and towards tone and texture, than towards plot. I suppose that has something to do with my predilections as a writer. Most scripts aren't terribly original or engaging, in my opinion. Nor are most plot "twists." And most of the conditions that result in bland scripts and tortured twists are just the difficult realities of shepherding forward projects in Hollywood that don't conform to the major studios' understanding of what is likely to earn a profit. But with
Knives Out, Rian Johnson managed to craft a vibrant and original script that smuggles a biting and relevant social commentary into a classically-oriented genre tradition.
Elsewhere, the cast of
Knives Out, as with
Heat and
Glengarry Glen Ross, is just a murderer's row of talent. I mean, Jesus, look at that cast list! It's a firecracker of an ensemble, invested in the stakes of the film and wildly magnetic. Among them is Ana de Armas, who is wonderful and disarming as an in-home nurse caught up in the curdled squabbling of the wealthy family whom she is employed by. Another highlight is Chris Evans, who sheds his persona as the lily white Captain America, trading in the indestructible shield and All-American goodness for a cable knit sweater and an entitled, smarmy attitude. It's an absolute joy to witness Evans operating at Peak A**hole™.
Then there's Daniel Craig's performance as Benoit Blanc, a private detective styled after Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. Craig is incredibly effective in the role, lurking around the edges of the film's central mystery with confident, leisurely purpose. He also makes the extraordinarily strange acting choice of adopting a jowly Southern-fried accent, to which I initially cocked my head and raised an eyebrow. But then Blanc's measured Foghorn Leghorn drawl started to grow on me. Then it began to wedge itself into my brain. Now I find myself regularly reciting Blanc's doughnut hole speech in as close an approximation to his accent as possible (NOTE: For first-time viewers, this scene spoils nothing of the plot, but is best appreciated within the context of the film):
That Rian Johnson walked out on this particular ledge with Craig, trusting him enough to develop the character's eccentricities, is a testament to Johnson's strengths as a director. He has a writerly sensibility that is steeped in metaphor, in contrast, in rattling audience expectation. He's also unafraid of setting aside what his pen has dictated to accommodate the innovations of the actors who occupy the roles that he has written. Johnson specifically wrote Benoit Blanc for Daniel Craig, but I don't think even he dared to imagine how Craig would approach the role. God bless them both.
Beyond the performances of his cast, Johnson proves once again that he is a consummate visual stylist. He famously directed three episodes of the television show
Breaking Bad: "The Fly," "Fifty-One," and "Ozymandias." These were three of the best episodes in the series, due in no small part to Johnson's visual flair, and the metaphorical weight that he assigns to the images in his work. This was true of his venture into the Star Wars universe, as well, which was a remarkable aesthetic feat considering the obligations and expectations associated with that franchise. And it's certainly true of
Knives Out, as well, which is a beautiful film on top of being so well-written. Working with DoP and frequent collaborator Steve Yedlin,
Knives Out represents a stylish but unshowy kind of cinematography. The camera moves with great interest, stalking across the faces of its characters as if to interrogate them, and roving through the mansion that serves as the murder scene. That house is itself an outsized character in a cast filled with outsized characters. What a location to shoot at!
Knives Out cost $40 million to make, and earned just shy of $310 million at the global box office. It functions as proof that audiences are starved for modestly-budgeted non-franchise films for
adults. There
is a market for films like these. Studios needn't invest every last dollar into capes and cowls and lightsabers and blasters. Rian Johnson himself has waded into that territory, but I cannot tell you how refreshing it was to see one of my favorite directors return to an original project. I can't recommend this movie enough. For the uninitiated, it will be streaming on Amazon Prime on June 12th.
