Knives Out (12A.)
Directed by Rian Johnson.
Starring Ana De Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson and Christopher Plummer. Available on digital download and blu-ray, DVD and 4kUHD from 30th March. 130 mins
After making this century's most toxic and divisive film, The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson has decided to step back from fevered socio-political faultline that is the saga of the house of Organa/Skywalker and just do a nice old Agatha Christie-style whodunnit with a creepy old family in a creepy old country house. What harm can he do with that? Well, quite a bit. It's supremely entertaining but his jolly country house of red herrings and fake alibis is the vehicle for his treatise on the decline of white western civilisation.
Last Jedi was divisive because what people like me saw as a larky desire to put a new spin on a stale formula was viewed by a large section of the fanbase as a travesty of the Star Wars mythology. The toxicity came largely from its treatment of Luke Skywalker, a great white male hero turned into a grumpy recluse, being seen by a subsection as part of an aggressive PC manifesto. In certain darker corners of the Utube, Subverting Expectations is now a term of derision. But in a murder mystery, Subverting Expectations is exactly what is required: nobody wants to find out the butler did it. (Or maybe they do? Wouldn't that be the perfect subverting of expectations?)
I'm not a connoisseur of the whodunnit but it seemed to me that this investigation into the seeming suicide of best selling thriller writer Plummer, spins a number of novel twists and surprises. Probably foremost among these is revealing who done it less than halfway through the movie. (Or does it?)
Our Poirot for this occasion is southern gentleman Benoit Blanc. Or is he? Daniel Craig's uneven accent is a many shaded red herring, a double bluff of a double bluff, meaning the notion of him being revealed as an imposter is ever-present. This great private detective also has a massive blind spot; he refuses to believe anything bad about Marta the South American maid (De Armas) even though she's an obvious suspect.
The film's consistently funny and completely engaging and though Johnson wants to give it contemporary relevance and address the culture war between the extremes of left and right, it really delivers as a piece of entertainment and is just as much fun second time around. It is shot in a wintry style that seems very 70s, like Harold and Maude could've been set in a place just around the corner. It is also kind of smug and self-satisfied: a bunch of rich white people getting well paid to tell us how ghastly rich white people are; other than them.
Extras
Commentary with Rian Johnson, director of photography Steve Yedlin and actor Noah Segan.
Deleted scenes
A Featurette on how Rian johnson wrote the script.
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Directed by Rian Johnson.
Starring Ana De Armas, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson and Christopher Plummer. Available on digital download and blu-ray, DVD and 4kUHD from 30th March. 130 mins
After making this century's most toxic and divisive film, The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson has decided to step back from fevered socio-political faultline that is the saga of the house of Organa/Skywalker and just do a nice old Agatha Christie-style whodunnit with a creepy old family in a creepy old country house. What harm can he do with that? Well, quite a bit. It's supremely entertaining but his jolly country house of red herrings and fake alibis is the vehicle for his treatise on the decline of white western civilisation.
Last Jedi was divisive because what people like me saw as a larky desire to put a new spin on a stale formula was viewed by a large section of the fanbase as a travesty of the Star Wars mythology. The toxicity came largely from its treatment of Luke Skywalker, a great white male hero turned into a grumpy recluse, being seen by a subsection as part of an aggressive PC manifesto. In certain darker corners of the Utube, Subverting Expectations is now a term of derision. But in a murder mystery, Subverting Expectations is exactly what is required: nobody wants to find out the butler did it. (Or maybe they do? Wouldn't that be the perfect subverting of expectations?)
I'm not a connoisseur of the whodunnit but it seemed to me that this investigation into the seeming suicide of best selling thriller writer Plummer, spins a number of novel twists and surprises. Probably foremost among these is revealing who done it less than halfway through the movie. (Or does it?)
Our Poirot for this occasion is southern gentleman Benoit Blanc. Or is he? Daniel Craig's uneven accent is a many shaded red herring, a double bluff of a double bluff, meaning the notion of him being revealed as an imposter is ever-present. This great private detective also has a massive blind spot; he refuses to believe anything bad about Marta the South American maid (De Armas) even though she's an obvious suspect.
The film's consistently funny and completely engaging and though Johnson wants to give it contemporary relevance and address the culture war between the extremes of left and right, it really delivers as a piece of entertainment and is just as much fun second time around. It is shot in a wintry style that seems very 70s, like Harold and Maude could've been set in a place just around the corner. It is also kind of smug and self-satisfied: a bunch of rich white people getting well paid to tell us how ghastly rich white people are; other than them.
Extras
Commentary with Rian Johnson, director of photography Steve Yedlin and actor Noah Segan.
Deleted scenes
A Featurette on how Rian johnson wrote the script.
Meet The Thrombeys Viral ads
