Knives Out Review

Review of Knives Out (2019) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

Superb as both a standalone whodunit (we can probably re-term Blanc mysteries "whodonuts" at this point) and as an examination of the whodunit formula itself. Craig is wonderful to watch but the real star here is Ana de Armas as a hired maid who literally gets nauseous and vomits every time she tells a lie or hears one.

This family is full of terrible people and the film shows you how terrible each and every one is ("Hell, any one of them coulda done it."). The SJW talk around this is definitely spirited but doesn't quite get that this family is racist, rude and completely despicable, and their usage of it is treated as a slur against someone who has more of a neutral stance than them (but not that neutral since it's a family member) that they're accusing of protecting a person of color, solely because she is a person of color. It's the characters, not the writer.

See if you can spot Ricky Jay in this one.