Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3/4
Johnson's Whodunit
Matthew Brady - wrote on 12/18/2019
“This case is like a donut
with a hole
in the middle of a donut hole.
Actually,
it's a donut within a donut's hole.”
‘Knives Out’ subverted my expectations...in a good way. A smartly written whodunit movie that manages to be both humorous and classy. The kind of murder mystery that never fails to entertain. Pleasing both cinephiles and mainstream audiences. Perfectly balance, as all things should be. It basically pulls a Hitchcock on us.
Rian Johnson is a great director, but at times has silly ideas. On the other hand, when given the right material I think he’s a great director and writer. He’s also a clever man, but never came off as annoying. The dialogue was so sharply written that I could tell the cast loved every minute of soaking up and delivering these …
Rating of
3.5/4
Knives Out Provides Razor-Sharp Wit, Fun
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/06/2019
I first became aware of Rian Johnson with Brick - starring a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt in one of his first, big post-3rd Rock from the Sun films circa 2005. It was a modern noir - dark and twisted, full of interesting characters and a great plot. I knew this was a director to look out for and, all these years later, Johnson is still putting his mark on cinema.
Knives Out is a great homage to the classic murder-mystery. Everyone is a suspect, motives abound and you have a world-famous detective on the case. From Agatha Christie to Sherlock Holmes to Murder She Wrote - it's all mixed in with a clever story, biting wit, political commentary and drops of dark humor. Helping out matters is the stunning cast that Johnson has amassed: Daniel Craig (sporting a charming southern drawl) is the …
Rating of
3.5/4
A Contemporary Ode to the Whodunnit Past
James - wrote on 11/29/2019
What makes this movie so special for me is how it takes the tropes that define the genre the film belongs to and juxtaposes it with a more contemporary style of film-making. The film feels like something made less for fans of the crime novel and more for people who just want to enjoy going to the movies. You are caught up in the family squabbles that feel so real, at least when I think about the ones I have had. Thanksgiving was yesterday and this film plays exactly like what those dinners are probably like if the family is politically apart from each other. Johnson uses terms like alt-right troll and "liberal snowflake", not for depth, but for laughs. Daniel Craig delivers a line near the end of the film that made me laugh as hard as I have all year in the cinema.
Of course for a …
