Movie Review: Knives Out!

Hello everyone! So today, we are gonna go a little bit laid back and we're gonna talk about movies!

There are too many good movies in 2019 that I rate more than 6/10. For me, a great movie is a movie that moves you, anticipates you, makes you feel as if you are close to the characters and makes you emotional. Few of my favorite movies from 2019 are:

1) Avengers: Endgame (I am a big MCU fan!)
2) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
3) Joker
4) Spider-man Far From Home
5) Toy Story 4
6) Aladdin
7) KNIVES OUT!

So today, I am gonna review Knives Out!

!!SPOILER AHEAD!!

I will not reveal the characters or important plot points or plot devices. I will only just write about the storyline. However, it may give out something if you don't like spoilers.

I only watched the Knives Out trailer twice before I decided to watch the movie. The selling point for me was Daniel Craig (I like his Bond series) and Chris Evans. I am also excited to watch Katherine Langford since I am a fan of 13 Reasons Why. When I watch the trailer, it gives me some kind of Kingsman vibe and I love Kingsman too so I decided to watch it.

I have an idea that this movie is about murder mystery. It's a detective movie so I'm ready to be extra focused so I can follow the movie and make a guess. Whenever I watch a movie, I always pretend like I'm in a race with the character to figure out the ending. Besides, I am a fan of detective movies too. And it's not too dark because it's also a comedy. At this point, I am very eager to watch the
movie.

!! SPOILERS !!

It subverted my impression of course! So obviously a detective movie will have interrogation scenes but you'll be sitting there at first, thinking that you have to be laser-focused because you'd want to figure out who's the culprit. And then you'll start to second-guess every character and build your own assumption for each character. The mistake is that you'll realize that you're watching this movie and expecting your guesses to be true that you're missing the other clues!

Why I say it's subverting? Because surprisingly, it's not a 'whodunnit' movie! Instead, it's a trail of Detective Benoit Blanc that you're following. During the first half of the movie, the writers have already spoonfed you with the actual crime that happened, the murderer is revealed to you and it builds empathy towards the character that you confuse whether you should root Det. Blanc or the murderer.

I'm cut in half! The portrayal of the murderer and the motives behind the murder is very pure to the point that I almost never wanted Det. Blanc to figure out. At this point, I am so ready just to see how Det. Blanc can pinpoint the murderer as he/she is also very sneaky. The relationship played by both characters confused you more!

The movie introduces you to ALL characters very early in the movie. This movie is brilliant in terms of casting because they have all the famous and talented actors for the characters. The brilliance is, imagine if Daniel Craig and Chris Evans were the only actors you know, psychologically, you're made to believe that Chris might be the murderer because Craig is already the detective. But then they have Jamie Lee Curtis, Ana de Armas and Katherine Langford, now you'll think that any one of them could be an important character, that's why they're hired!

So remember when I said that the crime was already revealed? Entering the second half of the movie, you'll be more surprised and confused as to why some scenes happen. You'll start questioning the motive of the characters once again, even if you already knew the murderer. At first, I was stuck. But then I watched closely and I caught the culprit very close to the actual reveal.

The reveal was that the criminal was not totally a criminal!

For me, it was mindblowing. I rated it 10/10. I really don't find any obvious plot holes. Mind you that I have a habit of reading boards on IMDb and Reddit after watch just to see what other people are saying. I do have questions after the movie ended but so far, you can find answers to them meaning there is no plot holes.

I would also say that Rian Johnson is brilliant. I was very sure that this story was only about the personality of this detective in his pursuit to solve a crime. You already know the criminal, what's left is just paying attention to how the detective figure it out. But then you sympathize with the criminal and suddenly there's a third person.

I have to give praise to the way the crime is done. It's really clever and it's kind of not what you could come up with without clues.

Director: Rian Johnson. At first you'll think you'll get something like The Last Jedi but then you get this.

Stars: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ana de Armas (i heard she's the new Bond girl?), Katherine Langford

About: Whodunnit, murder mystery, comedy

My rating: 10/10

More fun reads: IMDb / Reddit

*if you watch this movie after this review, tell me what you think!


Thank you for reading this entry :D

Photos credit: IMDb