Have You Seen “Knives Out”?

If you haven’t seen the new movie Knives Out, I highly recommend that you give it a try. It’s one of the best mysteries I’ve ever seen on the big screen. I’m going to discuss some minor spoilers below and I’d love to hear your thoughts, so wait until you’ve seen the movie to read the rest of this.

SPOILERS BELOW

There are a lot of wonderful elements in Knives Out, and perhaps the biggest element that elevates it over other films in the genre is that 45 minutes into the movie, you know the truth about what happened to the murdered author. We’re not left hanging about that, yet there are still so many aspects of the mystery to be solved.

The other thing worth noting is that there are plenty of movies with twists where you couldn’t possibility have seen the twist coming because the audience isn’t given enough information. That’s not the case here–we’re given an abundance of information and plenty of clues to piece things together. At times I felt like I was ahead of the detective; other times I was right behind. That’s a tough line to walk, but director Rian Johnson pulls it off perfectly.

I also liked (a) how good of a person Marta was and (b) that the detective, like the audience, is able to see the good in her. Too often in these types of movies, it’s the detective that gets the spotlight, and their motivations seem to be more about being right and peculiar than about doing good. Blanc is different.

Also, how clever is it to have a character who can’t lie?! That completely changes the format–it gives us some terra firma in a sea of deceit.

I’d love to hear what you thought about Knives Out. What was your favorite part?

5 thoughts on “Have You Seen “Knives Out”?”

  1. George and I loved it for all the reasons that you mentioned above and more. Great comic bits along with a good mystery. Loved Marta – the exchange between her and Blanc concerning what she should do in the future was heartwarming. Our favorite part was the ending – the mug’s reappearance at such a perfect moment.

    Reply
    • I loved the mug! There were several times in the movie where something was shown or referenced early and reintroduced later–I really like that.

      Reply
  2. Watched it yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it too, I’m sure I missed so many clues and nods to the genre’s history I feel it’s well worth another watch when it comes on home media. I loved the ‘journey’ of the baseball too and how it comes full circle.

    Reply
  3. I spent the whole movie waiting for them to reveal that the vomiting wasn’t actually 100% and that she was actually lying about something. But I’m so glad they never did 🙂

    (And the final vomit was the best bit of the whole movie, I think 🙂 )

    Reply
  4. One of my favorite things about Knives It was that everyone was exactly how they appeared to be. To me that was the biggest twist. I kept expecting a nice character to flip and actually turn out to be evil but nope, if they seemed good, they were and if they seemed like a dick, they were lol Great film

    Reply

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