Hey Lovelies,

After taking audiences on a trip around the galaxy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, director Rian Johnson decided to take a step back and make a feature that wasn’t based in the stars, but full of them instead. Out today on DVD, Blu-Ray, digitally and in a Steelbook format, Knives Out is the newest take of An Inspector Calls mixed with Cluedo, done in the best possible way ever.

Featuring an amazing line-up including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer, the is a modern-day whodunit, capturing a family, as they come to terms with the death of the family patriarch. All is not as it seems though when a detective arrives to investigate the mysterious circumstances that took place before and after it happened.

Filled with classic murder mystery tropes, the film salutes every possible classic and modern take on the genre in a superb fashion. Each character makes you suspect something. You don’t trust any of them. It is fun and out there. With characters that you just adore as well. Even if they are the killer kind. There are moments of true creativity that mixes old with new. It shows how an old genre can mix in Hamilton references and social media. iPhones very much being a key in solving the situation.

Reminding many of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, the detail is in every aspect of the feature. You can see it from the gothic nature of the home. The darkness of the stories in which the characters come out. The beauty in the beast in many ways, as Craig’s detective, delivers facts after facts. Some, many in fact, don’t come to a conclusion but still manage to work in all manners of ways. 

The true sparkle in this film’s eye though is the casting. Each performance is the perfect piece to this feature-length puzzle. From Chris Evans’ playboy character to Jamie Lee Curtis’ humour filled performance, everything and everyone slots in well. It is clear that even if Johnson didn’t see them as the people to play them, when they were cast, it was done a hugely well-thought-out scale.

Knives Out is a feature that will go on to stand the test of time in modern-day mystery features. Completely capturing what we all know and love best about films like this, the feature has been produced, directed and written by Johnson to share with viewers a love of the genre and it works. Every little clue within it.

4 Stars

Joey X