Knives Out

An impressive star-studded cast (Craig, Collette, Curtis, Shannon, Evans, Johnson, Stanfield); an intricate, polished plot; and refined black humor—that’s a recipe for a fantastic modern interpretation of an intelligent, classic whodunit. The doyen of the family, the popular crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Plummer), is found dead on his estate. Although he had a large family, the only person usually by his side was his nurse, and later his devoted friend Marta (Ana de Armas). When his children and grandchildren find out what happened, they arrive at the family home for the reading of the will. They know only that the old man had recently changed his will and that, in the last few months of his life, he had a serious and usually unpleasant conversation with each of his children. So it turns out that everyone present could have had a motive, since every one of them, to varying degrees, could have benefited from eliminating the unpredictable man. Detectives and an odd consultant (hilarious Craig) arrive at the scene and then proceed, slowly and methodically, to solve individual threads of the intricate plot. Knives Out is a great example of a detective film in the spirit of Agatha Christie—intelligent entertainment that sparkles with unforced humor.