Monday, March 2, 2020

Knives Out

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Meet the Thrombey's... Although pretty late to the party, I was just on time to catch this hilarious, who-done-it mystery movie before it slipped out of theaters and I was totally impressed. Having been exposed to various members of this ensemble cast at some point in their careers I was excited to see how they would be able to co-exist onscreen as an acting family unit.

The accomplished and versatile ensemble cast is one of the many reasons to see this, with Toni Collette, who left so many speechless with her performance in Hereditary, or Katherine Langford who played the vitally important role of Leah in Love Simon, to veteran actors Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Michael Shannon, the film seems to have the right actors to carry the story along. Most people will have seen Daniel Craig act in his many roles as James Bond over the years, but they will be in for a pleasant surprise at his ability to play a quirky detective with a southern drawl and a penchant for finding the truth, no matter where it may lead him. Audiences will too have seen Chris Evans play Captain America in his many appearances in those movies of the Marvel Cinema Universe, but they will again be perturbed and flummoxed at the impressive quality with which Evans' is able to bring his character in Knives Out, Ransom, to life.

Director Rian Johnson hosted a 23 minute video with Vanity Fair where he broke down a scene in the film, which is highly worth seeing (Before or after viewing, no spoilers!), in it he offers his insight into how the scene was setup from where the cameras were being pointed, to how it was working with all of the talent, to the behind the scenes "movie magic" that we don't get to see. It was fantastic to see how excited he was about explaining some of the minute details of what went into making Knives Out, which in turn allowed for more of his voice to come out and be evident when watching the film. He really is an exceptional director, who we should expect more big things from in the future.

Ana de Armas, who plays Marta Cabrera, has to be mentioned here, not only because she's the leading actress of the movie, but because she steals the show despite being listed third on the movie's first billed cast list. Although, she occupies a substantial amount of screen time Armas uses many subtle acting skills to bring power and depth to her role, which is important to the development of the films story.

Like the above poster shows, Knives Out is a robust, dynamic multi-genre movie that has something for everybody. I saw "multi-genre" because it's not just a drama, it has too many comedic elements to be pigeonholed into solely that category. Additionally, it's not exclusively a thriller or mystery movie, because at it's core it's truly a family "dram-edy" about a mysterious, thrilling event that happens to the family.. I won't confuse you anymore, but what I'm trying to say is that Knives Out is a great American movie with something for all audiences. See it when you have the chance.






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