Humorous and clever whodunnit

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2020)

Knives Out was a delightful experience from beginning to end. At first I assumed it would stick to the general conventions of the whodunnit, as the movie started with Agatha Christie style suspect interviews. But from there it diverted slowly into its own modern twists. As the stakes got higher and events kept getting stranger, I became both excited and apprehensive for the story's direction. Could the ending really tie up all these loose threads? How will Marta or Blanc resolve any of this?
Several times I thought I had the answer. And then I realized I hadn't. This movie was really good at that: keeping me in the guessing game until the very end. It had this push and pull with the pacing so that I always felt like I was just one step away from solving the mystery myself, only to get to the final reveal and get blown away. It was just so satisfying.
And the performances were great too. As humorous as Knives Out was, there were also some politically charged scenes. These things can get a bit awkward depending on the performance, but I felt it was handled with great wit and care. It helped that all the characters were written very well. While the Thrombey family were all entitled rich pricks, they each had their own special shade of entitlement that I found very amusing.
There is nothing bad I can say about this movie. All the beats and characters worked for me. Especially the star sleuth, Blanc. I would love to see more of his patient, observant style of detective work in the sequel.