Review: ‘Knives Out’ Takes Aim at Crazy Rich White People

It’s not often that audiences have a must-see murder mystery on our hands, and even rarer that Hollywood offers one that pays homage to its tropes while so cleverly subverting them. This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which gives us both. The last whodunnit I reviewed was the last one I saw – a remake of the long-retold Murder on the Orient Express – which is likely the last murder mystery you can recall being in a theater near you. Why that film failed to satisfy, as most do, is that underneath the twists and turns there is little new, and even less to say. With its ensemble cast, deadpan humor, and deep familiarity of the longstanding and tired genre, Knives Out refreshes the Agatha Christie-esque plot turns by respectfully leaning into them. It’s just enough to point out their silliness without being too often silly, and with an undercurrent of manipulative, wealthy white people being undone by their own greed, Knives Out is a thoughtfully witty piece of class warfare.

Our mystery is based on the apparent suicide of famed and wealthy writer, Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), who lives in a large Victorian-style mansion where he was surrounded by his family. That family, led by a sharp Jamie Lee Curtis as his daughter Linda, is tied to Harlan Thrombey’s wealth in ways that give each of them motivation to murder him. Tasked with deciphering those motives and untangling their web of lies are Detective Troy Archer (Lakeith Stanfield) and Benoit…