Knives Out (2019)

'Knives Out' is director Rian Johnson's updated take on the 'Agatha Christie' school of mystery's. A wealthy mystery writer (Christopher Plummer) dies under mysterious circumstances on his 85th birthday at the family Massachusetts estate. Famed detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired by an anonymous party to sit in on what at first he takes to be the routine investigation of a suicide. Blanc quickly deduces that any number of the authors generally unpleasant kin had motives for murder, and when his will is reveled to leave everything to his young nurse (Ana de Armas) things get even more complicated. 

I found the first third or so of this movie to be kind of blah, it doesn't really get going until the first major revel which finally provided me with invest-able stakes. An ensemble piece with a large cast of established name I enjoyed that the movie ultimately centers on Ana de Armas's character, a relative new comer surrounded by old hands she holds her own. The film is clever, has some find dialogue and nice twists, and while it's classic in format I was surprised how contemporary and even political it is. I have my opinion about what Johnson's message was here, but encourage viewers to think on it themselves. ***1/2