Directed and written by Rian Johnson (best known for Looper and Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Knives Out (2019) is a mystery following Ana De Armas’ Marta, a nurse who is tasked with caring for and accompanying Christopher Plummer’s Harlan, a mystery writer. When Harlan is one day found dead from an apparent suicide, his family is understandably shaken and dismayed. But there is a mystery brewing underneath the surface: was Harlan in fact murdered? And if he was, who murdered him and why? Knives Out, though, is ultimately Marta’s story: how she immigrated to the United States with her family, helped Harlan through his troubles, and became a multi-millionaire.
When it was released, Knives Out was both a massive critical and financial success. John Wenzel of the Denver Post, for example, loved the film, writing that “Knives Out deserves to be explored as a world of it own, as Johnson balances moral conscience and black humor expertly within the constraints of the murder-mystery genre.” Additionally, against a budget of only $40 million, the film made back $311.5 million at the box office.
