Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Knives Out 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 28, 2020

For any of you who are, like I am, still in recovery after having witnessed what I personally think was a disastrous turn by John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot in (again, in my estimation) a needless remake of The ABC Murders , take heart and remember these two words: Benoit Blanc. Blanc, portrayed by Golden Globe nominee Daniel Craig, is the private detective at the heart of Knives Out, an often fantastically entertaining film that attempts, and kind of surprisingly often succeeds, at reinventing the so- called “whodunit” genre. “Whodunit” may be a bit of a misnomer with regard to Knives Out, since the film rather artfully provides insight into how a world famous mystery writer named Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) has ended up dead, offering that reveal at least relatively early in what turns out to be a labyrinthine tale. The film begins, however, with Thrombey’s housekeeper Fran (Edi Patterson) discovering Thrombey’s body in an attic hideaway, where it appears at first glance that Thrombey has committed suicide. And in fact as the film progresses, two policemen, Lieutenant Elliott (Lakeith Stanfield) and a trooper named Wagner (Noah Segan), seem consigned to accepting that premise, despite the fact that the Thrombey family is rife with dysfunctions and there may be motives galore if, in fact, Thrombey had a little “help” in meeting his maker. That's where the aforementioned Benoit Blanc comes into the story, attached to the policemen as a Poirot-esque "consultant", listening in and finally taking over a new round of interviews with the family instigated when Blanc receives a mysterious envelope stuffed full of cash asking him to look into Thrombey's death.

Blanc initially just sits in the background listening to the police interrogate various Thrombey family members, which include Harlan's daughter Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis), her husband Richard (Don Johnson), Harlan's son Walt (Michael Shannon), Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette), the widow of Harlan's deceased son Neil, and, most importantly, Harlan's nurse Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), who may have been the last person to see him alive (other than a presumed murderer, of course). A couple of other Thrombeys fill the sidelines, including Linda and Richard's ne'er-do-well son Hugh Ransom (Chris Evans), Walt's wife Donna (Riki Lindhome), Walt and Donna's alt right son Jacob (Jaeden Martell), Joni's daughter Meg (Katherine Langford), and Harlan's elderly mother Wanetta (K Callan). Writer and director Rian Johnson hilariously intercuts between these interviews to immediately give an almost Rashomon-esque series of "versions" of various family interrelationships, as well as what might have happened the night of Harlan's death, which not so coincidentally was also the night of his 85th birthday party.

Almost immediately, Blanc “appoints” Marta to be his “Watson” (as he calls her), especially since she suffers from a peculiar anomaly that makes her throw up when she tells a lie, a problem certainly not suffered by any of the Thrombeys, all of whom Blanc suspects of hiding things from him. The uncontrollable vomiting aspect is of course mined for comedic effect throughout the film, but it almost subliminally suggests that Marta is vulnerable somehow, which may be just one of the film’s cheekier misdirections. Marta is in fact very resourceful, as later events turn out to reveal, but the wonderful thing about Johnson’s really adept screenplay is what a fantastic variety of instantly understandable (and often downright laughable) characters it offers. There’s a kind of rare ebullience to this film that is, as Linda gushes to Blanc about a New Yorker profile she’s read about him, “delightful”. The film also offered several outright guffaws to me personally, the biggest one of which I won’t spoil, other than to say it refers to the works of Thomas Pynchon, in itself perhaps an indication of the “smartness” on hand.

The list of characters given above doesn’t adequately convey how quickly Johnson establishes each character and their backstory, including with the use of sometimes hilarious flashback vignettes. A whole roiling two generations of Thrombey interactions is unspooled with incredible ease, all the while with Blanc, a guy who is, despite his name, as “southern fried” as you might imagine (Ransom even refers to him as “CSI: KFC” at one point), spouting aphorisms as he supposedly “stumbles”, Columbo like, onto the truth. In that regard, Johnson has a couple of late tricks up his sleeve, one of which might be thought of as the antithesis of the solution in Murder on the Orient Express. The ebullience of the writing and presentational aspects is matched across the board by one of the most enjoyable ensemble casts I’ve had the pleasure to watch lately. In that regard, and with reference to the apparently aborted attempt to relaunch a Poirot franchise with Malkovich, there is reportedly a sequel featuring the character of Blanc in the works.

Knives Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.

Knives Out is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. As I mentioned in our Knives Out Blu-ray review, the IMDb reports this was captured with Arri Alexas and finished at a 2K DI, though as I also mentioned in our 1080p review, the imagery has evidently been tweaked with digital grain to resemble film (sharp eyed credits perusers will note a Fotokem logo during the final roll, but I believe that refers to the color grading, as evidenced by an earlier credit). A lot of the time, things resolve really well throughout this presentation, but a couple of moments struck me as artificial and near noisy looking. The first of these is the very opening shot, where the skies above the Thrombey mansion look like they're filled with an insect invasion, but later (and somewhat recurrently vis a vis shots of faces in particular) in the close-up of Marta getting the phone call from Walt to return to the mansion, while detail on facial (and especially forehead) pores is excellent, there's also a little "swarm" of black dots covering her face. Otherwise, though, this is a really great looking presentation that has clear upticks in fine detail that are especially noticeable in things like the sweaters, scarves and gloves that some characters wear (the first meeting between Marta and Meg outside of the mansion is one example), but also with regard to things like the ornately patterned wallpapers or paisley bedclothes inside the Thrombey mansion. Dolby Vision has added a slew of really nice looking highlights and deep saturations to this presentation. I was repeatedly struck with some of the blues, but there are "little" moments, like a scene with Blanc and the police on a sunporch where the bricks behind Blanc almost burst with a red-orange tone that isn't as noticeable in the 1080p version. Other elements, like Linda's dress in her first interview, look slightly more pink in this version. The increase in shadow detail is somewhat more variable. Selected moments, like the scene with Richard in Harlan's office attempting to retrieve an incriminating letter about some marital dalliances, can show more detail in the nooks and crannies of the frame, but other moments, like the climactic scene in the abandoned laundromat with Marta, don't really show a huge uptick in detail.

Knives Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps just a little surprisingly, at least given the fact that this film doesn't offer a ton of opportunity for (literally) over the top sound design elements, Knives Out features a Dolby Atmos track. The Atmos channels are sporadically engaged, typically for ambient environmental effects, but in two notable instances to clearly document some overhead "thumps" that are clues as the story progresses. Otherwise, surround activity is quite enjoyable, especially in the many outdoor scenes. Dialogue and score are presented cleanly and clearly, and I noticed no issues whatsoever with regard to distortion, dropouts or other damage.

Knives Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both the 1080p and 2160p discs contained in this release commendably sport the same slate of supplementary material:

• Audio Commentary with Writer / Director Rian Johnson, Director of Photography Steve Yedlin and Actor Noah Segan


• In Theater Commentary with Rian Johnson


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:57) feature optional commentary by Rian Johnson.


• Making a Murder (1080p; 1:54:07) is a really fun set of featurettes that get into all sorts of aspects of the production, from writing to casting and the actual shoot.


• Rian Johnson: Planning the Perfect Murder (1080p; 6:17) features the writer and director discussing how he went about structuring the screenplay.


• Director and Cast Q & A (1080p; 42:09) is from a 2019 screening in Westwood, California.


• Marketing Gallery

  Teaser Trailer (1080p; 2:12)

  
  

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:35)

  
  

  Final Trailer (1080p; 1:08)

  
  

  Ode to the Murder Mystery (1080p; 1:43) is a fun "faux" trailer with Rian Johnson hosting.

• Meet the Thrombeys Viral Ads

  Thrombey Real Estate (1080p; 00:34)

  
  

  Blood Like Wine Publishing (1080p; 00:56)

  
  

  Flam (1080p; 00:34)

Knives Out 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am a huge Agatha Christie fan, and Knives Out delivered some of the same delirious fun that the best Christie mysteries do. The film kind of reminded me in a way of Gosford Park, in that while the central murder mystery keeps things clicking along at an agreeable pace, it's really the interpersonal relationships that give the film most of its color and interest. The cast is hugely enjoyable, and it might go without saying that a film with the word knives in its title benefits from some very sharp writing. Technical merits are solid with some nice upticks in detail and a more vivid palette in this 4K presentation, the supplementary package nicely full and fun, and Knives Out comes Highly recommended.