It’s that time of year again. Actors and film-makers are pounding the awards-campaign trails, publicists are dashing off for-your-consideration adverts and voters are desperately catching up with 2019’s most acclaimed releases. You guessed it: Oscar season is right around the corner, and even sooner this time with the ceremony’s earlier-than-usual 9 February airdate. From Booksmart to A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, these are the movies you need to know about. The race is on...
Knives Out
What’s it about?
An Agatha Christie-inspired whodunnit, Knives Out unravels the mysterious murder of an uber wealthy octogenarian novelist, whose cash-grabbing family all seem to have motives for wanting him dead…
Who’s in it?
The cast is an embarrassment of riches: in the family, Toni Collette is a new-age skincare-brand founder, Daniel Craig plays a Tennessee private investigator, Michael Shannon is a cane-wielding publisher and Jamie Lee Curtis is a curt business owner, while Ana de Armas portrays a good-hearted nurse who can’t tell a lie without throwing up (quite the handicap when she’s being interrogated).
Why should you watch it?
Riotous, sharply scripted and thrumming with infectious anti-rich sentiment, the film is a fun-filled murder mystery that simultaneously serves as a stinging social commentary on the class inequalities cleaving apart Trump’s America. Daniel Craig – visibly relishing in the silliness of his fumblingly ineffectual detective who is worlds apart from the suave 007 – is a delight to behold, humorously chasing dead-end leads as he scrambles to further his investigation. Chris Evans, also playing against type after hanging up his Captain America cape this year, is side-splittingly hilarious as the brash, entitled grandson, gleefully provoking his materialistic family.
Who has awards buzz?
The writer-director Rian Johnson’s script is likely to compete in the Best Original Screenplay race and the production design of the patriarch’s imposing, watchful mansion may well score some kudos from the Academy.
‘Knives Out’ is in cinemas now.
