I walked into Knives Out without even an inkling of what the premise of the movie was. My girlfriend mentioned something along the lines of murder mystery with a beyond stacked cast, so I was quickly hooked and ready to watch. What I saw was quite possibly my favorite movie of 2019, and I was more than pleasantly surprised by every single aspect of the movie. If you’re reading this article, I’m sure you’re already well aware of the stellar reviews Knives out has received so far (97% Rotten tomato score, 91% fan rating by google users, and an 8.1/10 on IMDB), but in my mind there is no doubt that it is the must watch movie of 2019.

The Cast of All Casts

The budget for this movie was surprisingly only $40M, but I wouldn’t be surprised if 90% of that was solely for paying the mass amount of well known actors and actresses that comprised the cast.Chris Evans led that front, and even played a villainous role for once rather than the down to earth hero we’ve all assumed him to play for all of his captain America-esque roles. We then had Daniel Craig playing a private investigator with a serious southern draw, and he starred alongside Ana de Armas who played an in home nurse for the family whose father passed away. The two of them killed their roles, and it will be exciting to see them together again on the big screen in 2020 for the next James Bond movie (check out this article). On top of those three, we also saw Laketh Steinfeld (Get Out, Atlanta, Sorry to Bother You), Jamie Lee Curtis (Freaky Friday, Halloween, True Lies), Jaden Martell (It: Part I, St. Vincent, The Book of Henry), Don Johnson (Django Unchained, Miami Vice, Watchmen), Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water, Boardwalk Empire, Groundhog Day), and Christopher Plummer (Sound of Music, Beginners, The Insider). This cast was handpicked absolutely perfectly for this movie, and there are still so many other actors that played magnificent smaller roles as well!

The Mysterious Plot of the Year

The plot of this movie seemed rather simple at first; an American mystery in which the father of a family commits suicide yet the family and Mr. Blanc believe it’s actually a murder. It is so much more than that though as the story progresses. Warning, there are spoilers ahead! The movie actually ends up being about a girl who made a mistake, which actually ends up not being a mistake but is actually a planned killing by Chris Evans character. She and the father determine that she must go through a charade as he is dying so that she can escape any charges and avoid having her mother and sister, who are both in the country illegally, deported from the US. The twist was the fact that she was actually innocent the entire time, even though the first 80 minutes of movie make it seem as if she is attempting to escape this accidental murder. And as I mentioned earlier, it was a nice twist seeing Chris Evans character, “Ransom,” end up being the bad guy of the entire movie. I’m typically one of those annoying people who guesses the endings to movies extremely early on, but this movie did an incredible job of keeping me on my toes and out of the loop the entire time. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would give this a 10 out of 10!

As I’ve already mentioned two, or maybe even three times, this movie is a must watch of 2019. I personally think the 8.1 on IMDB is low for such an incredible movie, but the fact that Rotten tomatoes gave it a 97% rating more than makes up for my decision. Be sure to check out more movie reviews, podcasts guides, and video game articles on our site at summary.org!