Knives Out 4K Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
A detective investigates the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family.
For more about Knives Out 4K and the Knives Out 4K Blu-ray release, see Knives Out 4K Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on February 28, 2020 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.5 out of 5.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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