The following essay contains spoilers for The Big Sleep (1946), The Reckless Moment (1949), and The Big Lebowski (1998).

The Big Sleep​ introduces us to Detective Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) in a scene where Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers) almost immediately throws herself at him. Not too much further into the film a woman working at a store follows suit after talking to Marlowe for all of two minutes. As the stoic, powerful, and isolated male detective, Marlowe attracts the attention of nearly every female character in the film. In doing so, ​The Big Sleep​ illustrates the command Marlowe has over the situation at all times. That is in conjunction with his actual investigative abilities, which receive near equal screen time. If he is not flirting, he is probably making an incredible deduction so casually that you can’t help but be impressed. Marlowe’s character is the blueprint for classical film noir detectives, a mentally sharp and silver tongued man, capable of overcoming any obstacle.

The companion to any such character is the femme fatale. In classic noir, the femme fatale is the detective’s other half, and often serves as one of his greatest mental hurdles in solving the case. Although initially mixed in with all of the other women the detective may encounter, the femme fatale quickly stands out. Oftentimes she will be the one doing the seducing and lead the detective astray. She will have a power and strength of her own, but it will only serve the narrative in regard to the main detective. Over time he will learn to conquer her independence and become immune to her poison. In ​The Big Sleep,​ Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) fulfills this role, and does just as previously described. She seduces Marlowe, leads him into trouble, he overcomes it, and finally they ride off together.

Then comes ​The Reckless Moment,​ a film that begins to challenge the genre’s foundational approach. With her husband off at war, Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett) must play the role of a protective mother and try to rectify the problem her daughter, Beatrice “Bea” Harper (Geraldine Brooks), creates when she accidentally kills a man. The Reckless Moment​ strips much of the agency away from the male characters. The one doing the investigating is a woman who currently has no husband figure in her life to lean on. She does the negotiating on her own behalf, deals with the police, and tries to scrounge up enough money to satisfy an attempt at blackmail. ​The Reckless Moment​ changed the classic noir structure to allow women to be the ones in control of the narrative.

The Big Lebowski​ further dilutes the original noir style and injects its own changes. Now the male detective has lost his motivation and wit, merely stumbling upon the correct answers. Maude (Julianne Moore) controls her father (introduced as a wealthy figure) through an allowance and uses The Dude (Jeff Bridges) to get herself pregnant. She does all of this without serving the plot, only acting as another attraction for The Dude until the film’s conclusion, where nearly no real progress has occurred since the opening scene. In this iteration of the noir, the male detective has lost his edge, the femme fatale only serves herself, and there is no grand reveal or prize at the end of the mystery.

Over the years the Classical Hollywood film noir has undergone many alterations. Once a genre near solely dedicated to showing off impressive male characters and their glory, it has now opened up. Women are detectives, male sleuths are lazy and bumbling, femme fatales are independent from the investigators, and the big reveal at the end takes a back seat to the journey. None of these changes completely replace the original format, but they open the genre up to a wider variety of stories, allowing more voices to shine and for greater artistic flexibility in the way films tell these tales.

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Perhaps most important to note, Daniel Craig gives one of his most lighthearted performances to date. From the moment he opens his mouth a deep southern accent and a hammed up performance strikes you in the best of ways. Craig visually has a blast as the leading man, and the same goes for most of his cast mates. Ana de Armas gives a strong performance as the female lead. At times the nature of her character holds back the range of her performance, but she delivers every beat the story requires. Other names include Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Christopher Plummer; who all do a wonderful job of turning the audience against them and their family throughout the 2h 10min runtime. The only two characters to level complaints against are the children of the family, Meg Thrombey (played by Katherine Langford) and Jacob Thrombey (played by Jaeden Martell). They (and especially Jacob) are a bit one-note throughout the film, mainly used as mouthpieces for a low hanging joke or two.

Anyone worried the whodunit genre ran out of ideas years ago fear not, Johnson still has some tricks up his sleeve for Knives Out. And thankfully only one of these flourishes will have your eyes rolling (you will know it when you hear it). Of course, it follows the standard setup: a crime is committed, the suspects gathered, and then the detective goes to work. However, Johnson alters the standard flow of information, forcing a change in mindset for all of the mystery solvers in the audience. While the finale will not blow any minds, with most people re-calibrating and coming to the correct conclusion, the shakeup provides a large enough change to the formula.

Most of the humor in Knives Out lands quite well. While confined in the house, the characters play off of each other like any bickering family, making their squabbles quite relatable. Perhaps too relatable are the more ham-fisted political jabs. Some of them definitely work, but of course some of them also stick out as preachy. What makes the less worthy material more bearable is the fact that none of these confrontations are entirely one sided. With jabs coming from either end of the spectrum, bad jokes fall aside as simply failed attempts, rather than coming across as purely political grandstanding.

Technically, Knives Out is competently shot. Nothing stands out as too amazing or detrimental. Johnson frames scenes well and the soundtrack works for it. Again, there is not too much to be said here but for the type of film Knives Out is, there does not necessarily need to be.

Overall, Knives Out delivers on all it sets out to do. It brings the whodunit back to theaters with a smart, entertaining, and funny tale (with just a dash of political commentary to boot). The cast clearly loved bringing their characters to life, and anyone watching Knives Out will see why. Find a good group and go see Knives Out to enjoy one of the best theater experiences of 2019.

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