Knives Out Perfect Whodunit | Video Essay

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Twitter: @micah_grawey

[@angelikipana]

this is a great video, I'm really happy I found your channel!

[@temiigbaroola136]

It wouldn’t be a whodunit if it weren’t for Blanc being there

[@RichardHannay]

You can only name Clue as another comedy murder mystery movie? 😩 The Thin Man series and the Hildegarde Withers series did it so many times before during the 1930s. 😬

[@deadapple1700]

This video is very underrated

[@OirichEntertainment]

Totally agree!

[@shunkela]

Could Hot Fuzz count as a comedy whodunit? It's a comedy mystery/suspense movie? Love Hot Fuzz

[@gamesthings8913]

Love this movie 👌🏼

[@ReaLMoisan]

If you think Knives Out is the perfect whodunit, you haven't seen enough films.

[@MGraweyFilms]

Do you have any suggestions, I'm a big whodunit fan!

[@ReaLMoisan]

​@@MGraweyFilms For whodunit, both versions of 12 Angry Men are great films, especially the 1957 version. Might be one of the best examples of an almost flawless film. Clue, Strangers on a Train, Murder by Death, And Then There were None, and Murder on the Orient Express are classic ensemble whodunit films. More modern detective whodunit's are Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Identity, Memento, Seven, The Usual Suspects, and The Prestige. Just a few of the better ones off the top of my head.

[@MGraweyFilms]

@@ReaLMoisan thanks for the suggestions! I've seen a lot of them, and while I wouldn't call several of them better than Knives Out, they are very good!

[@RichardHannay]

I wouldn’t really consider 12 Angry Men, Strangers On A Train, and Memento as murder mystery / whodunnit movies... when people talk about whodunnits, they typically mention Agatha Christie stories like the Poirot or Ms Marple series, Sherlock Holmes stories, Philo Vance, Bulldog Drummond, Hildegarde Withers, Ellery Queen, Charlie Chan, Nick Charles... they were so prevalent during the 1920s and 1930s pulp era and Murder By Death spoofed them by even using some of these popular sleuth names. To the person who asked for recommendations, after you watch And There Were None (I prefer the 1940s version), watch The 9th Guest from 1934 afterwards where Agatha Christie almost lifts the entire premise of the plot from.

[@TheSharkIsWorking_23]

Chris Evans as the villain was the easiest prediction in this film. 80% of the cast could be dismissed as suspects in the first Act. Evans, was one of the biggest named actors in the film, and yet he was missing for the first half of the film. Figuring out the killer should not be as simple as applying screen-time/presence. Evans not showing up for the first half of the film means he will play a key role in the finale. The key role in the finale of a murder mystery always is….revealing the murderer. Knives Out is terribly overrated, Watch Clue, or Murder By Death instead.

[@MGraweyFilms]

That was the whole point of the video. It's doing something unique because the biggest idiot could tell its gonna be Evans as the villain and yet it works around to keep you in suspense and tension and raise the stakes anyway. It's a unique mystery plot by having our essential main character think that she did it and the way the structure plays our because of it makes for a brilliant take on a whodunit. Also murder by death has to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I love Peter Falk.

[@TheSharkIsWorking_23]

@@MGraweyFilms there was no suspense when you know the murderer of a “WHODUNIT” immediately in a film like Knives Out. You know the nurse is gonna walk away alright. If you’ve seen one recent Rian Johnson film you know what his predictable outcome will be. There was nothing unique about this murder mystery. It’s like if The Usual Suspects was Verbal telling the truth in his story the entire time. That’s Knives Out. The better subversion would’ve been to take the suspect the audience trusts the most and make them the villain. KO was dull, for generic “I liked the visuals and sound” audiences, and overrated. Bad? No, there were some enjoyable qualities in the film, but not enough to say it was good.

[@TheSharkIsWorking_23]

@@MGraweyFilms with the main mystery solved and nothing to keep you second guessing, I was trying to figure out how in-the-hell did a single drop of blood fly across the room, go out and around the door, and land on the nurse’s shoe? Especially when she slammed the door before Plummer sliced any veins. Answer, Rian is a 1st draft writer who needs re-writes.

[@missing_link_]

@@TheSharkIsWorking_23 you write your own damn movies then 💀💀💀 "HUR DUR HOW DOES THE BLOOD GET--" she literally vomits from lying and that's where you're stuck

[@ReaLMoisan]

There's so much wrong with Knives out: -No medical professional would ever administer a dose of anything without reading the label first (lose nursing licence). Especially when three medications use the same bottle. -Marta would have known within seconds that she didn't administer 100mg of morphine to Harlan. That's ten times the maximum dose, and effects are almost immediate. -Morphine is a schedule 1 or 2 (depending on type and country) controlled substance, they would have secured Marta's medical bag, especially until the tox reports came back. -The only evidence of a toxicology report is a piece of paper. It's obviously stored on a hard drive, often offsite, and should already be forwarded to the pathologist from the lab. -Relevance of blood on shoe, without testing the blood. I've gotten blood on my shoes multiple times, it's always been my own. -They don't dust the window sill or trellis for finger prints. Marta wasn't wearing gloves when she climbed through the window. -They let Marta use the temperamental VCR machine with the familiarized security expert present. Resulting in destroyed evidence. They use a VCR for security in 2018, really. -Benoit suspected Marta from the beginning, yet he lets her handle and destroy the VCR tape. He also lets her walk ahead and trample footprints and evidence outside too. -"Hue did this", really. A throw away line that the help uses the name Hue, but everyone else uses Ransom. They use a very different 'Hue did this" in the cutaway during end scene. -The inconsistency of Marta's tell. After the car chase (evading the law), Marta just casually spits in a cup. At Ransom reveal, she doesn't throw up for almost a minute and a half. -Ransom's self incrimination to Fran incident. A man who's been this conniving would just ask to see his lawyer immediately without saying anything. Do you know how long the scene with Harlan and Marta goes on for from the time he's administered the morphine until he kills himself, over eight minutes. That's including cutting out the extra pauses in time as his dialog pauses for the narrative showing Marta performing certain actions in other scenes. Over eight minutes passes, and by ten minutes it's death from a opioid overdose, yet he shows no adverse effects or behaviour or cognitive changes in that time. Add in things like the prop knife (and another throw away line), dog bringing broken piece of trellis to Benoit, Marta pretending to be Harlan and Walt being outside smoking, etc. You have a film filled with plot contrivances. The absolute worst thing you can do in a whodunit film is have it riddled with plot contrivances.

[@MGraweyFilms]

I'm gonna be honest... I don't care about stuff like that. That's taken literally 0% away from my 11 experiences of watching the movie. If it bothers you, fine. But I still think it's a perfect whodunit beyond random stuff like that. Not perfect movie, perfect whodunit. There is no such thing as a perfect movie.

[@RichardHannay]

Yikes! You’re waaaaaaay too nitpicky...

[@mikanchan322]

You're right, they do a different 'hugh' in the replay when it is revealed that she was actually saying 'Hugh', not 'you'. And its brilliant because it's realistic. Why? 1. We are seeing this scene play out from Martha's perspective. 2. It's a very well founded psychological fact that our perception is always influenced by our knowledge and expectations. It makes total sense that Martha, who still believes SHE is guilty, and thinks that Fran knows that, hears Fran say: 'YOU did this.' It's a fantastic and accurate way playing this scene.