I recently had the pleasure of watching the movie Knives Out as part of the friday night movie series put on here at Flora Rose House. Initially, the setup of the story seemed to be the same as most other murder mystery movies and tv shows I’d seen. Someone gets killed, and their various estranged relatives all seem equally likely to have done it. A brilliant and unorthodox detective comes in and slowly pokes the sore spots until everyone’s secrets are laid bare, relationships are ruined forever, the most likely culprit is interrogated, and his brother is found guilty. At least, for the first twenty minutes. Unlike most other movies I’d seen, this one looked to have played its hand early on, telling precisely who did it, how, and why. Instead of being a hunt for a killer in the pursuit of justice, the film became about a victim of circumstance’s flight from injustice. To me, this was an extremely interesting subversion of the genre’s tropes which I came in to the movie expecting. However, I will say I was mildly disappointed with the film’s conclusion, as its main twist seemed to rely on details that needed no explanation beyond their face value, rather than tying up many loose ends that would otherwise have been left hanging.