Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc gives us a hugely enjoyable performance in a film that is an excellent celebration of the whodunnit genre

If pushed, I would have murder mystery as my favourite genre of story. The notion of partnering the detective in question throughout the tale to try and guess the villain is a remarkably engaging premise and one that has dominated fiction since Sherlock Holmes (and probably earlier).

In Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (Johnson writes and directs – his first film since The Last Jedi), we meet the Thrombey family, just after the death of the patriarch – Harlan. With the death having some mysterious elements to it, stylish detective Benoit Blanc is quickly leading an investigation, and off we go into a story that is both a celebration of the traditional tropes of the genre, but also a creative development of them as well.

Craig shines in the role and has a remarkable cast around him that includes (but not limited to) Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson and Chris Evans.

After the somewhat brutal response to the Last Jedi, this must feel really good to Rian Johnson. He’s really developed something here and it would surprise me in the slightest if we see more of Benoit Blanc.