Knives Out
1 BENOIT BLANC
Poirot. Marple. Holmes. Blanc. It’s one of the nicest surprises of 2019 — Daniel Craig joining the ranks of the world’s top super-sleuths on the strength of a single, ultra-tangy performance. His Benoit Blanc is, frankly, a ludicrous concoction: with the voice of Foghorn Leghorn, the appearance of a particularly dapper chartered accountant, and a partiality for tortured doughnut analogies, the character is purest slab-of-ham. But from the moment he piano-plinks his way into the film to the moment he unmasks the villain, Craig is clearly having the time of his life — and the feeling is contagious. “I read a tweet about aarticle about you,” one of his suspects sniffily tells him early on. In the real world, Twitter has seen a flurry of demands for the launch of a Benoit Blanc Cinematic Universe, and new adventures for the detective would certainly perk up future winters, should Craig be willing to sign on (Johnson has already said he’s on board: “New location; new cast; new mystery. It’d be so much fun”). I hope he does, as Blanc is a perfect delivery system for not just BIG ACTING but nuance, too. Just witness the scene in which he removes his jacket and rolls up his sleeves before reverting to his formal look, all within the space of a single monologue.
