Daniel Craig in Knives Out

The best films in November 2019—Knives Out and Motherless Brooklyn

Plus Steve Coogan in Greed
October 9, 2019
Knives Out, Released on 29th November Director Rian Johnson takes time out from helming Star Wars movies with a delirious homage to the country house murder mysteries of Agatha Christie. The sudden death of a popular crime writer on the evening of his 85th birthday looks, at first, like suicide. But nothing is entirely as it seems in a family full of motives and grudges, and a house decorated with potential weapons. A superb cast, including Daniel Craig, above, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and LaKeith Stanfield, are clearly having a blast with a screenplay littered with red herrings and sly humour.

Motherless Brooklyn, Released on 22nd November Edward Norton adapted the screenplay (from the novel by Jonathan Lethem), and directs, produces and stars in this 1950s-set gumshoe thriller about a man with Tourette’s syndrome investigating the web of municipal corruption that meshes around the murder of his boss. It’s a film which could seem like little more than a showcase for an eye-catching, awards-friendly performance. But Norton goes for broke with an atmospherically downbeat score and stunning period design.

Greed, Released on 22nd November Michael Winterbottom barely bothers to veil the fact that the loathsome protagonist of his sharp satire about the super-rich is based on Arcadia chairman Philip Green. He even goes so far as to cast Ollie Locke, the real-life ex-boyfriend of Green’s daughter Chloe, as the reality TV star beau of retail billionaire Sir Richard McCreadie’s daughter. In the central role, Steve Coogan creates a monster driven by cruelty and avarice, and equipped with terrifyingly shiny white teeth. Subtle it’s not, but Greed is a cathartic romp.