The film has been marketed as a “fun, modern-day” murder mystery, and the many rapturous reviews have echoed this sense of whimsy. Through the character of Marta, “Knives Out” has a tendency to exploit its story’s immigration angle, which left me feeling uneasy as strangers at the screening I attended laughed at real-life issues I’m genuinely frightened of. Marta is someone the Thrombeys can show off to make them seem more progressive than they actually are. This is played as a running gag that is ostensibly intended as a critique of white upper-class liberalism. Yet Mr. Johnson keeps Marta’s background a mystery to the audience as well, never allowing her any cultural specificity beyond being vaguely Latina .

Source: New York Times November 27, 2019 10:52 UTC