Benoit Blanc's latest (but, as we already know, not last!) case can best be described as a spectacular, crafty, bombast-heavy and scintillatingly witty crime flick that almost reaches the excellence of its predecessor (emphasis on almost!).

It doesn't try to reinvent the formula and sticks to its strenghts: again you have your collection of freaky characters - call them colorful if you mean well, call them mostly unsympathetic if you don't -, with big dosages of ego in between 'em; there's a plot/mystery that seems to have its own mind, jumping around, back and forth, twisting here and there; and we meet again our gentleman detective, always the oddball and ever the brainiac, somewhat socially awkward, but the only one who eventually makes this meandering, hyperactive plot behave. A touch of comedy to lighten the thing up - thanks to great dialogue and some cool cameos too (Ethan Hawke! Natasha Lyonne!) -, and very high production value to make it look the part. Et voilà.

Two things to mention specifically: it is NOT a whodunnit (neither was Knives Out), and it doesn't try to be. One could say you just need to pick the nastiest, the shiftiest character of the lot, and the mystery is solved. Don't go in with that mindset, don't be theorizing at all. It really is about the how and the why, opportunity and motive, and the movie makes this perfectly clear along the way. Good thing too, because that's when it shines the brightest.

And secondly, if you must absolutely have a quibble with it, somewhere to point the finger, then yes: the finale is kind of an overreach, I wouldn't call it silly as some did, but in its formulaic simplicity and clumsy attempt at conjuring the wow-factor it doesn't do justice to the intricacies that we enjoyed the two hours before.

(Edit: The repeatedly reported pacing issues, mostly due to a big flashback in the middle of the movie, are another valid point to make, but did not bother me personally. I was more unhappy about the writers needing to resort to a quite overused plot device in the crime genre, which I won't spoiler here. Again, one can graciously overlook this, as well as minor logical errors; the end result with its enormous entertainment value makes it quite forgettable.)

Now stop reading, enjoy the movie, and if you're as into crime as I am and want something entirely different afterwards, a little pullback into reality, check out Holy Spider.