A tightly wound 81-minute drama from actor-turned-director Nnamdi Asomugha, The Knife, delivers a masterclass in escalating tension, exploring the fraught dynamics of a police encounter with a Black American family.
A Night That Shatters Domestic Peace
The film meticulously establishes the ordinary life of construction worker Chris, played by Asomugha, who also directed and co-wrote the script. After a late-night DIY session, a beer, and checking on his daughters, he settles in with his wife Alex, portrayed by Aja Naomi King. This deliberate, relatable scene-setting makes the subsequent rupture all the more jarring.
Awoken by a noise, Chris discovers a crime has been committed in his home. The police arrive to find a middle-aged white woman, a stranger, bleeding and unconscious on the kitchen floor. This single event plunges the entire family into a state of defensive paranoia.
A Clash of Narratives and Inherent Distrust
The investigating officer, Detective Carlsen, is brought to life with formidable intensity by Melissa Leo. A white woman of a similar age to the victim, she immediately suspects the family is concealing information. The brilliance of Asomugha and co-writer Mark Duplass's screenplay lies in its restraint; it barely needs to articulate the extra layer of tension and mutual suspicion that defines encounters between people of colour and the police in America. The subtext is the text.
With subtle strokes, the film reveals how everyone involved—the family and the detective—is shading the truth. This moral ambiguity becomes the film's quiet strength, rejecting simple heroes and villains for a more complex, uncomfortable reality.
An Audacious, Chamber-Piece Conclusion
Confined largely to a single setting, the intensity can feel theatrical, yet this serves to heighten the claustrophobic pressure. In a bold narrative move, the film reaches its climax at a point where a more conventional thriller would merely be concluding its first act. Asomugha says everything he needs to within this intense, focused chamber piece, offering no easy resolutions.
The Knife is a compact, audaciously taut exploration of fear, prejudice, and the catastrophic fallout from a single night. It is now available to watch on various digital platforms.
