Joni’s role in Knives Out becomes all the more intriguing, and frustrating, when her plot to grub extra money from the unwitting Harlan, her father-in-law, is revealed, but Toni Collette’s incorporation of selfish ignorance mixed with bewildered desperation almost earns your sympathy.
As Joni, perhaps the one member of the Thrombey clan most out of touch with reality (not counting Great Nana), the Australian actress plays arguably her funniest role to date (and, maybe, in the film) as a middle-aged woman desperate to fit in with the Millennial crowd, with reveals like her discovery of Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc by reading “a tweet about a New Yorker article” about him.